A walk around town in the hot season

Just across the busy Salida a Celaya a couple of blocks from our house are narrow tree-lined streets that lead to one of wonderful green oases of San Miguel, Juarez park. 

By now the Jacarandas with their profusion of deep purple flowers are done for the season, but bougainvillea is still in full bloom. 


While the neighborhood around Juarez Park is one of the ritziest in San Miguel, with the magnificent Rosewood Hotel and its million-dollar condos nearby, a block up the hill is the El Chorro park, where women still wash clothes by hand the old way every day. 

Up the hill through centro and just south of the main square is one of our favorite indoor markets, Ignacio Ramirez. The place is packed to the gills with produce vendors, meat shops, flower stalls, wonderful fondas where a complete meal of mole, rice and beans with handmade tortillas can be had for about $3.50, crafts and on and on. 


Today we made it a bit further inside the market to an area where local women were selling truly local items: homemade blue corn tortillas, nopales (paddle cactus) salad, and a host of herbal remedies:

Back home with a full daypack containing 4 large Paraiso mangoes, a big ripe papaya, jicama, carrots and limes. The lot cost me just over $3, and I suspect that was the gringo price. I'm not complaining. 

Highs in the low 90's now, lows in the 50's. We've had a few teaser rain showers and the clouds are building by the day, so hopefully the rainy season will arrive on time, mas o menos, by mid-June. This is the hottest time of year here and many gringos head back home, but we're appreciating the somewhat slower pace (compared to high season mind you - it still feels mighty busy and urban compared to Silver City, New Mexico!).