Saturday Markets and Last Night Out

Looking for the Organic Market

Saturday is market day.  We woke up early and started our trek to the Organic Market.  The concierge said it was three blocks from the Arcangel Church.  So we headed over in that direction.  Once we were there, we decided to take a look in the church. Of course, we couldn’t take any photos, so we just walked around.  There are beautiful chandeliers and everything is quite ornate. The interior of the church still has the original  17th century layout and interior design. There are many oil paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries. Several of the paintings are works by the famous painter Juan Rodriguez Juarez. There is also a statue of the Christ called the Lord of the Conquest.  It was made of cornstalk paste by indigenous people.

We walked down quite a few streets trying to find the organic market.  I probably asked about 5 or 6 people.  Once, I asked this young man who doing road work and he said it was several blocks back in the direction we had just come from. I knew he wasn’t right!  We had heard it was by the Rosewood  Hotel and finally made our way there.  I asked an American lady which way to go and she told us to go to the end of the street and turn right.  We kept thinking we would see the market but we kept walking on and on.  It was funny because we saw the same American lady that we had asked.  She was way ahead of us.  We bumped into some other people looking for the market, too.  We finally saw it, it wasn’t at all near the Rosewood.  Shawn was so put out with the American lady as she could have just told us to follow her. It wasn’t a huge market but it did have a large outdoor eating area with a huge variety of Mexican foods. It looked like a very popular Saturday morning place to eat. We didn’t see an empty seat.  We saw a lot of expats there.  It is probably a meeting place for them on the weekends.  We walked around taking photos.  There were two other smaller rooms with an indoor cafe, bread and cheese shops and lots of herbs and fruit stands.  It didn’t take long for us to take all the photos we wanted.  It was quite a  ways to walk back toward our hotel, but we figured we would find a cafe so we could have a late breakfast.  We did come upon a garden of sorts and asked to walk through, so we could photograph the flowers in bloom.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Here are the plants we photographed across the street from the market.  There were two workers watering the plants and working there.  They let us wander around to take pictures.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After tramping through the plants, we continued walking in the direction of the hotel.  We never did find any good places to eat breakfast, so when we got to the hotel, we had breakfast.  I ordered the spinach omelet as I knew it would be good.  Shawn ordered the French toast.  His looked really delicious.  Mine was good, but this time, they added quite a bit more hot sauce.

We finished breakfast and made plans to go to the main plaza.  Shawn wanted to photograph the Church of Our Lady of Health. It’s wonderful pink stone facade is a fine example of Mexican skilled stone carvers.

After taking a few photos, Shawn said it wasn’t the church he was thinking of.  I saw another steeple and suggested we go around the corner.  We saw a lot of people coming out of a building and discovered  that it was the central market.  It was gigantic and we were both excited to have stumbled upon it. We had been talking that day about our disappointment in the Organic Market, so we felt lucky to have found the central market. We had a lot of fun taking photos and finding lots of unique things to buy at good prices.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Our restaurant of choice was close to the main plaza. It was called Jacinto 1930.  After looking at the menu, we decided to have drinks and an appetizer and then have our main meal some place else.  Shawn had a Mediterranean margarita and I had prosecco. We chose ceviche for the appetizer.  It wasn’t your usual white fish.  I think it was tuna. After we ate, we wandered down the street, we found an Argentinean restaurant and decided to try it for our main meal.  We both had pasta and it was pretty good.  We went back to the hotel.  We stopped at a corner building and took some photos of the rooftop. It had plants and pottery and they formed siluettes against the sky. This was my last photo!   We spent the rest of the evening packing and getting ready to go home.  We had to get up at 6am. As much as we enjoyed our trip, I think we were both ready to go home.

San Miguel is a beautiful colonial city.  Actually, one of the lovliest I have ever seen. It is steeped in rich history that goes back to 1542 and that history is reflected in the life of the people who live here. We had a magical adventure – the friendly people, enchanting cobblestone streets, colonial architecture, the historic churches and buildings and the feeling of freedom to walk down any street and discover fascinating bits of Mexican culture made our visit exceptional and our photography experience worthwhile!