We got accepted for a house sit in San Miguel de Allende looking after two small dogs for three weeks while their owners (Renee and Mark) went back to the USA for Thanksgiving. Archie and Kalle were really fun to hang out with, and we enjoyed going on lots of long walks and generally cruising with them.

As San Miguel is a puebla magico it is very pretty town with a amazing church built out of a local pink stone. As it was the Christmas season there was a large xmas tree in the Zocalo and a very festive atmosphere.

One of the attractions to see in San Miguel is the Botanic Gardens. This is built around a gorge which has a natural water spring. It used to be a very popular trading centre and people would come from afar to grind their corn in the big stone grinder which was powered by a water wheel. There are hundreds of different types of cacti and we learnt a lot and had a great time with the guided tour. On Tuesdays and Thursdays they do a guided tour of the garden in english.

San Miguel is high up near the centre of Mexico (about 2000m ASL) so it is quite cool at night (one night was -1 deg C) perfect temperature for hiking. We joined a guided group for a walk to the highest point on the extinct volcano next to San Miguel. The walk up took 3 hours, but it was cool and the views were superb. Lunching at the top (2800m) we found out one of the group was a Botanist, and she pointed out all types of rare plants and animals on the way back down. We arrived back at the start point to a amazing traditional cooked lunch of tortillas, beans, pork, and salad….. Yummmm!

Suzanna our tour guide from Guanajuato recommended we do a bike tour with Bici Burro, so we met Beto for a bike trip around the mining town of Mineral de Poza. We peddled the backroads and tracks to a old smelter used by the Spanish in the 1500’s and then on to a old casa where we met Antiono the mescal dealer. He is a character and we sampled then brought some of his excellent mescal.

This was a cool we ride, watch Glens form at the very end

Biking on, Bento took us to a working gold and silver mine. One of the workers in the mine was the guide who explained how the minerals were extracted (by hand) and that to get 1 oz of gold took 1000 kg of raw material! He then took us down a big rabbit hole to see the excavated vein where we walked along till the mine was flooded by water. Every day the miners walk through 200m of waist deep water to reach the mine face, and we could hear them working with jack hammers 200m away. This was a real working mine and these guys were hardcore!

While we were in San Miguel we got our van converted so we could sleep in it, and to get the cushions made we went to a close by city called Queretaro. We really enjoyed the vibe of this city and found a Gordita (Mexican panini) shop that was outstanding. We returned a week later to pick up the swabs and fill up on gorditas again!

We noticed a graffiti tagger in our neighbourhood in San Miguel who had the tag NZ. One was on the house we were staying in and Glen wanted to spray RULZ next to it haha. We noticed lots of them around the “hood” and got a kick out of finding new ones while out walking the dogs.

After three weeks Mark and Renee returned, we said goodbye to them and their dogs, and we loaded our van for our first camping trip to Tolantongo.