Sopa de Pato

Burros carrying dirt into El Centro

Burros weigh in at around 500 pounds and can comfortably carry about 250 pounds, the weight of the average gringo. But here in San Miguel, they are often seen carrying much greater loads without apparently getting too pissed off about it. Here, underneath our bedroom terrace this morning, a camposino is bringing dirt from down by the Presa to sell to whoever needs it for their plant pots or vegetable patches. These two burros are carrying 26 sacks of dirt between them, each weighing about 50 or 60 pounds – a load of probably around 750 pounds each – about one and a half times their own weight.

Toreador at the San Miguel Plaza de Toros

A shot from this week’s bullfight at which there were six bulls, four confronting the toreadors, and two engaging Pablo Hermosa de Mendoza on horseback.

Aztec dancer in Jardin, SMA

Once again, this year, the dancers are in town. The drumming starts in the evening and goes on all day. Seven troupes in all in the Jardin. There must be a load of large birds running around with naked butts somewhere. As we understand it, but have not verified the information, the dancing commemorates the acceptance of Christianity by the Indios. Although, gladly, they are still hanging on to some of their traditional rituals or at least their modern interpretations of them.

Woman asking for money, San MIguel De Allende

In San Miguel, it is customary to see these old folks, usually women, pleading for money while sitting in doorways throughout El Centro. Their main aim is to shake some change out of the Gringos or Chilangos (as folks visiting from Mexico City – Chilangolandia are locally known). Feelings about them here are mixed. While many clearly suffer physical impediments, others seem simply to have made this their vocation. Either way, it is clear that they have immeasurably less than the rest of us, so in most cases, passing over five pesos seems the lesser of two evils. One dramatic difference from panhandlers north of the border or in Europe is that here they are spotlessly clean and immaculately dressed.