THE LURE OF SAN MIGUEL

One of the best things about San Miguel de Allende is that, much like our own little town here in the Texas Hill Country, it's kind of hard to get to. I first fell in love with the idea of San Miguel when I picked up a book called On Mexico Time, by Tony Cohan -- written back in the day when only a few artists and writers from the U.S. had discovered it and decided to make it their home. Of course, it's not that sleepy little place anymore. But it's no smog-smothered Mexico City, either!

Last time we went to San Miguel (almost two years ago, with a local yoga group) we flew Southwest Airlines from San Antonio to Mexico City -- a humongous, somewhat scary airport packed wall-to-wall with people -- then had a four hour bus ride to get to San Miguel. Not fun.

This time we decided to try option B: flying Interjet (a lovely airline with a no overbooking warranty, wider seats, and lots more legroom) into the Guanajuato International Airport in Leon, then making the 1-1/2 hr. drive from there to San Miguel via private shuttle service. Not bad. Not bad at all. We did have a 2 or 3 hour layover in Monterrey both ways, but at least it's a nice, clean, easily navigable airport.

Fiber Woman and Outdoor Woman enjoy our layover in Monterrey from the balcony of Starbucks.

Paint-Pouring Woman (on the right) and her BFF, Jennie. PPW's big 6-0 was the motivation behind this epic adventure.

Dinner at the Airport

We've since heard that they are planning to build a big new airport much closer to San Miguel. And, just as we cringe every time they widen one of the roads leading into our own little town of Wimberley, or write about its charms in a national publication, we can't help but wonder. Could this be the beginning of the end?

It was after dark when we finally made it to Casa de la Noche -- the same charming inn that John and I stayed in last time. Since one of the Muses (Spirit Woman) was not able to come on this adventure, Outdoor Woman invited an old friend from California to be her roomie. Unfortunately, Patty's flight was delayed three hours, and she didn't get in until the middle of the night. Meanwhile, the rest of us gathered around this little table in the courtyard that our three rooms surrounded -- a daily habit that ended up becoming one of our favorite parts of the trip!