San Miguel in a Changing World
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After ten weeks at our favourite
beaches, San Miguel de Allende is our culture month, that is, usually. This year
was a little different, and I know you all can guess why. The COVID-19 reared
its ugly head.
Ateción, the local newspaper, the bible for all
visitors and residents in San Miguel, comes out each Friday. We all read it
religiously, reading all about the coming events in town and choose which one we
just must attend. There are the latest films, discussions, concerts, plays, art
exhibits, house tours and much more scheduled at the Biblioteca and theatres in
the area. We coordinated dates of events that others in our group of friends
were planning to attend, made reservations and bought tickets for our choices,
including some for later in March.
I signed up for yoga classes, led by Alejandro at Hotel
Posada de Aldea, near our home, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings.
Tuesday and Thursday mornings was Aquafit classes, also at the hotel, led by my
favourite instructor, Eréndira. I worked on keeping myself fit and Ray got his
exercise taking longer walks and visiting the markets to buy our food.
We enjoyed a Flamenco Dance performance, and later, a
Jazz concert the Angela Peralta Theatre. A real treat this year was the
Reel-Docs documentary series at Santa Ana Theatre. The Documentaries, organized
by the Reel-Docs volunteer group, are so popular that the series sells out
almost as soon as the program for the year is announced in January. The
popularity is in part because the films have such eclectic, interesting topics
and the filmmaker is always invited to San Miguel to answer questions about
making the film, the issues brought up in the film and what follow-up is
expected. It adds an extra dimension to the film. We saw Renegade Dreamers,
contrasting protest musicians in New York City in the 1960’s with the current
crop of protest musicians in New York. Incarcerated Rhythm, a 2018 documentary,
highlighted six men in a medium security federal prison in upstate New York,
participating in a unique rehabilitation modern dance program. Both films were
excellent.
By the first Wednesday we were starting to get inklings
of what was happening in the rest of the world, how it was affecting San Miguel,
and therefore us. It wasn’t that we hadn’t heard about COVID-19, it was just
that it seemed to be more of a problem in other countries, not in San Miguel. In
fact, it hadn’t affected Zihuatanejo, where we spent the previous five weeks,
either.
We were notified that the first of the Pro Musica
classical concerts we had planned to attend the next Sunday, was cancelled. The
reason was that the musician, Ran Dank, was ill. Little did we know that this
was just the first of many cancellations of events we had expected to attend.
We emailed the owner of the house we were renting to tell
her we definitely wanted to reserve for March of 2021. She replied that,
unfortunately, the house would not be available next year as she was moving back
to live in the house herself. That meant we had to find another place to rent.
We spent the next week browsing multiple online listings and contacting the
owners to ask for a viewing. San Miguel is a walking city, so travelling to see
rental units brought us to both favourite older areas and new ones that were fun
to explore. Even still, we were relieved to finally find one that suited us and
was still within our slightly heightened price range. It is a newly renovated
small house, managed by a woman who takes care of many of the rentals where the
Andrews stay. It was in the central core, was well furnished and equipped, plus
it had enough room for us not to feel cramped for space. We reserved for March
2021.
There were more bright spots to lighten our spirits. The
first Friday of March is the celebration of Our Lord of the Conquest. Indigenous
people from towns near and far come every year to dance on the streets
surrounding the Jardin. The dancers, called concheros, wear elaborate feathered
headdresses and richly patterned pre-Hispanic outfits. They dance to the beat of
drums from early morning to late afternoon. I can’t resist the colour and
symbolism of the ceremonies and the sheer energy of the dancers and drummers. It
is one of my favourite photo ops. One of the groups performs dances symbolizing
the struggle between good and evil forces, with the good always winning. The day
also signifies how the ancient beliefs of the people have combined with their
conversion to Christianity. Each group in its turn, burns sweet grasses in front
of a small altar during the dances and ends with everyone streaming into the
Paroquia Church to be blessed by the priests.
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Our group of friends continued gathering each Friday for
lunch at Oso Azul (blue bear) restaurant. As many as 16 of us gathered to enjoy
a meal together and catch up on the latest news. The restaurant has lunch
entertainment by a good Mexican woman playing her guitar and singing favourites.
The only problem is she had to compete with everyone talking at once.
We even managed to host a “Cinq a Sept” at our house for
a late afternoon party. We raised a glass of wine or beer to our friendship and
passed around the many appetizers contributed by each of us. We were glad that
everyone was able to come as it would not be long before each of us made plans
to return home earlier than planned.
As we entered our second week in San Miguel, activities
and events were beginning to be cancelled. All gyms, pools, language classes,
art galleries, restaurants and bars were starting to close. Trudeau made a plea
for all Canadians to return home. We, along with all our friends, came to the
same conclusion. We had to make serious plans to return home earlier than we had
planned.
On the same day that we started to look at alternate
flights home, our original flight with Aeromexico for March 30 was cancelled. We
couldn’t reach the discounter with whom we booked our March 30 flight so we
booked another flight for Sunday, March 23 with Air Canada, as they were
guaranteeing that there would be no charge for flight changes. We would deal
with any refunds or credits for the cancelled flight later.
Just a few days before our planned March 23 departure,
our flight was cancelled. We had no choice but to reach Air Canada by phone and
stay on hold until an agent answered. We were checking available flights online
only to discover the flights were no longer listed the next time we looked. Ray
suggested we just book the first available flight listed, even if it was more
expensive. We booked a flight for departure March 25. About an hour after we
booked the March 25 flight, we reached an agent. It took some explaining but all
went well. The agent agreed that the flight for March 25 could be cancelled as
it was made just an hour ago, besides, she told us, the March 25 flight was also
in danger of being cancelled. The agent suggested a flight departing Mexico City
early in the morning of March 21. The flight went to Ottawa via Vancouver,
rather than Toronto for Saturday March 21, meaning we would get into Ottawa at 1
AM Sunday, March 22. We quickly agreed on the option.
Everything worked as planned. Since our flight was
scheduled to leave Mexico City at 5:25 AM, we took the bus from San Miguel de
Allende to the Terminal Norte in Mexico City on Friday afternoon March 20 and
took a taxi to the small hotel we booked within walking distance of a walkway
over a highway direct to the air terminal. We were up the next morning at 3 AM
and walked across to the International terminal. We had been warned by one of
our friends who flew home to Canada just a few days earlier that no food would
be served on our flights. Therefore we were pleasantly surprised to find that
several of terminal restaurants were open to serve breakfast to the relatively
small number of travellers with early flights. Our flights were on time and
uneventful. We had lots of time, about 8 hours, in the Vancouver terminal to
find food to eat and phone all our friends and relatives who live in the
Vancouver area. It was 1 AM on Sunday when we landed in Ottawa and taxis were
waiting to get us home. Yes, we were tired by the end of the next day, but that
was OK, we made it home safely, and still in good health.
Now we are getting used to be self-isolated in our home.
We have neighbours who have kindly bought food for us that we needed until we
could get a larger food order delivered by Loblaws new service. I am trying out
a virtual yoga class, since all live classes and gyms are closed. It is taking a
bit to get used to but I am sure it will help me keep fit.
And what are our plans for 2021. It is our wish for us
all to stay healthy and for the COVID-19 to have run its course by the end of
2020. Ray and I, and all our friends, have reserved to visit Mexico again next
year. For Ray and I, that means stays in Puerto Morelos from late December to
late January, Zihuatanejo in February and San Miguel de Allende in March.
To read about
the rest of our winter in Mexico, click
one of the following
Dec – January in
Puerto Morelos
February in
Zihuatanejo
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Mexico
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Introduction