San Miguel de Allende – Fifty shades of orange

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DEC 15, 2015 – On my way to Mexico City, I stopped for a night in San Miguel de Allende. This city has a lot more tourists and foreign inhabitants than Zacatecas, for reasons that I don’t quite understand – both seemed equally beautiful to me. A few years ago, San Miguel was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which has further boosted its popularity. The downtown buildings are mostly a dark yellow, but the colors vary between red, orange, cinnabar, bright to dark yellow, and occasionally blue. I stayed at La Catrina hostel, which was nice and cheap. After a walk through the center and up a hill – which was full of construction sites for fancy-looking mansions – I took a taxi to the botanical garden, which has one of Mexico’s largest collections of cacti. It was a worthwhile attraction that offered giant agaves and Prickly Pear cacti, less common succulents, and nice views of the city. Much like Zacatecas, San Miguel has a useful city bus system that connects the downtown area with the bus terminal and many other places for a mere 5 pesos (0.3 USD) per ride.

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Cathedral by night

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Giant agaves in the botanical garden
Giant agaves in the botanical garden

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Prickly Pear with fruits - they have very fine spines that are surprisingly hard to get off your hands
Prickly Pear with fruits – they have very fine spines that are surprisingly hard to get off your hands
Handicrafts on the large tourist market
Handicrafts on the large tourist market
On the farmers' market
On the farmers’ market
View from a bridge
View from a bridge

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