Travelling around San Miguel de Allende

There are towns in Mexico that just seem like paradise. San Miguel de Allende is one of them. Do a Google search of the name of the town and you'll find thousands of websites. The reason behind it? It's one of the top tourist destinations for both foreign and national tourism. It's a gorgeous city, very cosmopolitan and cultural, beautiful architecture, lots of history and more than anything, wonderful people.

The parents of one of my best friends in Vancouver (A and N) moved to San Miguel de Allende a few years ago. They have integrated into the community in so many ways that you would seriously think they're SanMiguelenses since birth. Since my visit to Mexico is rather short, I wanted to make sure to see them before I returned to Vancouver, so we scheduled a visit.

As it usually happens with family visits, the number of visitors fluctuated between when I mentioned I was coming and when I arrived (originally it was only going to be me, my Mom and my good friend M who is visiting, then I suggested to my brother and sister-in-law, who are also visiting, to come and join me as I figured they'd enjoy the visit, in the end my nieces decided not to come in the end, so finally the group was reduced to 5 visitors).

When we arrived to N and A's house, we didn't find a house - we found a palace! Their home is so beautiful, spacious and cozy. There is lots of room for everything - several terraces and gardens, two offices, anything you can imagine. That's a dream house, really. But the best part of the house are the owners. Both N and A are just as sweet and warm and welcoming as H (quite obviously, H is his parents' son!). They treated us to an amazing lunch (fish, potatoes, green beans - not spicy, unlike H's which are spicy - and a great corn and chile soup).

We felt at home right from the beginning, and despite the sad news of a family emergency, we had an amazing time. I feel very blessed with H's friendship, and whenever I see his parents, I feel that they treat me like part of their own family too. I hope to be as good a host when they come visit (either in Mexico or in Canada) as they were to me.

I haven't uploaded the pictures of our SMA trip yet on to Picasa, but I can leave you with an image of the beautiful Cathedral in San Miguel de Allende [photo credit, Wikipedia: San Miguel Allende Article]

If you get a chance to visit Mexico, you should visit San Miguel de Allende. It's a not-to-be-missed destination.