Although there are American families with school age children who live in San Miguel full time, summer brings a flood of vacationing families. Some stay for a few days but others come and rent houses and stay for one or two months. What a wonderful cultural experience for the kids. But the question that I'm sure some of you who have kids are asking, is what do you do to keep them busy.
First of all there are a couple of the language schools that offer classes from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. The kids learn some Spanish, take field trips, and do some handicrafts or maybe make tortillas. The kids seem to love it but what is even better for the Moms is that they meet other Moms and kids who are visiting so play dates can be arranged for the afternoons or weekends. And many of the bi-lingual instructors at the language schools will babysit at night. The Instituto Allende has also started offering workshops for kids. I don't know much about their program but since they offer Spanish and Art classes to adults, I think the workshops will cover the same subjects. The Golf Club has offered a kind of day camp of tennis, golf and swimming.
For field trips and to help the kids burn off some of that energy, you could go the Botanical Garden and hike many of the trails. Or a trip to the hot spring and cave, la Gruta, for comida and a day of swimming. There are some places where you can book horseback rides. Or if you can arrange a 1-1/2 hour car trip, you can go to Bernal and hike this huge monolith of a rock. In a way similar to Enchanted Rock in Texas or Ayers Rock in Australia. Bernal is very touristy on the weekends with lots of little stalls and shops selling stuff. The kids might want to take a soccer ball along for a bit of footwork in the plazas. You can have lunch at one of the places in town before you come back. A trip to Pozos is a little closer. The kids can explore some of the remains of the mining school or the old church or maybe take a guided tour of one of the abandoned mines but I'm a little leery of that one. Again there are some great places to eat in Pozos. They can take tennis lessons at La Aldea Hotel or swim there. A trip to Guanajuato to see the Mummies, the silver mine, history museums and some old haciendas. I'm sure there are a lot of other things to do that I just don't know about.
In the evening a stroll into town for dinner and then give the kids some time to run around in the Jardin or listen to the Mariachis, get an ice cream cone or see the free entertainment that happens several times a week in front of the Parroquia.
So, don't hesitate. You can bring the kids to San Miguel.
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2 comments:
My goodness, that sounds fantastic. Our daughter is going to be six and this might be a great idea for next year. We could bring our Canon SLR and see if we can come back with as interesting photos as I find at your site.
I think our daughter would love the Spanish classes. She asks me to teach her some impromptu in the car often. Last night it was "Donde esta el bano?" and "Donde esta mi abuela?" She was on her way to her grandmother's so it was appropriate. But she would also love to kick around a soccer ball in the plaza. It's one of her favorite things to do.
So, for next summer, how can we find a good place to stay? Hotels... or rent a house? Please send me an email.
Heather, I'll email you some more information.
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