Walking around San Miguel de Allende on a Sunny Afteroon

I just realized today how wonderful it is to sleep under a blanket again, with no ceiling fan humming thru the night. And how nice it is to spend my day in dry clothes, instead of shirts and shorts wet with prespiration. And not having to wipe the sweat from the palm of my hands and my forearms off the computer every few minutes. The weather has been wonderful here. Very comfortable. I am wearing long pants every day, which feels strange But you hardly ever see people in SMA wearing shorts. At least, not Mexicans.

I went for a walk this afternoon, about 4pm, and went to three parks, one of which was a very beautiful park. Parque Benito Juarez. I already wrote about it in my Gardening blog, if you are interested in seeing photos.

But my first stop was the church for the San Antonio neighborhood, Colonia. It's not spectacular, like some of the churches in SMA, but it looked very large and old from the outside.
The churchyard, or patio, was nice and shady and green, with a fountain in the middle.
I got seriously lost heading from the church to my next destination. I have learned it's not a good idea to show local people a map of their town. Not in any country, not just Mexico. Nobody every looks at a map of their own town, and you can count on them being embarassed, and giving you bad directions. But of course, I did ask people, and eventually made it to Parque Juarez. I will just show one photo, of the clothes washing area. I am not sure, but it's in the middle of what looks like a very up-scale neighborhood, where the maids most likely use washing machines and dryers. I think I will go back in the morning and see if anyone actually uses the washing basins. It's a great setting for washing clothes though.
I have been struggling with wanting to take pictures of older women and babies.
It's not a problem with babies, because everyone wants to see photos of their children. But it's be hard with older women. Sometimes they will let me take their photos, sometimes not. Or they will say "yes" in words, and "no" with their body language. So yesterday I decided to drop the issue, and just let the Senoras approach me. And if they seem comfortable with me, then ask about taking a picture.

Well, I really must have put it out of my mind, taking pictures of old ladies, I mean. Because it wasn't until I had left the Parque that I thought about it. And that was because a very old looking woman, but probably younger than me, fell into my arms as she missed a step walking out of a little tienda. I caught her, and then helped her walk along the sidewalk. And carried her shopping bag, which weighed about 8 ounces, because there was hardly anything in it.
She was talking pretty fast, mostly about her knee and taking pills for her knee. I finally got it that she was asking me for money for her medication, or whatever. So I gave her some, and we kept walking down the block. She was wearing nicely embroidered apron, and I asked if I could take a picture. I asked about the apron, I thought I was just thinking she would like to see it on the LCD screen. She was very proud of it. My subconscious must have been hard at work though, because after I showed her how nice her apron looked in the camera screen, I asked if I could take her picture. I showed her the first one, and she really liked it. So she let me take some more. You can see in the pictures that she gradually got more relaxed with me. She insisted we go back to the tienda to show the couple there her pictures. She was very excited, and they were happy for her. Maybe they were family.
AAt least that's how it looks to me. Maybe I am kidding myself. Between pictures brushed her back with her hand. The same gesture every woman in the world makes when someone looks at them in a nice way, I think. I said how beautiful her hair looked, and she got the biggest smile on her face, but I missed it.

We walked to her door, and I went on to my favorite pizza place in SMA. Actually the only one I have been too. The pizza is delicious and the ambience is wonderful. Partly covered, partly open, sheltered by a huge tree, with very old stone walls, and a big heavy wooden door. Very nice. It's called Al Capricho Italiano Pizzeria, at the corner of 20 de Enero and Orizaba.