Flowers and a Haircut - Meet Baldy!

Wednesday - Week 2: We had noticed that all of the fresh flowers that were in our casa upon our arrival had now seen better days. First thing this morning we headed for the Mercado and purchased a large bouquet of fresh cut flowers. Then back up the hill so that Betti could properly display them in our entry way and dining room. Jennifer Rocket, our rental agent, was coming by at 11:30 a.m. with a prospect for a renter after our term, and we surely did not want to look like we were neglecting the beauty and ambience of Casa Tranquilidad.

We then returned to the centro, tried out another coffee café (Les Cooper will need these sites in April) and had an excellent café mocha for $2 each. We then explored a couple of streets south of the Jardin, which had not received our proper attention. The World’s Greatest Shopper found a very beautiful pottery flour and sugar container, which will be in consideration for a future purchase. On Jesus Street we discovered a very fine English Book store, Libros el Tecolote (The Owl Library). It has a large section on Mexican history. We then headed for our morning grocery shopping. We found a second bakery near the Mercado with excellent pastries at a lower price than our usual stop. We stopped by the Bonanza and bought our weekly loaf of Bimbo bread and then on to the big project of the day – a hair cut.

My last haircut was in El Paso, and Mary Ann caused me severe trauma by forcing me into a salon (a salon for God’s sake) where a lady worked me over, hair washing, careful trimming, and then clipped me for $30. Geez, everyone knows I am really a barber shop kind of guy. The salon effort really did not get my hair short enough, if you can believe that, so it has been looking kind of shaggy. There are a lot of “salons” around San Miguel, but a couple of days ago I spotted a real hole in the wall, open to the street barber shop, albeit a lady barber, on the same calle as the Mercado. Well….I no longer will need to worry about my hair being short enough. This haircut will last a lot longer. The shearing took 5 minutes and cost $5. My kind of deal! The photo of my tonsorial effort is above. Mary Ann is now calling me ‘Baldy.”

Mary Ann and Baldy went to dinner at Pueblo Viejo on Umran Street, which had a nice Mexican cantina décor. On the roof there was a tapas bar which will be fun to visit in the future. Mary Ann enjoyed chicken fajitas and I had a very nice filet mignon in mushroom and bacon sauce. The entrees went down well with frozen margaritas. We stopped in the Jardin for awhile to enjoy Mariachis serenading. To make up for our slacking off yesterday we made our third climb of the hill after dinner.

San Miguel de Allende Snapshot: From your reading of my blog, I am sure you now want a lot more information about San Miguel and the possibility of traveling to this beautiful city. The following resources might help:

http://www.portalsanmiguel.com/
http://www.simplysanmiguel.com/
http://www.atencionsanmiguel.org/
http://www.thesanmiguelguide.com/

There are a few books used locally which are essential resources for American’s that are visiting or residing here:

The Insider’s Guide to San Miguel by Archie Dean. This book, which is like an encyclopedia of things to see, do and find, is in its sixteenth edition. I had purchased a copy last year in our planning phase for this adventure and it was a great help.

The Best of San Miguel de Allende by Joseph Harmes. This book is in its first edition (2005) and is a format of the “best” of about everything. Half of the book is in English and half in Spanish.

juARde by Robert Fangue. You think that this title is Spanish, but it is really just a play on the English words “Who are they.” The book is primarily a listing and directory of the English Speaking community with addresses, phone numbers and email. It also includes a lot of other valuable information, business directory and advertising. The copy I found here at our casa is the 46th edition (2006). From information on the publisher’s page, the business is now for sale after 50 years, so here is a great business opportunity for you in San Miguel!