Days 54 & 55: Celebrating Mexico’s Independence in Salamanca and San Miguel de Allende

On the evening of Friday, September 15, we headed to the city center of Salamanca as we had heard there would be some early celebrations for Mexico’s Independence Day going on there. When we arrived, the place was crowded and parking was scarce since some streets were blocked off. Phil decided to stop and ask some military personnel (yes, the military and armed policemen were there to prevent unwanted events) about where he could park the bike. They pointed next to their vehicles so that’s where the bike went. I don’t think we could have found a safer spot 🙂

There was some live music playing at the plaza when we got there and people were eating and drinking. We got some savoury crêpes for dinner and then finished off with ice cream. The mayor appeared at the balcony of the Templo de San Agustín at around 11:00 PM, performed the Grito de Dolores, the bell-ringers rang the church bells, and then there were some fireworks.

After the fireworks, there was a lull for about 20 minutes, during which people started leaving. We waited around for a while and as we were getting ready to leave, we saw a mariachi band arrive. Since neither one of us are big fans of the genre, we decided to call it a night as we had plans to visit San Miguel de Allende the following day.

 

 

We arrived in San Miguel de Allende a little after 11:00 AM on the following morning. Parking the bike was an even more difficult feat than the night before as many roads were closed off for the parade that was due to happen later during the day. Also, remember when we went to the Santuario de Cristo Rey in Guanajuato and hated the cobblestone road leading up to it? Well, San Miguel de Allende was all cobblestone streets and hilly.

We managed to park the bike on one of the hilly roads after much effort from the both of us with Phil maneuvering the bike and me tapping into my inner Wonder Woman to push the bike uphill and help Phil back into the spot. If I had visited the city like I did on my Europe trips, I might have found the streets pretty; however, a hot day and on a motorcycle sucked the charm out of it. To top it off, we didn’t have any ice cream afterwards. Boo hoo to me.

The parade started shortly after we parked, so we took some pictures, stopped for lunch around mid-day, and then continued exploring the city and taking pictures. San Miguel de Allende is a beautiful city that is almost medieval in appearance. Parts of it reminded me a bit of my favourite city, Tallinn, in Estonia. Interestingly, there was also a large number of foreigners there; far more than we have seen in any other place in Mexico.

After an afternoon break at the only Starbucks in the city (because obviously), we rode up to the viewpoint where we could see the whole city. We have some video footage of the breath-taking views so keep an eye on our YouTube channel for that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was early evening when we decided to head back to Salamanca. We got stuck in some traffic when exiting San Miguel de Allende so it felt like eternity before we got off the cobblestone roads. Luckily, it was still light outside when we got back.