Cabrito at La Tregua

Ned has been wanting Cabrito. It is hard to find. Every once in a while we will hear of a restaurant in San Miguel that has cabrito on the menu but it is taken off of the menu or they close before we get there. We were talking about cabrito with some friends and they said they knew where we could get it. La Tregua on the old highway between Comonfort and Celaya. La Tregua has a couple of  translations. The main one is "truce" but I found another translation of "respite." Maybe some truce was signed along this road but when I walked in and looked over the broad valley from the balcony, the word respite seemed more appropriate to me.

For some reason I thought it was going to be a little rustic restaurant. Wrong. It was a lovely place. There were attendants in the parking lot and lots of waiters in black pants and white shirts who were attentive. The menu was two pages long but we were only looking for the cabrito so I'm not even sure what else that was on the menu. My eyes focused on the Especialidades where there two listings for preparations of cabrito.  We came for cabrito and it didn't take us very long to put in an order for four cabrito pastor.

The cabrito was delicious, the beer was icy cold, the waiters took good care of us and we sat on the balcony looking at this beautiful valley. The steeple of the church is in Soria and that village is another story for another time. We will definitely be going back to La Tregua and maybe the next time I'll read the menu and see what else they serve.

Another reason I love San Miguel.....adventures in the countryside.

Luces de Historia y Libertad

What an experience we had last night. We went into the Jardin for dinner and ate at the Cafe San Francisco so that we could watch what was happening in the Jardin but the reason we were there was because we wanted to see the light show on the Parroquia. The light show was designed by the French artist Xavier de Richemont to celebrate Mexico's Bicentennial. Actually he designed light shows for five historic buildings in Guanajuato--the Parroquia in San Miguel, the Alhondiga de Granaditas in Guanajuato, the monument in honor of Miguel Hidaldo in Penjamo, the parish church in Dolores Hidalgo and the Templo Expiatoria in Leon. Now that I have seen the one in San Miguel, I want to see the other four.

Richemont created digitalized drawings and photographs that are projected on the face of a building in a multimedia show. The show lasts for about 20 minutes and it depicts his interpretation of the historical events that occurred in each of the cities listed above. My two images do not do the show justice because the scenes melt into one another or grow up the building dissolving and morphing into the next image. It must have been very difficult to make the one for the Parroquia because of the shape and spires of the building but Richemont used the building as a design element for the show. I'm sure the development for some of the other light shows that are projected on flatter buildings must have been easier. The music that goes with the show was also selected by Richemont.

Let me tell you....the one in San Miguel is fabulous. It will be shown here every weekend for two years. Don't wait. Come see it but plan to see it more than once.

Day Trip to Guanajuato

I've been wanting to go to Guanajuato but it always turns out that we get lost in that city. All of a sudden you are in a tunnel that you didn't expect to be in and the next thing you know you exit and can't figure out where in the heck you are. Even places that we have been several times before, like Gorky Gonzalez showroom. So rather than drive over, get lost, and pay a cab driver to lead us to where we want to go, we decided to take the bus and leave the driving to them.

The Mexican bus system is really a great way to travel especially if you take the direct first-class buses. We left San Miguel early in the morning and when we arrived at the Guanajuato bus station we took a cab direct to Gorky's showroom. The cab driver took a route that we didn't know about....and probably couldn't repeat...but we ended up at Gorky's door and didn't have to worry about parking which is also tricky in Guanajuato.

We had broken most of our cups from Gorky so we ordered some more and of course there were some other pieces that I couldn't resist. Gorky will have them delivered right to our door in San Miguel when they are ready.

Out Gorky's door and into another cab. I wanted to go back to see the Mercado Hidalgo. I remember being there about 25 years ago and it was a huge building busting with fresh produce, meats, seeds and spices. From the mezzanine you could buy shirts and pots and dishes and look down on the riot of color below. I wanted to get a photograph from the mezzanine of that colorful scene. Oh dear, it wasn't as I remembered. Many stalls are closed and it seemed darker and dingier that I remembered.

Back outside, we found a procession! Surprise, surprise! How can you possibly go anywhere in Mexico without running into some procession. This one commemorating the death of six miners who in 1937 helped organize the miners union.

After the procession we walked. Every church needed to be explored as did every government building. We had to stop by the basilica at these pretty green umbrellas for a bit of cool refreshment. Then once again on to explore other plazas and places.

Although this isn't a picture of it, we ended up in the Plaza de Union where we sat under the shade of trees and had comida.

Guanajuato is a beautiful city. Very different from San Miguel.  I love all the shaded plazas and sidewalk cafes. I love the colors of the buildings which include blues, greens and aquas. Exterior colors that you seldom see in San Miguel. It seems very European compared with San Miguel. More grand buildings from the 19th century.

We left home a little after 8:00 AM and arrived back a little before 6:00 PM. It was a good day trip. You can see my tourist photos here.