Our home in Mexico is San Miguel de Allende, named after Ignacio Allende, one of the heroes of the Mexican Revolution who was born in a house across from the Jardin. Tuesday was the 251st anniversary of his birth which is celebrated over a two day period with parades, concerts in the Jardin, and fireworks. a distinguished military career where he was the Mexican hero of the campaign against Texas in 1801. After 1806 his sympathies aligned with the conspirators behind the independence movement. He was a Lieutenant General and led a resounding victory in some of the battles for independence. He was promoted to leadership of the insurgent army but was betrayed shortly thereafter. He was sentenced to death by a military tribunal and was executed on June 2, 1811.
The bandstand in the Jardin was decorated in Allende’s honor. Our Minnesota friends, Jean and Ron are visiting this week. That’s Ron on the left and Susan and I on the right.
A man dressed as Allende drew the most applause from the crowd.
There were several beauty queens in the parade.
A cleanup crew followed all the horses.
This appeared to be the senior queen of the parade.
Every school in San Miguel seemed to have a spot in the parade.
This school group carried a large Mexican flag.
Most of the students must have been told not to smile as they had very serious expressions.
This youngster was dressed as Allende.
A culinary school in town participated in the parade.
All public service organizations such as the army, police, ambulances, fire department, etc. participated in the parade. We had an appropriate spot to watch the parade, across the street from Instituto Allende, an art and Spanish school near our home.
We watched the end of the parade from another location to facilitate the girls shoppin for San Miguel Sandals. The parade lasted about an hour.
The Otomi are believed to be the original inhabitants of this area. They were avid skywatchers and in particular worshiped the sun and the moon. They passed their knowledge and observations from one generation to the next. The location of the pyramid was based on astronomical criteria, religious beliefs, and agricultural cycles. The site was occupied from 540 CE to 1050 CE.
Evacuation of the site began privately in 1995 and officially in 2002. Public access was first allowed in 2011. The site is located on private property, so admission is strictly limited.
The House of the Wind is a unique structure that has a square base and a round top.
The House of the Longest Night has a sunken patio that could be flooded with water in the rainy season. It is believed that this was useful in studying the stars as they could look down at the reflection rather than looking up at the stars.
The main structure, The House of the Thirteen Heavens, was built in two and a half phases. The first phase was built with these large rectangular blocks. These blocks came from “beyond the horizon” and had to be carried to the site on the backs of workers.
The second phase was built on top of the first using locally available stones. A third phase was begun using smaller locally available stones as shown on levels one and two, but it was never completed.
This is the main structure viewed from its entrance. The site faces celestial north so the stars spin around the top of it. The moon aligns perfectly with the notches of the pyramid at key times in the lunar cycle and at the equinox. There is a nineteen year cycle, so the Otomi had to study and record lunar data for a nineteen year period to design and build the pyramid.
This gives you an idea of the steps you have to walk up to the top of the pyramid. If you walk up sideways, your foot fits pretty well. I brought my walking stick for the occasion,
Other than being narrow and uneven, the steps were really pretty easy.
The view from the top overlooks another sunken patio they could flood with water and the ceremonial entrance road. Going down was much more nerve-wracking than going up.
Dr. Rossana Ennis has studied and photographed the relationships of the sun and moon with the pyramid for ten years. After completing our tour of the site, we visited her museum and restaurant, which served a prehispanic lunch featuring native, seasonal ingredients based on the symbolism of the Aztec calendar. The lunch was delicious! My main course featured rabbit.
One thing I had never seen before was a decorated tortilla. I asked about this and she said it was a traditional thing to do before the Spanish arrived.
It was done with a carved wooden mold which she covered with a red plant dye using a corn cob.
There are beautiful views of San Miguel from the roof of the B&B.
Our daughter, Laura, is visiting us this week. The picture is from Taco Don Felix which you may remember for its giant margaritas from last year.
This unusual sculpture was in front of the hotel. We walked in through the lobby to explore the grounds.
There was a nice swimming pool with an abundance of unused lounge chairs.
They had a row of basket chairs which I could not resist trying out. They were as comfortable as they looked. We talked to some of the staff, and they claimed the hotel was doing well, but we saw two customers the whole time we were exploring. The listed rates at the front desk were $600/night and way up. When we looked online at home, you could get a room for as little as $300/night.
These ruins were located right next to the hotel grounds.
You have heard us talk of our friends Jean and Ron from Minnesota, who are coming to visit us in a week. Wednesday, we met their friends, Kathy and Steve, who are visiting San Miguel for a week. We had lunch in the courtyard of the Santa Monica Hotel and then explored some of the city highlights with them. We ended the day with frozen mango margaritas at a rooftop bar.
The Rosewood rooftop is well known for its sunset views. When we looked over the hilltop area known as The Balconies, we saw the moon rising.
When we looked the other direction, we saw the sun setting over the area known as San Antonio.
Finally, after the sun set, we saw the Parroquia lit for the night. The Rosewood seems to be more expensive than Live Aqua but it is much busier.
Our home is rather plain on the outside. It sits on a small parking area for the complex. Inside, it has a lot of architectural interest.
This is the living room with the fireplace on the left and the patio to the right. The bright spot on the left of the ceiling is an opening to the second floor.
The dining room and kitchen are off the living room. Like all houses here, there is no central heat, so the fireplace is the only source of heat. The days have been mostly pleasant with temperatures in the low 70’s in the afternoon, but the evenings are in the 40’s and 50’s so the fireplace is needed.
The guest bedroom is the other room on the first floor.
It has been a little cool to enjoy breakfast or lunch on the patio so far.
Our bedroom is on the second floor.
There is a terrace off of our bedroom. The terrace overlooks our patio and the surrounding buildings.
There is a small alcove on the second floor which makes a perfect knitting area for Susan.
The second floor hall has a skylight above, an opening to the living room below, and a circular window to the terrace.
Our favorite part of the house is the rooftop terrace with its abundant sunshine and view of the Parroquia in the background. This house is quieter than the others we have rented in San Miguel. There is no traffic noise, no roosters, minimal dogs, and minimal fireworks – even on New Years Eve. The main noise is the music from the Rosewood roof top bar, and that could be considered a feature if you like the music.
It is a large store with TV’s, tires, refrigerators, and clothes. But mostly it is a huge grocery store with some Kirkland products but not the large package sizes you would find in Costco. 
Three Kings Day, the twelfth day after Christmas, is widely celebrated here. It is the day when children receive their presents. The traditional food is hot chocolate and Rosca de Reyes, 
Walking a mile to the grocery was OK, but walking a mile home lugging two big bags of groceries was not. La Comer had a helper outside with a whistle to summon passing taxis and load your groceries in the trunk. The taxi home cost $3 which seemed high compared to last year. When we made our first grocery stop at the Farmacia, they told us they didn’t have any bags; so we had to carry our groceries home in our arms. When we got to the check out at La Comer, they didn’t seem to have any bags either. We were able to buy the green bags you see in the picture. I thought they were just like Aldi’s where you have to buy reusable shopping bags. I have since learned that Mexico has outlawed plastic bags. Good for them!
Poinsettias were a very popular part of the decorations.
A couple of the large puppets known as 
A large stage with a live band was set up in front of the Parroquia.
It was standing room only in the Jardin which was decorated with poinsettias and lights.
A nativity scene filled the bandstand in the center of the Jardin.
Lights festooned all the streets leading to the Jardin.
There was a beautiful fireworks display over the Parroquia at midnight. These pictures are taken from our rooftop. Every roof top in view had spectators watching the fireworks. Liza and Bruce’s wedding party was on one of them. Like so many people, we love San Miguel!
These are the Upper Barrakka Gardens located a few blocks from our hotel.
From there, you can get views of Valletta like this.
The walls around the city of Valletta are very imposing. This is the elevator to get from sea level up to Upper Barrakka Gardens.
Triton Fountain at the entry gate to the city.
The town walls near the entry gate. We ate at a restaurant on the terrace where the lights are between the walls on the upper right. That terrace was a artillery bastion to protect the city gate in more dangerous times.
This building looked more interesting at night than it did in the day.
The sphere is the most modern looking structure in the area. It is a planetarium.
There is a lighthouse on each side of the harbor entrance.
A whimsical giraffe crane in the port.
The concept was that you choose your sauce from a list on a chalkboard and you choose your freshly made pasta from this selection in a case at the back of the restaurant. The person behind the case fills a container with the chosen pasta and passes it to the kitchen to finish the preparation. I had “Norma” pasta, which is popular in both Sicily and Malta with the green spinach pasta. Norma is a special spherical shaped eggplant. Susan had the pasta behind mine with a pesto sauce. They were both delicious!
This is the only picture I could take as we had to store all cameras and phones in a locker prior to entering the cave. They had to dig the rooms using only stone tools and beaks of a bird. It is believed they took advantage of natural cracks in the rock to dig the rooms. There is also evidence that they used the bird beaks to create holes in the rock to weaken the structure.
This figure called The Sleeping Woman was found in one of the rooms. It is only about four inches long and is located in the Archeological Museum. For some pictures from the internet, 
This gives an idea of the layout of one of the temples. It is unique in that it has three pairs of apses instead of the usual two. The wall made of small pieces of stone is a reconstruction.
This shows you the size of the stones they had to cut and move to make the temple. The decorated piece is a replica.
These are some of the original decorated stones from the archeological museum.
This shows how they moved the stones. They placed the sphere under the block and pulled it over the spheres. As a sphere became uncovered at the rear, they would move it to the front. Sounds like hard work to me!
This room has a replica of the Fat Woman statue.
The actual one is in the museum.
This is another of the so called fat women statues. In reality, there is no indication of the sex of the statue. It is also noteworthy that they do not have heads, but do have a hole where the head should be. It is theorized that different heads could be added depending on the occasion.
This statue is known as the Venus of Malta and is considered to be quite remarkable for the way it accurately shows the muscles of the body. It is only a few inches tall.
There are only two gates to enter Mdina and this is the one most used.
The moat is landscaped and well manicured. I never saw a way to get down to the moat.
The Cathedral.
I personally preferred this building which was also located on Cathedral Square.
We toured the medieval mansion Palazzo Falcon, the former home of the artist and philanthropist, Olof Gollcher. His numerous collections including silver, rugs, and weapons were on display throughout the mansion. You see his studio and dining room above.
Mdina is a small town filled with narrow, curving lanes where the straight sections are said to be less than the length that an arrow can fly.
We also explored Rabat which had the same wooden window balconies as Valletta, but they tended to be more colorful.
In Rabat, we visited Saint Agatha’s (I trust you remember her) church, museum, and catacombs. No pictures were allowed in the catacombs. They were difficult to walk through as they were dark with low ceilings and an uneven foot path. The rich were buried in structures in the middle of a room, the working class were buried in the walls, and the poor were buried in the floor. There were some small frescoes on the walls.
And every town has to have a cathedral.
On the inside, it was a classic, old European theater. The concert was the Versatile Brass in concert with six soloists. The band had at least a dozen brass in addition to the percussion, bass, and guitars. The conductor (who looked like a taller version of Rudy Giuliani) was worth the price of admission as he danced around the whole stage leading the band, interacting with the soloists, leading the audience, and even singing on one song. He had a very expressive face. The music included La Vie en Rose, Frank Sinatra, 70’s disco, and several European songs we had never heard but the audience loved. It ended with a thirty minute non stop rock session with the audience dancing and singing. This music included Sweet Caroline, which we took as an honor to us since we sing it after every Panther victory, and several Queen songs. At the end of the show, we were exhausted!
The four masted sailing ship leaving the Valletta harbor is the Sea Cloud, a hand sailed ship which we sailed on about ten years ago in the Caribbean.
Catania has a botanical garden featuring plants from around the globe.
For our farewell dinner, Laura had a tiramisu made featuring the group picture from our Fiat 500 ride including us and the drivers. The picture part was edible and it was a little unsettling eating a picture of your new found friends for desert.
Maybe it’s because this is the view from the rooftop of our guesthouse and the temperature is in the mid 70’s with a comfortable breeze. The blue sky helps also.
This is a typical Valletta street scene. The streets are narrow, there are hills involved, and all the buildings have wooden windows that extend out from the exterior wall instead of balconies.
This is the ward for the wealthy, it is over 500 feet long, but we can only see half because of the curtain at the mid point. Note all the doors in the walls.
There was a bed for one patient between the doors and the doors lead to a private bathroom for each patient. The toilets were Asian style or basically a hole in the floor. There was a ventilation system in the bathroom that led to an adjacent courtyard filled with orange trees. Thus the ward smelled like orange blossoms. Salt and honey were used to treat wounds and turpentine was part of the treatment for bullet wounds. The bathroom doors were covered with tapestries and the beds were color coded by disease of the patient. And by the way, this hospital only accepted male patients.
This is the ward for the poor people located right below the other ward and showing its full length.
In this case, there is still one bed between the two doors, but the bed holds four people who must each share the adjacent bathroom behind the door. There were two nurses per bed both upstairs and downstairs. Both wards are used for parties today. The lower floor recently was used for a 900 person wedding for an Indian couple.
The church had a number of these double domes in the ceiling and each one was different. The smaller interior dome has windows in it, so it washes out in the picture.
Part of the entry to the harbor. It was a wonderful first day followed by a delicious seafood dinner.