We rented a four bedroom house on four levels with a garage, outdoor space, multiple terraces and a hot tub as we were expecting a lot of guests. In the first two months we have only had four visitors due to holidays and fear of traveling. Well on January 10 we are filling up this house which makes us very happy. The first friend to arrive is Maeve Markey, a neighbor from Boston, with her niece, Sophie Rennick, who just flew in from Ireland to come to Mexico with Maeve.
Sophie and Maeve arrived about 4PM 
We didn’t waste any time before heading out to show them the town. This is the classic San Miguel picture in front of
Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel. The church is not a cathedral.
Heading home after dinner. 
Next guests to arrive at 2am were Gary and Eugenea Bailey from Southern California. Jim and Gary were in school together in North Carolina in the mid 60’s. They reconnected
for the first time in over 50 years on FaceBook and then we met for brunch in Newport California in November 2019 as we were on our way to Melbourne Australia.
We ended up spending the whole day together and have stayed in touch ever since.
Sunset toast to friendship on the upper, fourth level, deck. 
The ever dutiful pictures in front of the landmark church of San Miguel the Archangel. It is a grand Neo Gothic 17th century parish church.The facade of which was built to look like a cathedral 
Del Pubelito, one of our favorites streets in San Miguel 
Sophie hamming it up at the Artesanal Market. She does have an angelic face. 
The Mercado 
This is the ceiling of the library in town 
An old fashion apothecary store down town. It amazes us how many drugs you can buy over the counter here that require a prescription in the USA 
This is another classic San Miguel picture, Aldama Street with the Parroquia in the background. 
This is our full house, the last guest to arrive with the mask on is Valerie Jones, a friend of Maeve’s from Nantucket. Valerie arrived a day late as her flight from Puerta Vallarta
was cancelled on the 10th. She is wearing a mask as her travel mate in PV tested positive. Valerie never did test positive though
The obligatory 525 step stair climb. They nailed it. 
Everyone doing “The Stairs” 
El Mirador, a popular scenic view in SMA. 
This is the second set of stairs. 
Eugenea and Gary are professional jumpers. The men look like their timing is off. 
This is a separate set of stairs leading down from the top. The stairwell is covered with murals, many of which are works in progress.
We will have another picture of this “girl in yellow” when it is complete.
The stairwell with very steep steps. 
View of the city from the stairwell. 
A mandatory meal with Miguel and Ivonne.
This magnificent Ficus tree is in the courtyard of the church of the Immaculate Conception aka Las Monjas (“the Nuns”) as it still contains a small cloister of active nuns. The pictures below are inside of the church. Eugenea and Sandy lit candles. 
The murals above and below are in the Institute of Art which was at one time part of the Convent. 
La Catrina is Mexico’s grande dame of death. She is embodied as part of the celebration of Day of the Dead. 
Amazing beaded art pieces can be found in the many wonderful Art Galleries here 
Another wonderful roof top restaurant 
Making our way to the Jardin which is the center of town. San Miguel offers a challenging workout just walking the streets is a constant up and down on flagstone and cobble stone surfaces. The sidewalks are very narrow as you can see here. 
Margarita time on our Villa’s rooftop with the full complement of guests. 
Plaza de Toros. The 1856 bullring that seats 3,000 spectators is now closed due to Covid restrictions. You can almost see into from our roof deck pictured above.. 
This is our closest (just at the top of our street) and one of our favorite restaurants which is 102 years old. 
Down our steep street we go on another day of adventure 
Our last night together we had dinner at Quince which is a hip rooftop venue with great city views. Tomorrow Maeve, Sophie and Val leave to spend a few days in Mexico City. Eugenea and Gary will stay the weekend with us before also going to Mexico City. 
Salud 
Sophie says Adios Amigos.
We just loved having every room full for a change. Even though our friends had never met prior to this week we all got along well. As you can see from the photos we do not always stay together but we go off on separate ventures. We did all do a full day tour to Guanajuato together which we will document in a separate blog.
We apologize for some of the past blogs not displaying correctly but Word Press keeps changing and updating platforms and the one we were using was outdated. Jim has finally figured out this new platform and it is much easier.
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