Dia de Candelaria y sol in San Miguel

Today is Candlemass, or Candelaria, day in Mexico (Groundhog Day in the U.S.). Up north it's the day the groundhog lets you know if there's still six more weeks of winter; here in San Miguel it means time for the huge sale of plants for spring planting in Juarez Park. I told Erin that 70 degrees on February second is an excellent criterion for choosing a place to live! Another, less trivial, factor might be living in a place like this that has a cinema showing the movie Groundhog Day today not once but twice, on the quite correct grounds that it's the greatest Buddhist film Hollywood has ever made!

Here are some photos from the plant sale:

From here we went up to the local botanical preserve called El Charco, which is high on a hillside above town. There's an extensive collection of native plants, marked and mapped trails (a rarity in Mexico), a sweat lodge and a lake. It's the dry season here but you can get a sense from these pictures of just how lush high desert can be, in its own way. I'm sure than in October and November at the end of the rainy season the wildflower display here must be spectacular.

The quote from H.H. the Dalai Lama translates roughly as: "like waves on the water, the vibration of peace zones produces a movement that in the not too distant future, will create a new consciousness in humanity, a sense of peace."


The architecture in San Miguel resonates deeply with Erin and me because it's so reminiscent of the hill towns of France and Italy in which we've spent so many of our happiest moments. The culture is of course completely different, but when your environment is itself a work of art, museums seem almost superfluous:

We're here at the peak of high tourist season, but easily found affordable accommodation in a sweet little guest house. There are 7 rooms total here, each equipped with a kitchenette and gas heater, with wireless internet in the lobby. High-season price is 3500 pesos per week, which works out to $38 per day. Monthly and off-season rates would be significantly lower. 

There's plenty of less expensive accommodation to be had that's just as comfortable but without the convenience and cost savings afforded by being able to cook. We looked at a particularly nice place close by in the 400 peso per night range, with apartments for rent by the month for even less. That kind of affordable lodging doesn't exist at Lake Chapala, though it must be said that on the other end of the scale San Miguel has any number of places where you can drop $300-500 a night or more for unbelievably opulent lodging, as well as plenty of restaurants where you can run up a tab of $100-200 per person without much effort. We'll have a drink or a glass of one at one of those places from time to time, but we always look at prices and value received through what I call the "taco factor," namely how many fabulous tacos al pastor or barbacoa you can buy for the same money. With 6 pesos being the going rate per taco and a glass of forgettable wine in a restaurant costing 60-70 pesos and an average main course 160-250 pesos the tacos usually win out.