Opening Doors in San Miguel de Allende

This small town continues to surprise and fascinate us ... on many different levels. Tuesday night, we were invited to a cocktail party hosted by former clients of Kurt’s when he was selling real estate in Oakland. They have lived here for 3 years in a beautiful home they custom built. We met some wonderful local folks, including Dottie, who moved here 61 years ago from Chicago. Now in her mid-eighties, she is still the top real estate agent in San Miguel de Allende ... and she has six decades of fascinating stories to tell of how this once tiny Mexican town has grown.

We also got some tips on tours that aren’t in the local guide books. So today, we headed out through the local neighborhoods. What strikes you most about San Miguel de Allende compared to other Mexican towns we’ve been in (including Puerto Vallarta) is the cleanliness. The streets are not littered. And homes, though some very old, are maintained with the quaintness that characterizes this town. That includes their front doors.

Since this is a town known for its artistry, it seems fitting that the doors of homes and businesses that line the streets are themselves works of art.



Some are simple wood structures that show the scars of aging.






Others are brightly painted portals.










Some are wrought iron gates which when opened, reveal a spectacular home and gardens inside.




Some are exquisitely carved wood.











Some, in the city’s mansion district soar two stories high.







Check out the “doorbell” on this one. It is a wooden handle attached to a rope that snakes through the wall with the instructions “Pull hard until bell rings.”











And I really dig the doors to this saloon in the heart of the old town.







The destination of our walk today was the old Aurora textile mill. It closed in 1991 when the free trade agreement meant Mexico was flooded with cheap cloth from overseas. But all the manufacturing machinery was left there intact, much like a textile museum. And around it, dozens of art galleries and furniture stores have opened. No pictures were allowed inside, but the façade has been left unchanged since the building first opened in 1911.

Finally, on our walk back into town for lunch at Subway (I know, it doesn’t sound right eating at a Subway in a place like this … but sometimes you just have a craving for a familiar sandwich), I spotted a “meter maid” who was ticketing a car for staying too long in one spot. The parking patrol actually goes around and writes the time on your left rear tire when you parked there. If you stay too long, you not only get a ticket, but as you see, they also remove your license plates. You have to go to the police station to pay your fine and retrieve your plates.

If they stop you for a moving violation, in addition to getting the ticket, they confiscate your driver’s license. They next day you have to go to the court, pay your fine, and get your license back. There are at least a couple of ways around it. You either pay your fine there on the street to the officer (otherwise known as a bribe) and the ticket never gets written up. Or you go to a local “copy store” where for a few bucks, they will make multiple fake copies of your drivers license. When you get stopped, you give the cop the phony license (which looks very authentic), and since you still have your real license, you don’t feel any obligation to go retrieve the phony one and pay your fine. Ah, life in Mexico.