Gardens of San Miguel de Allende

The gardens of San Miguel de Allende...


San Miguel de Allende Photo CC

Seated on a wrought-iron bench in El Jardín, beneath laurel trees neatly clipped into living lollipops, I found myself in the mind’s eye of San Miguel de Allende. El Jardín, the garden that lies at the heart of this centuries-old, picturesque town, records the pulse and celebration of life here. At times meditative, it’s often charged with children’s laughter, the chatter of old men, a throaty guitar or piercing trumpet in a mariachi band and, throughout the day, the comforting bells of Parroquia de San Miguel, the soft-pink-and-orange confection of a cathedral on the garden’s south side.

El Jardín offers an engaging snapshot of this well-preserved National Monument 6,400 feet above sea level in central Mexico: its warm and gracious people, 16th- and 17th-century architecture, narrow cobblestone streets flanked by high adobe walls pierced with magnificent doorways, art and crafts, sun-baked colors and near-perfect weather. A first-time visitor, I was as smitten by these irresistible charms as the thousands of ex-pats who call this city home.

But above all, I fell for the gardens of San Miguel. Public spaces for festivals and vendors quietly selling vibrant bouquets of dried flowers. Hotel and restaurant courtyards lush with palms, pomegranates and plumbago. Take-your-breath-away private gardens hidden behind stone and stucco walls. And El Charco del Ingenio, a 220-acre, wildly diverse botanical garden where I ogled cactuses and succulents.

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