Smile everyone!

This is the outside of the hotel- the inside is 8 rooms and gorgeous with an awesome rooftop patio.

Our hotel is on top of the hill, outside the city center so the view is amazing.

Hungry so our first meal was at las Milagros.

Cold beer and margaritas

Volcano bowl also called Molcajete. \240You pick your meats and it is set in a hot bowl with nopales (Cactus) and verde sauce. Yummy.

View from the restaurant.

The standard pose Tee has arranged for all!

Long day to get here, so after Greg took us to the grocery store so we could get settled in, we did a quick walk and stumbled across this old VW bug. Don’t see a lot of them around in the states anymore, but quite a few here.

Ended our day with a bottle of wine on the rooftop- nice cool evening and good conversation planning the rest of our days.

And this one outside our room. We are on the third floor and getting lots of stair climbing steps in on this trip.

Chiliques and oatmeal to start.

This is the alley across the street - did not walk up those!

Walk down the steps to the city - it is easier they said - ha!

Starting down the road - steep and then came the steps.

And steps!

Love the doorways here - ornate wood, painted colors, surrounded by flowers - so much to take in.

This one was tiled around it and one of my favorites except the ones with the flowers.

One of many pieces of art on our walk down.

And another. To bad I do not read Spanish that well.

This has to be the coolest recycle trashcan I have ever seen

One of my favorite pictures of our group and you can see the cobblestone streets. Please note you should not walk on them. You should walk on the shady sidewalks it’s much easier on your feet.

There actually is a doorway underneath the beautiful yellow flowers.

Just love this wall particularly the light fixtures.

OK, we did stop for a drink before our food tour. Margaritas Aperol Spritz, and beer seem to be all of our go tos.

Katherine arranged our food tour and this was Omar our tour guide. We had five small courses and this is the restaurant that we started at- \240La Cocina

Sopa azteca- Tortilla soup - note their version does not have chicken, which is what we are used to.

The fountain focal point in la cocina

Second stop at this restaurant where we had enchiladas mole and learned the history of Molé sauce. It is kind of like each family’s secret guarded recipe.

We also got Agua Fresca at each stop. This one was yummy pineapple.

Just a flower area inside the restaurant courtyard. The courtyards in the city are just beautiful.

Third stop inside a restaurant today.

The painted wall in the restaurant.

For the life of me, I can’t remember what they called it, but it was kind of like a tostada with pickled onions on top and yummy. Maybe Sopa?

And our last two courses were a pallet cleanser, meaning ice cream, and then churros from this restaurant both eaten outside on the benches.

That was one big churro to end our food tour

Our tour was very informative not only about the food, but we also learned a lot about the city. It is actually referred to as a Spanish colonial city and it is a UNESCO heritage site. Once falling apart and down to 7000 residents, it is now a thriving community brought back to life by artists in the 1970s. \240There are now over \240150k people living in and around this area and about 15,000 or so are ex-pats

Now off on our own for awhile.

One of my favorite pieces of art on the trip was that tree behind us. It is all screwed together and is made with real tree limbs.

Not hungry after all that food we ate over our 2 1/2 hour tour, so found a rooftop spot called café Mara to watch the sunset.

View did not disappoint.

What - tequila shot? And look at all those readers right next to them-ha!

Photo credit to Lanny. Stunning.

The city Church - absolutely beautiful

And the walk down to the city starts. Today we decided to go down the street and not the steps for a different view and right outside our doorstop, the views started.

One of the first courtyards we came across and we saw this painted mural.

And the walls were painted pink and purple.

And sometimes we become part of the art - another beautiful courtyard was behind that door. But this is absolutely my favorite picture of this trip.

El Pegaso was the name of this lovely place we stopped in after shopping for a bit to rest our legs. This wall was stunning, so we all took our picture in front of it.

First church we came upon, but not open.

This was the church of immaculate conception. Beautiful stonework on the outside.

This is in front of the main church. It was handmade from a stone quarry about a mile from here in the 1700s. All hand built and all that stone was hand walked from the quarry. Polished and a pink color and just beautiful.

Katherine looking fabulous in front of the church.

And of course another beautiful doorway.

And one doorway with a mean, looking dude above us. I think that translates to angry.

Loved this pink doorway next to the pink restaurant. So much food to eat we could not go in there because we were stuffed, but yet again an example of fun, beautiful and unique every doorway and courtyard is in this town.

Walked into a Courtyard and what did I see - another tree made by the same artist. Again just beautiful.

Chili rejino for dinner. Oh my, yummy. Stuffed with ground beef, raisins, and topped with a cream sauce, sprinkled with walnuts and pomegranate seeds.

Diane had arracha which is a skirt steak but it is marinated differently so it is much more tender than we are used to and very 👍.

After meandering back to Café Mara, for a nightcap, we hurried back to our own rooftop to watch the sunset behind those clouds.

And then we ended our night on the patio we started on- only this time with the city lit up behind us

Replica of the bell in Mexico City. Town of about 50,000 - typical small Mexican town and our driver said his ideal pace to live. He could not believe we live in a city of over $2M.

The church of course.

Museum in the city dedicated to the fight for Mexican independence won in 1821 from the Spanish. We sometimes forget that our neighbors to the south fought the same sort of battle we did to free ourselves from English rule.

Cool piece of art

Diane being goofy - not a real dog.

Loved this little square with the flowers and trees.

And off to the winery we go. \240The winery tour was awesome - Jessica was our \240hostess at San Lucas winery - we had a tour of their wine making facilities. They also make olive oil, lavender and delicious honey… tour and tasting of three wines and small cheeseboard set us back 89 USD for two. Actually more than we are used to paying.

Mexico just started into the wine business in the last decade or two. Kind of confused me because it started as a Spanish colony, and the Spanish have been growing grapes for over 1000 years - guess they didn’t transport those vines to the new “colony “.

Wine making facility.

Explaining the grape growing process.

Fermenting tanks.

Storage barrels - they only \240use them three times and then have to recycle them. Seems wasteful, but part of the wine making process.

Love this - complements of our driver Greg.

Lavender gardn - they do double duty. They harvest them to make lavender oil, and then they keep the bees away from the grapes.

Wine tasting - oh my. Hard not to grab a few of those off the shelf.

And onto a final stop for my birthday dinner at San Francisco restaurant on the same grounds. Although the view was quite amazing, the food was bland and my steak was awful. Oh well everything can’t go perfect on a trip. I’ll take it, but my recommendation is to not go here.

From our table.

Before the food.

This is the wine we had with dinner - not to shabby for Mexican wine and from the vineyard we visited.

Another beautiful sunset.

Spent the evening on our rooftop again - full day. Really enjoyed our rooftop patio at the hotel. Saw this ring of fire burning. Thankfully, it was out quickly.

Me at 6200 feet above sea level climbing steps.

And more fng steps.

Loved this street - cobblestone streets and the orange paint that is prevalent.

Of course, we stumbled across another mural.

Went back to grab Lanny and continued \240our day with our morning breakfast of eggs and frioles and then took an Uber to this place which had many galleries.

Fresh faces.

Me and Katherine are going to try and replicate this tissue paper design.

Nice walls and plants of course.

Left the galleria and meandered down the street. Found a few cool wall murals and a cute little corner spot.

We loved this spot.

They are so good at the pose.

And again…

This was on our walk. The littles must like it here.

Many fountains were not working, unusual for a UNESCO heritage site. But this one was.

These were in quite a a few places.

My - very lovely doorway.

Photo credit to Katherine.

Last meal of the trip recommended by our driver. Me and Katherine absolutely loved our dinner.

Spinach and quino salad, brussel \240sprouts, sweet potato hasn, bacon wrapped goat cheese shrimp and arranccho beef. Yummy!

Diane’s dinner - fish, tacos, french fries and cactus.

Last night on the patio, looking at the church and the nightlights. Absolutely stunning!

All good things must come to an end. Today is that day, as it is our last day in San Miguel. This has been a city full of amazing views, architecture, art, and hills. A lot of people ask us if we feel uncomfortable 😣 in Mexico and that they worry about us, and I can absolutely say that is not the case here.

Was a little disappointed that more of the staff in the restaurants and hotels did not speak English as I had read that they did. Translator was our friend, but I actually believe that many people pretended not to know English. I speak a little Spanish but not enough to get by here.

It is not an easy place to get to. \240We had to fly from San Antonio to Houston and then to Leon Mexico, and then took a private driver to San Miguel which is an hour and a half ride. Do you think we drive crazy in the states? Ha! \240You should see the tail bumpers that drive in Mexico. All in all though we survived every ride we were on and having a private driver was the best as not only did he drive us when we needed him but was available for questions and his English was great. I would highly recommend getting a private driver in Mexico as they have Mexican plates and know the Policia and places along the way that may cause issues. Their job is to keep you safe and Greg did that.

I can see how many people would want to relocate here. Although it is very beautiful, I am way too active to spend my time in such a small city.