CUE vs SMA - Spanish Colonial Hotspots

You might be asking yourself: "Why...why would they trade one cute Spanish Colonial town for another? Where's the adventure in that?" I'd say...good question. This is the thing with home exchange. Sometimes you get offers that are in places you never heard or or thought about as a "destination", but you say to yourself "why not?" That was the case with San Miguel de Allende (officially shortened to SMA). Ironically, both have a church as their claim to fame. So how does one stack up against the other?

Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel

Catedral de la Inmaculada Concepción

SMA is a smaller town at a lower altitude. It has also had A LOT more experience with tourism and English speaking foreigners, which makes it easier for non-Spanish speakers and newbie travellers. There is a passion for bougainvillea that makes the whole town bright with colour. Add to that their certain fearlessness with house colour and SMA is a feast for the eyes.  Their familiarity with "expats" has also affected housing prices (not the only factor, I'm sure, but a factor, nonetheless), which you can see in the numerous real estate offices and rental agencies. Housing is definitely more expensive. Restaurants generally are inexpensive (relatively speaking) and grocery shopping will save on your usual North American food bills. Alcohol can be inexpensive, or not, depending on brand etc. If you like tequila or mezcal, you'll die happy and, very possibly, drunk off your ass.

One of the smoother streets in SMA

Definitely more colour in SMA

Cuenca has narrow streets, too

And we can walk by the river in CUE

Culturally, both towns have an active scene, though they are different. There are lots of things going on in the streets, theatres and restaurants. In SMA mariachi bands swarm the main square on weekend evenings, as do the street kids, selling candies and gum. The street entertainment is stronger in SMA, though I've noticed that Cuenca's is going through a fairly rapidly growth, whether because of changes in governance or influx of street entertainers, I don't know.

SMA

CUE

SMA is way more tony. The high end art galleries, shops and other experiences that require fat wallets abound.  Cuenca does have people with money, but they spend it in the shopping malls, not chic little boutiques, or, more accurately, they spend in chic little boutiques in the shopping malls. That doesn't mean there aren't expensive little stores throughout Cuenca, but they're mixed in with mid-range and lower range places to the point that they aren't really obvious.

Fabrica de Aurora, SMA

A story of murder and betrayal @ the Fabrica

This little guy fascinated me in SMA

Traditional ceramics, Cuenca

Metal work by local a Cuencano

Masks, an Ecuadorian specialty

Drivers in SMA are much more patient, letting aimless visitors wend across the little cobbly streets with impugnity. There's a lot less honking and cutting off. The pedestrians are also more mindful, making space or stepping off the curb with way more frequency than Cuenca. I wouldn't want to own a car in SMA, the roads are made of fist sized river stones, which are great for siphoning off heavy rain fall but deadly for your suspension and tires. Don't go there if you have a bad back. Cuenca's roads seem to be smoother, even though they're quite frequently under repair/construction/maintenance.

Click to make larger and note the cobbles

Cuenca streets, cobble, but smoother

Their tourist trade for things like t-shirts, mementos and general money burners are quite similar. Little store fronts that open up into vault like spaces in the back with a myriad of choices. The "stuff" factor can be overwhelming. (Not Morocco overwhelming, but overwhelming, just the same.)

SMA

SMA

SMA

Cuenca

Cuenca

Cuenca

Cuenca

Foodwise, I have to give the win to SMA. Mexico has the whole dining thing down. We didn't have a bad meal. Now, if you don't like Mexican food, you won't starve, as Italian, South and North American choices are available, but you'll miss out on a whole dining experience that you really shouldn't. Nothing we ate was overly spicy, unless you added the variety of salsa provided. The grocery stores have way more selection and it would be pretty easy to cook as you liked there without begging friends and family to bring in specialty items from foreign climes. (I did see a bottle of kombucha in Cuenca yesterday, which shows me that they really are trying to get up to speed.)

Molcajete mixto - Mixed meat volcano pot

Chiles nogados (Chiles stuffed with nuts)

Cuy - Ecuadorian speciatly

Res (beef) a la parrillada (barbeuced)

Cuenca is catching up, and fairly quickly. The difference between our arrival and now is incredible. And, yes, you can get Mexican food here. The two towns are probably equal in home grown optionsm, but Mexican food is Mexican food and Ecuadorian food is, well, Ecuadorian food. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Ecuadorian food, they honour the ingredients and keep things simple, nothing too spicy, sometimes too salty. It's a bit like comparing Szechuan (SMA) to Cantonese (CUE), both delicious in their own way, but appeal to different palates. I don't want too much of either.

SMA Street Art

Cuenca Street Art

Decorated Streets SMA

Cuenca decor

From our roof in Cuenca

From our home exchange roof top

So, what then, is the difference? I think that San Miguel just has a bit more polish. It shows me where Cuenca is headed, for better or for worse. Strangely, we felt that SMA had too many foreigners (meaning us white folk). There's something charming about standing out in the crowd and feeling out of place, in a manner of speaking. It makes you feel like you're actually somewhere that isn't your natural habitat, but that you've embraced wholeheartedly. While Mexico really seems to get the whole "green space" thing, something that Ecuador could take note of for their cityscapes, it doesn't sway our decision. For us, San Miguel de Allende was a lovely place to visit and we're glad to be back in our familiar little city, with all its quirks.

Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead)

Thanks to the movie Coco, this celebration is much better known and (perhaps) understood. I find the concept soothing; the idea that a bridge is built between the land of the living and dead for a bit of time and that we can (at least spiritually) spend some time with our lost loved ones.

Display on a random roundabout

Young man getting kitted up

 In San Miguel de Allende, the town found that the day of the dead was being lost in favour of Halloween. Perhaps due to the influence of US entertainment, or just the excitement of something new or different, but the town decided to do something about it. La Calaca Festival was born. It has been wildly successful and the traditional holiday has morphed into a 5 day celebration that starts with Halloween and ends somewhere on November 3rd or 4th. The character of la Katrina (or el Katrin for men) has steeped into the daily life here and can be seen everywhere.

 

The streets near the main square in town are lined with face painters who will paint you up with a skeleton face, beautifully adorned with swirls of colours, sequins, fake eyelashes and flower crowns. (This apparently stems from certain people not being able to execute the make-up very well, or so the rumour goes. We're looking at you foreigners!) Tons of people run around like this during the whole festival. It really is quite a sight, but the concentration is on the November 1st and 2nd festivities, when the bridge between worlds opens. Marigolds are used (they represent the sun) and light the way for the spirits to come home. The altars are simple or complicated, but will always include candles, photos, food, drinks and marigolds. I shouldn't forget music; almost everything here is accompanied by music.

A specialty is pan de muertos (bread of the dead), a sweet bread loaf (or smaller buns) with extra dough crossed across the top to represent bones. 

A bit like Easter bread without the dried fruit

Families gather to remember loved ones and share stories, passing on the family history to the next generation and spending time together, like most any holiday.

Note the altar, we thought she
might be a family member

 I'd recommend a visit during this time of year. The colours, sounds and sights are amazing and not something you're likely to see anywhere else in the world.

Queretaro and Guanajuato

San Miguel de Allende is a lovely little town (okay, not THAT little), with the prerequisite winding streets, colourful houses and a healthy tourism trade. Be that as it may, there is more in the state of Guanajato than SMA, so we decided to go out and see what else there is on offer. (Hey, we're here for a month, why the heck not?)

Our first day trip was to Queretaro, a city of 2 million people that isn't a well known tourist destination. The old town was filled with lovely grand churches, a bustling downtown core and tons of restaurants. It might be impossible to starve in Mexico, as long as you have a functioning credit card or cash in pocket. The day proved lovely and we got to enjoy the views of a Colonial era aqueduct that still functions to bring water to the gardens and the fountains. The aqueduct is the best known attraction in the city. There were tourists in the city, (bus loads, coming to see the truly impressive structure) but mostly from other parts of Mexico and Latin America. We were very obviously the token white folks, but no one seemed to mind.

The most striking thing, so far, in the parts of the country that we've seen, is the green space. Trees, parks, wide boulevards, roof gardens, terraces and front or rear gardens abound. The buildings are still crammed cheek to jowl, but the planners have managed to maintain space for growing things that makes the entire city experience pleasant. (I imagine it goes a long way to controlling pollution, as well.)

We spent about 5 hours wandering around Queretaro and had a nice lunch on the Plaza de Armas, before catching a bus back to SMA.

It's a potato, and the Pope

 Our next little foray was to Guanajuato, purportedly the prettiest town in Mexico. It's population is notably smaller than either Queretaro or San Miguel de Allende. It's famous for being the birthplace of the artist Diego Rivera and it's mummies. There's something about the environment that preserves the interred by means of mummification. Some enterprising cemetery staff (tasked with disinterring those that hadn't paid the required taxes) started charging the morbidly curious to see the mummified corpses. Commercial enterprise knows no shame, I guess. (Says the woman who paid to see the catacombs in Paris.) Of course, we had to check that out.

Callejon de Beso

This little alley has, of course, a tragic love story attached to it. Well-to-do family, ne'er-do-well lover, you get the idea. They stole kisses leaning out of windows (or slipping into each others' rooms) across this little alley. It didn't end well, what with the outraged father of the girl and all. For whatever reason, if you kiss on the third step up, you're supposed to receive 7 years good luck as a couple. Why murder would result in good luck, I have no idea, but we did it anyway.

There are lots of hills and charming lanes

We caught a charming little trolley-style bus into town from the bus station and came up from the tunnels (an interesting feature of the city) into the heart of the old town.

It's a completely different style of city (town, really) from Queretaro, in that it grew rather organically and doesn't have any grid pattern, of which to speak. At least, not in the old town. The buildings ramble up the hills in a patchwork of colour, with no set direction or arrangement. Stairs seem to lead to nowhere and some streets are so narrow, lovers could kiss across the gap.

From the funicular

Charming little train station

The town is mostly known for being the birthplace of Diego Rivera (the husband of Frida Kahlo and well known artist in his own right). The mural below, survived the large earthquake in 1985, even though the hotel was almost completely destroyed. A minor side note: while Rivera didn't invent la Calaca (Lady Death, essentially) he made her famous in this mural. She can be seen everywhere during Day of the Dead celebrations. You can get your face painted like hers in the streets of San Miguel.

"Dream of a Sunday Afternoon" Diego Rivera painted onto the Hotel del Prado, Mexico City

It is also known for its Museo de Momias, or mummy museum. There's something in the soil that is an excellent preservative. When the church ran out of burial space, it started evicting bodies, if the families couldn't pay a special tax. When the bodies were disinterred, imagine the surprise of the grave diggers, finding many still well preserved and mummified. Some enterprising young grave digger decided to start charging to see the bodies, when he realised there was enough interest and a tourism industry was born.

Just in time for Dia de los Muertos

Juan Jaramillo

Mummies are mildly disturbing, but pictures
with dead children are much creepier

We perused the Diego Rivera museum and enjoyed some of the new artists featured there, as well as his works.

Once the main touristy things were done, we wandered the streets, enjoying the sunshine and we had a lovely meal at a restaurant called Los Campos, that features all Mexican, locally sourced meals, with a modern flare for presentation and flavour combinations. It's a small place, but the food was very good and the company enjoyable. We people watched a good part of the time. It was a mini United Nations, with French, British, Chinese, folks from the US and locals, plus the two observing Canadians, of course. 

We ended the day with a ride up the funicular, to take in sweeping views of the city, as the light of day fell and then headed back to the bus station for the trip back to San Miguel de Allende.

A small thing to note, the buses in Mexico are quite comfortable, with many having a private screen, much like on an airplane and a selection of movies, while others have drop down screens that play movies for your entertainment. Sure, they're in Spanish, but at least they provide headphones, so if you don't want to hear the movie, you don't have to. 

We'll have taken at least six long haul buses by the end of this little adventure and would recommend them as a means of getting around. For those that are curious, we've used both ETN and Primera Plus, even managing to buy tickets online without issue.