Atotonilco Sanctuary of God

Atotonilco is a beautiful out sanctuary built in 1748. It is a World Heritage Site, included in the San Miguel de Allende WHS. It is several miles out of SMA in a very small village. Atotonilco means "Place of the Hot Waters". The sanctuary was built by Father Alfaro who traveled the area preaching to the locals in the 1700s. It has a main temple and several chapels all covered with beautiful paintings depicting the life of Christ, and also inscriptions of his poetry. Each year, one of the statues of Jesus in the sanctuary is walked in procession to San Miguel de Allende.

The 105th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution

As we were walking into the centro to get the weekly social paper, Atencion, we heard marching drums, then saw police cars, blocked streets, lots of people. It was a parade - a very long parade - it took several hours. There were participants from every school in San Miguel de Allende, many organizations (Rotary, service groups, karate studios, dance studios, sports teams). Kids were dressed like bandits, soldiers, historical figures, beautiful senoritas. They did dances, march maneuvers, acrobatics, cheers, fake gun battles, marching band songs. The streets were lined with locals and many proud parents. We didn't know what the occasion is and finally found a English-speaker who knew. It is the 105th anniversary of the revolution. We started watching at 11am. The last of the parade finished well after 1pm - possibly closer to 2pm.  That is much better than last year, when the parade lasted from 11 to 3. They marched into town, through town, into the square and past the reviewing stand, then around the rest of the square and ended up hill. A long march for the littlest of the marchers - and it was very warm today.

Blankets for Villages

Today we began the delivery of blankets to several small villages in the area outside of San Miguel de Allende. The villages were chosen by a local social service organization that the church works with. Our guide from the organization had made appointments in each of three villages. The people gathered, we all introduced ourselves, she gave the instructions that each family unit gets one blanket. We distributed blankets, cooed over new babies, smiled and greeted. Our guide made sure that villagers who could not come out would get blankets, verifying a careful count, and designating someone to take blankets to them. The villages were each isolated, but close to each other. Homes were very modest, some in states of partial building or repair. The villagers very friendly and grateful. We saw a very small school in each village. Each village also had a small church that the priest came to once a month. Between the three villages, we distributed about 110 blankets. We will go out two more days to different villages.

XXI Festival Internacional de Jazz&Blues in San Miguel

This is a great season of music in San Miguel. The 22nd Festival Internacional de Jazz & Blues is happening this week. Last night we enjoyed King Solomon Hicks, a 19-year-old guitar prodigy and singer from New York. He has been playing for 13 years. He regularly performs at the Cotton Club. It was an amazing performance with a local bass player, a keyboardist and a drummer. At the beginning and at the end of his concert, he walked around and through the audience, talking and joking while playing  his guitar above and behind his head. He is amazing and has 3 CDs out, the first one cut when he was 13.
This concert was held in the Teatro Angela Peralta, a historic and restored theater in the central part of San Miguel. This is one of the most important festivals of its kind in Latin America. It was great, great fun. This is a small town - we saw people we knew.

Blended Worlds

Tuesday (Martes) must be cabellaro day in San Miguel. As I was walking home doing errands at the square, I passed 8 men on horseback, riding up the street to the jardin. It all felt very old world, men on horseback on cobbled streets, until one of their cell phones rang.

Massive Forest Fire in Tanjung Puting National Park in Borneo

We are so saddened to read of the massive wild fires in the beautiful Tanjung Puting National Park in Borneo. We spend an unforgettable week there while we were in Bali. Many of you will remember the photos of the orangutans we took while we were there. It was the best trip of my life. If you are so moved, you can donate to replant the forest at ecolodgesindonesia.com. Each tree costs $3, 5 trees cost $15, 10 trees cost $30, 100 trees cost $300.
100% will go to helping reforest the burnt areas.We remember when we were in the park, the one man whose life mission was to replant trees in deforested areas, where we each planted a tree. The area outside of the park is already suffering deforestation and loss of habitat from the planting of trees for palm oil.

Here is the news article and some photos:

MASSIVE LOSS OF FOREST AND WILDLIFE IN TANJUNG PUTING NATIONAL PARK IN BORNEO

Volunteer fire fighters Tanjung Puting
Tragic loss of forest and wildlife in Tanjung Puting
It is with great sadness that we bring you news of this tragedy and seek your help to replant 1 million trees and especially urgently needed fruit trees for orangutans.

Conservationists estimate that at least one third of Indonesia's wild orangutans may have been lost due to the overwhelming number of fires over the past three months in Borneo and Sumatra.

Estimates vary widely but somewhere between 30,000 and 90,000 hectares in Tanjung Puting National Park have been destroyed by fire. Despite welcome rain over the last weekend of October some areas of peat are still burning.

Now a large team of locals and NGO staff are working to replant the burnt out areas. They need to plant 1,000,000 trees before next year's dry season starts in March. Please donate to the Ecolodges Conservation Fund's campaign to raise money for trees.

Tanjung Puting local communities all coming together to save their forest and wildlife. An inspiring example of what ordinary people can do in the face of adversity.

Rain falls over the last weekend in October. Bringing huge relief to the fire fighters.
Please open your hearts and support these people and the orangutans of Tanjung Puting.
Each tree costs $3, 5 trees cost $15, 10 trees cost $30, 100 trees cost $300.
100% will go to helping reforest the burnt areas.

Finally, Rain

Volunteer Firefighters rushing in

The dock at Ecolodge Rimba, where we stayed-cannot even see the river

Orangutan fleeing fire

Volunteer and Ecolodges shareholder, Jeni, carrying orangutan to safety

Pro Musica

"Without reference to any religious text or image, music can speak of the ineffable things of God". Fr. Mark Brown

We are in San Miguel de Allende during the "Pro Musica" International Concert Series season.  Their mission is to bring world class classical music to San Miguel de Allende. They also do an opera each season. Last night was violinist, Andrew Sords and pianist/accompanist Tim Durkovic. Their program was wonderful - Elgar, WA Mozart, Bartok, Brahams, Chopin ... a full concert with two encores. The venue is St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

Pro Musica exists because of loyal member patrons, mostly ex-pats, and it's seasonal subscriptions. Their season is 6 months - widely varied in performances.
Pro Musica is devoted to educational outreach in the local area. They teach violin classes in a local boys' orphanage. This year, they have extended their educational mission to teaching classical music instruments to students at the secondary level and to form  a chamber orchestra at the secondary level out of the students from their Rhythm, Rhyme and Reason elementary program which teaches the basics of world music to boys and girls in five elementary schools in and around San Miguel.
Throughout San Miguel de Allende, we find the hands and dollars of the "gringo" population, bettering the community.

Destination Weddings

We walked up to the jardin to a terrace bar overlooking the jardin and the parroquia for Friday afternoon people watching. As usual, the jardin (town square) was full of people, locals and gringos, as this is the place to be for people watching.
There appeared two human puppets, dressed as a bride and groom. Human puppets are about twice the height of people and the "puppeteer" is inside, looking out of an opening below the chest so they can navigate. They and the wedding reception party were waiting for the bride and groom (gringos) to appear. The mariachis played and the bride and groom danced. After a while, a donkey, gaily decorated with flowers led the bride and groom, the reception party up the street and around back to the square, accompanied by the mariachis, dancing all the way.

Just after this group left, local people, beautifully dressed in evening attire, started going into the parochia. A beautiful bride and her father appeared and also entered for her wedding. As we walked back down the calle to our home, we passed a few straggler guests who did not get to the church before the bride. Hopefully they got there to see the vows.

                                                                                   The parochia on another day. 

The First Week in San Miguel

Looking down our street, Umbara. The streets of el centro are cobbled, as are often the sidewalks. We are about a 10 minute walk from the jardin. Most everything is close in and walkable. There are buses and taxis to take us to areas further out. There is lots to explore and learn. 
       The first week was the week of Day of the Dead, celebrated in great style in San Miguel. We attended lectures about the Day of the Dead, family altar building, wonderful dinners, parades.....

The Parroquia de San Miguel Archangel in the center of the jardin

A very large family altar at the jardin

Above and below is another family altar with
Pan de Muerto, fruit, candles

  

Human puppets danced around the jardin, led parades.
Below - the night of All Souls, thousands of people
milling around the jardin - dancing, shouting,
many Mariachi bands