Emily and Will | Let's get Hitched

Pictures!

2010-11-17T10:27:00.002-05:00

Holly has posted a slideshow from the wedding on her blog!

Check it out:

Wedding Slideshow

What to Wear

2010-10-14T17:12:00.000-04:00

So, are you worried about what garb to don for our upcoming nuptials? Do you wake up in cold sweats, afraid you'll be the only one in a cumber-bun and bow-tie? Let me ease your fears!

For the wedding and the fiesta we encourage you to dress up, but also to be comfortable. We know most people are dressing up for these events (dresses, suits or slacks & dress shirt, etc). The fiesta on Friday will take place in the afternoon, and will certainly offer warmer temperatures than the wedding itself.

The wedding will run from 3 PM to about 10:30/11 PM, so keep that in mind when choosing your attire. Ladies are encouraged to bring sweaters, jackets or warm wraps. We'll have heaters, and you'll be dancing (of course), so that should keep you toasty!

For the whole week: Keep in mind that mornings and nights are chilly, so bring layers and you'll be just fine!

Holy Cow

2010-10-11T09:15:00.006-04:00

Wow! We passed the four week marker to the wedding last Saturday, which means most of us are leaving for Mexico in just 3 weeks! Everyone seems to be getting very excited, and Will and I are positively bubbling over these days.

A lot of people have been asking me about the weather. I've found that MSN has the most comprehensive information. You can check daily November averages here, and you can check the current ten-day forecast here.

Right now the weather seems to be above average for October, which isn't surprising since we're experiencing that in the states right now too. Last year when Will and I visited in November the temperatures were lower than average due to a tropical storm that was battering the Mexican coasts. Hopefully we won't have to deal with something like that this year!

When we were in the area Will was comfortable in shorts or jeans, and I generally wore skirts or dresses during the day. We brought sweaters or jackets to layer on during the chilly mornings and evenings. Our temperatures, if they are normal, should reach 75 during the day and gradually drop to about 50 at night.

Ahhhh!

2010-08-11T13:50:00.004-04:00

Created by OnePlusYou

Hiatus?

2010-04-22T16:03:00.002-04:00

Sorry we've been so quiet lately! We're in planning limbo right now- a period of relative calm before the invitations go out and we start to get a headcount. Until then we've planned about as much as we can. Now we get to sit back and enjoy the summer.

In the meantime we started our registries! It was hard for us at first- we've been living together for 3 years now (holy cow!)and so we have a lot of our standard household items. In light of this please forgive our eclectic and fanciful registry.

For those of you coming to the wedding: your presence will be a gift in itself. Tread lightly in the registry and give only if you are utterly compelled to.

For those of you who can't make the admittedly long haul to Mexico: my mother has insisted on a stateside fete, which will probably be held in the spring of 2011. Hurrah!

A Weekend in San Miguel

2010-01-11T14:01:00.001-05:00

The New York Times recently did one of their 36 hour pieces on San Miguel de Allende. They offer fabulous advice about touring around San Miguel, where to eat and even a couple of hotel suggestions. Definitely check it out if you think you'd like to stay in the closest city to the wedding!

There's also an even older article on San Miguel from the Times, and as far as I can tell it's content is still relevant today. San Miguel is one of those rare cities that changes very little over time.

Save the Date!

2010-01-08T08:50:00.000-05:00

As most of you now know, we have sent out our Save the Date cards! I've heard from many of the invitees, and I expect/hope that many of you are finding your way here now.

I've done my best to put together some useful information for your trip, and if you want to start planning (and many of you seem like you do) I think it's best to refer you to the post that I did on traveling to and in Mexico. You should find everything you're looking for there, including information on which airport to fly into, which airlines go there, and alternate routes.

Flying into Mexico City is cheaper and gives you the chance to take a direct flight- but it will take four hours to get to the hacienda locale from there. A good option if you want to fly to Mexico City is to take an express bus, they're amazingly affordable and also discussed in the post I linked above.

If you have any questions that I don't seem to cover please leave a comment here and I will address them as soon as I can!

We're so excited!

Engagement Photos and a Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T10:42:00.003-05:00

Merry Christmas to all!

We got our CD of engagement photos from Holly Wilmeth last week.Here they are!

We hope your holiday is merry and full of love.

Pictures

2009-11-18T15:24:00.003-05:00

I've uploaded our pictures from the trip! Please take a gander. You can view them in either slideshow or gallery format, or just down below.

We really had such a blast, and we only began to scratch the surface of all the things to do in the area. Hopefully with the help of a little visual representation you'll now be able to catch a glimmer of why we chose this gorgeous location.

Straight From The Burro's Mouth

2009-11-16T09:09:00.008-05:00

Greetings everyone! This post very nearly got written while Emily and I were in Mexico, but the appeal of sitting on a sun-drenched patio with a book was far more appealing. We just returned yesterday from a wonderful five day trip around the colonial heartland.

Take every tiny little scrap of excitement I've expressed since our engagement a year ago and roll it into a big ball of sheer joy. Then multiply that by a thousand and you'll have some approximate idea of what I've been feeling since setting foot onto the hacienda.

Our taxi turned off the main road and finally stopped before the gates of a beautiful, rustic building that insistently yet quietly whispered of colonial times, wealthy silver barons and bandits fighting for independence. We were greeted by Ita, the owner's assistant. In a few minutes we had left our bags and travel weariness behind, strolling through the gorgeous property with margaritas in hand.

The layout is classic Mexico. To take advantage of the year-round gorgeous weather the center of the building is an open-air affair. In this case chairs and tables perfect for lounging and chatting on a warm afternoon are neatly tucked away in a carefully tended garden that seems a blend between cultivated elegance and the spontaneity of nature.

The outer edge of the building is of course where all the rooms are located. Each room has its own name and unique charm. The layout and decoration of each is different, but every one of them is fabulous. I won't try to describe any of them beyond that, but we took a fair number of pictures and will be sharing some of them soon!

The rest of the grounds are just as breathtaking as everything I've described thus far. There's two small swimming pools, though they're more suited to simply beating the heat than actual aquatic exercise, as well as a jacuzzi that is kept on round the clock. One of the rooms is devoted to a surprisingly complete gym. They have some standard machines, treadmills and bikes, along with weight machines for every exercise and muscle group I could think of. There's also a volleyball net and a large field next to the hacienda with soccer nets, though it's large enough to be used for any sport you can think of.

I've left one room in particular for the end, because that's going to segue into another topic altogether. The dining room is at once cozy and spacious, with a long table that promises many meals full of good food and good times. I think you can guess where I'm going next, but the food is absolutely spectacular. Most of the produce is grown on a garden at the hacienda, and it was quickly apparent that there's a whole lot of care going into every aspect of the meals.

During our time in Mexico we ate at some of the best restaurants in each town and none of them came close to equaling the food at the hacienda. Strolling through any town in the morning you're likely to catch the scent of fresh tortillas wafting through the air. If you've never had a fresh, homemade tortilla then I assure you, it's worth coming down for that alone. If you have, then I apologize for the spontaneous rumbles of hunger that this delicious foodstuff kindled.

Though we only had two meals at the hacienda, breakfast and dinner, both were the best meals we had during the whole trip. Dinner was chicken in a green mole sauce, accompanied by rice with strips of green peppers and fresh tortillas. This was preceded by a salad. To loosely quote Emily vis-a-vis the salad: "I don't think I've been this into a salad in a long time". Finally came a simple vanilla ice cream topped by some fresh fruits. The ice cream was obviously home made and completely shot down the claim that vanilla is a boring flavor.

Breakfast was huevos rancheros; eggs sunny side up atop a tortilla with a delicious red salsa, accompanied by an exceptionally fresh fruit salad. They also make fresh coffee every morning, imported from the Chiapas region of Mexico. Emily and I are both complete coffee lovers and their java was quite delicious, especially with the small creamers of steamed milk they provide.

In pretty much anything they do the hacienda excels at providing excellent service, with touches and considerations we'd never thought of. For example they have a secondary kitchen which is used primarily for cooking vegetarian/vegan meals as well as a set of cookware that has been kept completely kosher.

T-Minus One Year

2009-11-06T12:03:00.003-05:00

Three hundred sixty-five days. Eight thousand seven hundred and sixty hours. Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes. That's about how much time remains before my lovely fiancee and I tie the knot.

We're already excited enough to be wishing the next tenth of a decade past. That's only going to get worse after we head down to Mexico to check out the site of our impending nuptials.

I hope you're all getting as excited as we are!

Arriba!

2009-10-08T11:51:00.001-04:00

I am so excited to relate that Will and I are going to be staying at the Hacienda for a night when we visit next month. This means so many wonderful things! We'll be able to sample menu items, get a better idea of the grounds and figure out where we want the various stages of the day to take place. It is impossible to explain how beyond excited I am! ...And Will seems pretty happy too!

We also received our printed Save the Date cards. What an amazing thing. Not only do they look gorgeous, but the custom colors that graphic designer/photographer Kristen Nicols helped us to incorporate look stunning. The Save the Date itself is printed on a more durable pearlized paper. The invitation suite will be printed on a recycled cotton paper. I'm trying to make a conscious effort to be as green as possible wherever we can fit it in, which is a surprisingly difficult task when planning a wedding.

The Save the Dates will go out in late November, when airline tickets for the time period around our day will finally be available for purchase. Yippee!

Delicioso!

2009-09-10T17:20:00.003-04:00

Will and I have started to pick out a menu for the wedding night. So here I sit, drooling over the options displayed in my inbox. I am effectively salivating over a meal that I won't eat (or even see) for a year. Maybe, with some luck, that won't be completely true- we may be able to sample some items when we go down for our visit this November.

Just one more thing we can look forward to. We're aiming to send the Save the Dates out in mid-November of this year. I can't wait to get my hands on our little creations and send them out to all of you!

...So, does everybody love Mexican food?

Useful Information

2009-08-28T11:25:00.009-04:00

I got inspired the other day and dug up a slew of information to add to our new "Useful Information" section in the sidebar. Hopefully the things that I touched on there will indeed be useful! If anyone has any other questions please feel free to leave a note here. I promise things will get more detailed as we go along, but for now I hope this is enough information to help you think about and plan your trip!

In the meantime, check out the fancy new weather widget I added directly to the right. Don't be discouraged by what you see right now though, they're just in the heart of the rainy season. I have read that by August what was once desert is green and flourishing at this time of year. Sounds like an ideal spot for National Geographic or BBC footage that shows the seemingly rapid growth of plants. The widget seems to be off by a couple of hours (at 9 am it's still showing a moon), but other than that I find it to be accurate. And fun. Sort of like an "I Dream of Mexico" outlet. Or is that just Nick at Night nostalgia?

Budget Places to Eat in San Miguel

2009-08-25T17:23:00.012-04:00

A wonderful source for inexpensive restaurants in San Miguel de Allende, this comes from www.fallinginlovewithsanmiguel.com.

" Is it possible to eat out frequently even in San Miguel de Allende, and even if you are on a budget?

Yes, if you choose from among these 70+ restaurants and stands where many main dishes—if not the entire meal—cost less than 60 pesos, or under $6 USD, before drinks. And these are just the ones I've discovered so far. Originally this list was of restaurants with meals under 50 pesos, but too many of my favorites have raised their prices slightly this past year and so I raised my limit to 60 pesos. Food prices are rising worldwide.

You can often get a taste of even an expensive restaurant if you look for their breakfasts, lunches and soups for a light meal under 60 pesos.

San Miguel can be divided into north and south of the Jardin, and I’ve arranged my favorite inexpensive eateries that way. I include some street stands that we eat at a lot and feel we can trust. (But Norma has gotten food poisoning from some of the best restaurants in the world, including an expensive Parisian Greek restaurant so that she spent a birthday in the bathroom. There are no guarantees.)

Criteria to consider for a street stand: Is there a line of locals who obviously know a good thing? Does the stand just come out for a few hours, or does the food hang around all day with no turnover? Is there sufficient heating and/or cooling? Is raw food kept separate from cooked foods, i.e., the same tongs aren’t used on both raw and cooked meat, and juices from cooking meats don’t drip on food going onto plates? Is the same person handling food and money, or switching to using a plastic wrap glove to pick up money?

Five years ago I wouldn’t have dared to try any street stand. I coveted in particular the ears of corn slathered with mayonnaise and rolled in grated cheese, then sprinkled with chile and lime, until finally I decided that if the mayo was just opened and the corn just coming out of boiling, it’s safe. I haven’t gotten sick after an elote yet.

Now a favorite lunch is a 12-peso elote and a 15-peso cone of ice cream from stands in the Jardin. My favorite flavor is mantecada--dried prunes and pine nuts in a rich vanilla base. Don't knock it until you've tried it.

The street vendors around the Jardin have been given instruction in food handling, and they were required to switch to stainless steel stands a couple of years ago, to clean up for the increasing tourist traffic. Many expats join the lines of Mexicans for the hamburgers and hot dogs cooked at the Umaran-Cuna de Allende corner of the Jardin most nights. It has to be the most popular hamburger stand in San Miguel, maybe surpassing even McDonald's at the mall.
We like another street stand on Mesones just west of Plaza Civica that only sets up after dark. Juicy carnitas tacos are 6 pesos each. Crowds of Mexicans eating on the sidewalk nearby attest to the food safety as well as the popularity.

One of our favorites north of the Jardin is La Media Naranja, up the stairs next to the pharmacy on the southeast corner of Hidaldo and Calzada de la Luz. Two expats own this little gem which features healthy meals like vegetarian lasagna, homemade lentil soup, bagels with smoked salmon and cream cheese, and scrumptious omelets filled with red peppers and goat cheese served with hash browns. I have a photo of that omelet on our website photo alums--check out the "Food Scenes" album for many illustrations of the meals described here. They're closed the summer of 2008, to reopen in October, as the owners visit New York.

Reappearing in San Miguel, now on Aurora on the west side of the street closest to the corner of Calle Maria Greever, is a new Vicente's Carnitas! The nine-restaurant family-owned chain in Dolores Hidalgo tried to make a go of it in San Miguel on Ancha de San Antonio before but the rent went too high.

Now they're in a no-frills small place that is already full of Mexican customers who have heard their ads on the radio. A large roll stuffed with lean pork, served with a cup of bean/bacon/hot dog soup and avocado slices and salsas, plus a soft drink, is under 30 pesos! Or you can order a kilo of the shredded deep-fat-fried pork with tortillas and condiments for abut 180 pesos, enough to feed three or four. Ask for suave, the smooth pork, not the regular that has more fat, skin and bones (actually tastier but most expats prefer the leaner pieces). I've got a picture of one torta we split along with the soup, and their still-unfinished exterior, on our Food Scenes album.

Out on Aurora just north of Calzada de la Luz is a small shrimp cocktail restaurant, El Camaroncito, owned by Miguel Angel Vazquez and his family. Even better than their famous shrimp cocktails are their shrimp tostadas, 30 pesos each. with only a few seats. The grande shrimp cocktail is 70 pesos, just over our 60-peso limit, but it can serve two as a small meal. Mexican shrimp cocktails are a bit too sweet for us, so we add lots of lime and salsa. Don't look for a name on the outside, you have to peek inside. I put a photo of it on our Food Scenes album to help you find it. It's on the east side of Aurora about a short block north.

The Broasted Chicken place on the corner of Aurora and Calzada de la Luz (also one on Ancha de San Antonio) offers two pieces of fried chicken or a hamburger, French fries and a soft drink for under 50 pesos. It tastes the closest to KFC you’ll find in SMA. Check to make sure the thicker pieces are cooked to white all the way through. We’ve sometimes brought our orders home and stuck them in the oven for additional protection, on all kinds of foods. I've got a picture of their wall menu in our gallery.

Across the street from it on Calzada de la Luz is a new inexpensive pizza joint that we're hearing good things about, though we haven't eaten there yet. It's called Pizza Marconi, and the tall young Italian owner used to work at Vivoli Cafe. He says his pizzas are the best in town, and most of his individual sized pizzas are around 40-50 pesos, with one with homemade Italian sausage at 80 pesos. He also makes all his own fresh pastas, including fettucini, ravioli and lasagnas--watch him cooking as you eat. Look for my photo of this place in our gallery.

Inside Fabrica Aurora, the renovated fabrics mill that now hosts probably 50 art galleries and shops, the Food Factory and the wine bar are out of our budget but the outdoor cafe deep inside the complex has some sandwiches in our range, and you can't beat the setting.
Tucked behind Fabrica Aurora is La Fonda Escondida, Casa 4, phone 152-6110, opwn 12-4 Thesday through Friday. To see a map to the house, go to http://www.gerardoruizart.com/mapa.html. Owner Alicia Rivero also sells organic fruit on Thursdays. Ask to be put on her mailing list of weekly menu specials--aliciarivero123@gmail.com.

La Enchilada, on Relox 40A almost to Insurgentes is a walk-in restaurant with a pleasant upstairs dining area and some dishes under 60 pesos. We order their chicken enchilada platters.

North of Insurgentes at Relox 37 is Café Etc., Juan’s coffee bar/internet café, and pleasant patio luncheon spot. A dozen breakfasts, sandwiches, soups and salads are in this price range. It's also a meet and greet site. He's not afraid to mix unusual flavors--a tomato/basil/orange/cinnamon soup, chunks of grilled pineapple and plaintain in a lentil soup, a camembert and mushroom soup. The quiche Lorraine is particularly good, and the menu has an entire page of gourmet teas as well as a full list of coffees and frappes.

Aqui es Mexico/La Fonda on Hidalgo 28 almost to Insurgentes on the second floor offers three comida corridas (fixed price complete meals) for 45 pesos: chile relleno or chicken with a small salad and a big bowl of excellent chicken rice soup, or a large mixed salad with the soup. This place has a charming rustic Mexican atmosphere and is quiet, perfect for a dinner with friends also on a budget.

In the same block of Hidalgo is a new restaurant, Donovan's, that has good breakfasts in the 30-35 peso range, many entrees in the 50-peso range, and the 12-peso coffee is excellent. The restaurant is a pleasant peachy color inside, and don't let the small dining room view from the entrance fool you--there's more dining space in back.

A block west on Hernandez Macias at Insurgentes is Hambuergesas de Hamburgo, says the sign outside, but inside it's called St. Pauli Hamburgers. Opened in August, the small gourmet restaurant has six items on the menu under 60 pesos, including a "petite" burger for 45 pesos that isn't petite. It's almost five inches high as are the other burgers. We had a Salisbury steak that must have been four inches in diameter and an inch and a quarter high, the lean patty wrapped in a thick bacon slice, cooked to order, and served with a luscious gravy and a small side of fries or potato salad. They're open Mondays through Saturdays 12:30 to 10 pm. One of the two partners, who have considerable restaurant experience, trained with Cordon Bleu. A whiskey flan sounds inviting, and we liked the looks of the salads and soups we saw around us at the five-table establishment, stylishly decorated. I have photos of the decor and the food on our Food Scenes album.

Café Santa Ana upstairs in the Biblioteca on Insurgentes and Reloj has complete breakfast packages until noon for 50 pesos and many other items throughout the day that qualify as "cheap eats.”

Around the corner on Insurgentes and Relox, across from the Biblioteca, is one of the many Mexican restaurants in town with no name. Look for the gorditas on a grill extending out onto the sidewalk. Choose among a dozen fillings, 11-13 pesos. I like the steak and potato filling with guacamole, Norma gets scrambled egg and chorizo. Sodas are in the cooler and the bottle opener is on the wall.

Many expats like Café Colon and El Infierno on Mesones just west of Plaza Civica but they’re too bland for us. Others tell us that we must have eaten there on off days, but with so much else to choose from, we haven’t gone back. Café Colon in particular is a favorite with many expats.
Tortitlan shops on Juarez 17 (and also on Ancha de San Antonio 75) are busy all the time. They deliver delicious sandwiches. They faced fierce competition from the new Subway that opened in 2007 at Juárez 3, a few doors away. When the Subway opened, the Mexican owner and his Mexican employees were heckled by a few gringos who said the chain harmed Centro. The signage is certainly unobtrusive, a 2x4-foot sign of burnished metal over the door, no screaming yellow and green banners. So far, Tortitlan is winning. Their menu is much bigger, too. But some days we just have to have a taste of the Old Country and get a Subway Italian BMT Classic.
We rave about the Los Burritos Tortillas de Harina place on Mesones between Hidalgo and Relox, though it’s only open from around 10:30 am until around 3 or 4. Order four burritacos and a Coke for 28 pesos total. Look for one of the few seats while you point to your choice of a dozen fillings to go into your soft flour tortilla. We like pollo verde, a spicy green-sauced chicken. Their sign with the cute burro cartoon is in our Food Scenes album to help you find it.

The tacos al pastor on Colegio four doors north of Mesones are tasty, around 5 pesos each. Textamal, our favorite 5-peso tamale stand, is at the end of Insurgentes by Plaza Civica at the Oratorio church most mornings and evenings. These are mostly well-seasoned moist masa, not much meat, but we like them a lot. Add a cup of steaming atole, a corn-based drink that can be sweet like hot chocolate or more like a Postum. I snapped a shot of our order being dished out, in our Food Scenes album.

Apolo XI on Mesones 43 just east of Bonanza is a favorite in-town carnitas place. You can order a quarter kilo of pork served with tortillas and salsa and leave very happy.

Rotisserie chickens at storefronts throughout town are great bargains at around 45-55 pesos—half the price of a whole chicken at Pollo Feliz by the El Pipila glorieta (though there you also get a salad bar), and less than the 80 pesos that older branches of Pollo Feliz charge. They’ll usually add some tortillas and pickled jalapenos or salsa.

One of our most favorite "Cheap Eats" is Tacos Don Felix in Col. San Rafael. He did have a white-tarped stand on Independencia but has moved the restaurant into his spacious home. Take Avenida de Independencia and turn left at Ignacio Cruces, go three blocks, and turn left again. The well-marked restaurant is mid-block. The streets aren't marked and the numbers are erratic, so just follow these directions. It only opens Friday and Saturday at 6 pm to midnight and Sundays from 2 to 9:30 pm. Their website is at www.tacosdonfelix.com with a map and the menu.

A platter of four chicken enchiladas for 48 pesos is particularly delicious. They have all kinds of soups and salads and other dishes within our budget limit. Besides soft drinks and beer, they serve a wonderful horchata, the drink that tastes like creamy rice pudding. It’s great for cooling that burning sensation if you get too much hot sauce. Bring your own wine and they’ll uncork it for you.

Over our limit but worth mentioning because it's large enough to share is the sampler plate of seven kinds of tacos for 70 pesos--maybe pollo verde, chorizo, shrimp, arracherra, pork, carnitas and huitlacochle. I even tried the huitlacoche, a corn fungus, which had a kind of scrambled egg texture. And it was black. It’s a Mexican favorite but now I ask for a substitution. I have a photo of the taco platter in my photo gallery in this website.

A few things at the Hotel Quinta Loreto dining room on Loreto are under 60 pesos and are very much comfort food. Vegetarians like El Tomate Café on Mesones 62B. Meson de San José on Mesones, across from Plaza Cívica, displays its menu on a wooden stand depicting a waiter, to lure you into the courtyard and toward the restaurant in the rear, where you can find bargain meals.

Gombo’s Pizza, in Col. Guadalupe, Tata Nacho 2 (same pizza as at its sister restaurant, Casa Blanca, at Hidalgo 34), offers some dishes and small pizzas that fit our criteria. We think the pizza does not have a traditional taste we're looking for--no pepperoni, but shrimp topping is available. It has many fans, though.

Now, on to inexpensive restaurants and stands farther south of the Jardin. In the first block of Cuna de Allende, the street that starts from the southwest side of the Parroquia, are two of my favorites: Ten Ten Pie, very visible on the corner of Cuadrante, now with an outdoor dining area across the street, and La Posadita, a few doors north of Ten Ten Pie, up a narrow flight of stairs.
Once you reach La Posadita, go up another flight to the roof, where the view is better than that of the much more expensive La Capilla across the street. You can wave at those in the high-priced seats and enjoy the live music from their roof. The spinach burritos (listed as a salad), the flautas and the best pozole in town are around 60 pesos, though the rest of the menu is now higher. Two can split their excellent large flan for dessert.

Over on Hernández Macías, parallel to the Jardín, are two coffee shops that still have some items under 60 pesos, though they've gotten pricier lately: El Cafecito in La Buena Vida Bakery, in the same Las Golondrinas courtyard as the U.S. Consular Agent, and Las Musas, inside Bellas Artes across the street. These two are nice settings for sitting and talking outside, too. At El Cafecito, pick up two small, orange-glazed doughnuts to go for seven pesos and an excellent loaf of bread from the bakery afterward, or have one of their 18-pesos ham and cheese empenadas and a health juice drink for breakfast on the patio.

La Finestra is tucked in the bend of the inner walkway that is Plaza Colonia, a shortcut between Hernandez Macias and Canal with entrances on both streets. Its dinners are out of our range but they have a nice cazuela, a baked egg dish in a casserole that is popular in Mexico.

At the corner of Mesones and Hernandez Macias, the Teatro Angela Peralta has added a new sidewalk cafe that serves light lunches and desserts along with their gourmet coffees. A mocha cappuccino frappe is only 24 pesos there, compared to 48 pesos for the same size at Starbucks.

One of the most popular restaurants in town is Café de la Parroquia, Jesus 11, open until 2 pm Sunday and until 4 pm Tuesdays through Saturdays. I counted 32 breakfast and lunch dishes under 60 pesos on our last visit. We always get the tamale casserole and chilaquiles, which includes a bowl of homemade beans, corn tortillas and a chunky avocado salsa along with the bread basket. La Brasserie, which opens in the same location at night, has higher prices.
On the same street on the north end is La Piñata, famous for its juices--they'll blend up almost anything--but they also have omelets, tacos, enchiladas, etc. It's a small, plain restaurant with a limited menu and it has devoted fans. And on the south end of that block of Jesus is Kris Rudolph's El Buen Cafe, which has gotten so popular that many of its items are off our budget, but if you pick carefully you can eat well there for little. The bakery items are sold to go as well.
Torta Mundo, on Umarán 29 near Zacateros, has good hamburgers and sandwiches starting at 12 pesos. Many expats will not like head cheese, queso del puerco, on any menu in town, though my farmer relatives made it themselves in rural Michigan to use up all the small pieces when slaughtering a pig. I ordered the queso del puerco myself my first visit to Torta Mundo by mistake. Now I stick with the hamburgers or ham and cheese.

East of the Jardín are four good places on Correo, starting with the Bagel Café on Correo 19, and El Correo restaurant at 23. Jennifer Butz recently purchased the Bagel Cafe and turned it into one of the most popular spots in town. She even serves a pretty good Reuben, though it's 65 pesos. Many dishes are in our range, however. Her soups and chili are to die for, 50 pesos for a large meal-sized bowl.

Café Montenegro on Correo 14 has meal-sized croissants, bagel sandwiches, and what many call the best gourmet coffee in town. A little farther east on Correo 45 is El Burrito Bistro—their burrito grande really is. The US-style nachos here are quite enough for a meal, too. They have several international choices as well, including a good Middle Eastern platter. We've added photos of both places to our Food Scenes album.

We now have two inexpensive Lebanese restaurants in San Miguel, the old-timer being El Harem, at Murillo 7, on the corner of Correo. There is only one table on the ground floor, but do take the narrow stairway to the patio dining area, where you will be surrounded by vivid oil paintings and a good view to accompany your hummus and stuffed grape leaves. The newer Lebanese restaurant is El Maison de Terraplen, on Jesus and Terraplen, and friends are saying I have to try it soon.

La Alborada at Sollano 11 is a hidden delight. I haven’t tried their pozole, but it’s supposed to rival La Posadita’s. They have a breakfast concoction similar to what I throw together some mornings, layering corn tortillas, a fried egg and salsas. About the only meal you could get under 60 pesos at Arte Vivo on Sollano 28 is the nachos appetizer, but you might find it worth it to eat upstairs on their roof.

On Zacateras before it turns into Ancha de San Antonio is a Chinese restaurant with many filling dishes under 60 pesos, though most entrees are more. I could make a meal of the big bowl of hot and sour soup, which otherwise could be split three ways for an appetizer. That's the only thing on the menu Norma and I can agree on.

Continuing south on Zacateros toward Ancha you'll come to Oliver's, open for dinner, which features many popular hamburgers for 50 pesos. Considering all the possibilities for buns, fillings and cheeses there must be 25 burger choices. They have a Philadelphia cheesesteak sandwich and a chimichanga (a deep-fried burrito) on the menu as well.

Almost to Ancha and also on the west side of the street is Cafe Monet, considered one of the most beautiful eating spaces in San Miguel. It advertises "Unhappy Hour" from 7 to 10 am, with 25-peso breakfasts! Be prepared to wait for service, though. They have live jazz sometimes. Across the street on Zacateros is the vegetarian/vegan restaurant called Naturalismo, which will adapt its selections for you.

Right around the corner from Espino’s on Ancha de San Antonio at Codo are two street stands many have recommended to us. But íf we're that close we're headed to La Palapa on Calle Nueva 8, for the fish, chicken, arrachera or shrimp tacos and the turkey chili dogs for 15 to 20 pesos. Crunchy cole slaw is another 5 pesos, and don’t forget their famous homemade carrot cake. Across the street Natura health food store will serve any of its take-out dishes in the tiny patio in the rear, including, I hear, good veggie hamburgers.

Hecho en Mexico in the northern part of the Instituto Allende block of Ancha doesn’t really have much under 60 pesos any more, though it still has a reputation as inexpensive and reliable. They do have four meal-sized salads, including a Greek and a beet and spinach one, that fit our category, though if you add a grilled chicken breast that's another 32 pesos.

Los Faroles, now open for breakfast and lunch all day long as well as late into the evening, in a much larger space with outdoor dining, is in the same long block as the Instituto Allende, almost to the southern end of the stone wall. Gringos have discovered this Mexican taco hideout, but the prices are still low. You can split a kilo of carnitas with three more people and have a feast with all the come-withs. They now have live music some nights.

Turn west on Orizaba and first you’ll come to Juanita’s Pizza at Orizaba 19. Turn north on 28 de Abril for Cha Cha Cha, and hit El Rinconcito on Refugio 7, all favorites for the Col. San Antonio crowd. Mariscolandia for seafood is also on Refugio but the street splits near the north end so you may have to ask directions locally. Leo Chow has added a taco stand, Tako Skina, on Orizaba and 28 de Abril next to his Scorpio internet cafe. El Capricio Italiano recently opened at Orizaba and 20 de Enero, and a large pizza for two is 95 pesos. It also serves pastas and salads in our zone, and I have a photo of their pizza and of their charming patio dining on our Food Scenes photo album.

Tortitlán sandwich shop chain has a second restaurant on Ancha de San Antonio. Nearby on Ancha is another Broasted Chicken, where two pieces of fried chicken or a hamburger and fries and a soft drink were in our price range last time we were there. We don’t like Domino’s and Pronto pizzas on Ancha, but they fit the price range, and many Mexicans crowd into Pronto for their budget all-you-can-eat buffet of pizza, salad and spaghetti. The buffet spreads looked more like quantity than quality to us. Prontos seem to be tucked throughout SMA but I’ve never paid much attention to them. At Mexican pizzerias you may find Worchestershire sauce, catsup and salsa on the table to top your pizzas, and the green pepper will be jalapenos, and you might find sliced hot dogs instead of the sausage you're expecting.

Los Bisquits on Ancha and Stirling Dickinson has a breakfast combo that will fill you for the day, and I’m including it even though the price may have gone up from 60 pesos because the combo includes coffee or a fruit drink, a very large homemade biscuit with butter and marmalade, and a fresh fruit juice such as their homemade cantaloupe or papaya drinks. You can get eggs any style served alone with the biscuits, definitely in our budget range, or order such favorites as red or green chilaquiles or huevos rancheros. They’re only open in the morning and early afternoon, and there is parking on the side street behind the restaurant. In the afternoon you can get sandwich combos. A few doors farther south is Pollo d'Daniel rotisserie chicken that is much cheaper than Pollo Feliz and you can eat on their patio.

Orien-Thai on Ancha directly across from Los Bisquits has an unimposing exterior and interior, and the food is fairly average for a Chinese restaurant. But neighbors who are frequent customers swear by the 50- to 55-peso combo meals of spring roll, rice and entree, and the portions are big enough to take home for tomorrow's lunch.

Turn west on Stirling Dickinson to #5 and you'll come to El Chimichurri, an Argentinian parilla restaurant that is mostly out of our range but there are few inexpensive items among their grilled meats and veggies, hamburgers, salads, stuffed baked potatoes, and desserts. It's open Tuesday-Saturday, 12:30 to 9 pm, and Sunday 12:30-7 pm. Owners are Verónica Landini de Favero and Yves Maurice Vincent.

Back on Ancha after it turns into Salida a Celaya, Barbecue Bob’s by the Pemex at Salida a Celaya #6 has been sold to Keith J. Thompson, who owned the Longhorn Smokehouse, our favorite "Cheap Eats" restaurant behind La Palapa. But now Keith has moved and expanded to this much larger facility. The new name will be Longhorn Bar and Grill. He'll still sell fresh, organic veggies along one wall of the combined facility that now holds a dozen tables plus a dozen seats at the bar.

Keith still has the best "low and slow" pork ribs in town, and a few combo plates and sandwiches will remain in our price range, but most items have gone up. Close but not "cheap eats" are his all you can eat spaghetti and meatballs special after 6 pm Saturday for 70 pesos and his chili and chili dogs specials for 65 pesos Monday nights. (Thursday evening's special is filet mignon for 99 pesos.) Phone is 153-8983 to check on the latest changes as this restaurant evolves. So far he plans to be open 1-10 pm every day except Sunday for the restaurant and 9-5 pm for the organic store.

Continuing south on Ancha de San Antonio is Café del Sol, Salida a Celaya 34 near Telmex--enjoy wonderful breakfasts and pastries as you use their free internet--and the highly recommended but secretive no-name Mexican restaurant next door. When it is open, usually around noon to 4 pm, a yellow sign goes out saying Rica Comida Casera, tasty homemade food. This is another of our very favorite "cheap eats" in San Miguel. I have a photo of both the exterior of the restaurant when the sign comes out and you know they're open, and their enchilada platter on this website's photo gallery.

A platter of rice, beans, a steamed veggie, sliced lettuce and tomato, and tortillas comes with the entrees. Meatballs, enchiladas, chile rellenos, and a thin slice of milanesa, breaded and fried chicken or beef (think chicken fried steak) are all 35 pesos. The hearty beef soup is 20 pesos and many local Mexican employees choose it during the 2-4 pm siesta hours when their own shops are closed. As each entrée runs out for the day it is erased from the chalkboard. Get there early.

Just north of El Maple, the excellent Canadian bakery across from TelMex (and now you can get meal-sized items like pizza to go for under 50 pesos), are two blue-tarped Mexican stands. The one closest to El Maple is not open often, usually just weekends in the mornings and at night, as most tamale stands are—and it’s our favorite when the TexTamal stand can’t be found by the Oratorio. The other stand is open most of the time, and it specializes in seafood cocktails.
New to the building next to El Maple is Love, Revenge and Cappuccino, a gourmet coffee shop that recently moved from Mesones and has breakfasts and lunches. Or, buy some goodies at El Maple and bring them over to the coffee shop to eat with a frappuccino. Friends say we have got to try their breakfasts.

Friends also say that there is a new coffee shop in La Lejona where you can get an entire meal in our price range--turn right into La Lejona colonia immediately past Mega off the Libramiento and follow that street halfway to the El Encanto condo complex to find it. It's called Angels Garden Cafe, Vicente Araiza #12. A forum member wrote it has "frappuccino and mochaccinos for 30 pesos, and the usual array of hot tea and coffees, smoothies and italian sodas. There is a small selection of sandwiches, pastries and salad. WiFi connection, photocopies, fax service and Mexican tax prep--one stop shopping!"

Back to Ancha, which changes its name to Salida a Celaya at Stirling Dickinson, continue south toward TeleCable and you’ll come to a green-tarped place that is usually only open weekends, with big crowds for its roast pork dinners. On the TelMex side of Ancha de San Antonio you’ll see two new, small restaurants, one specializing in Brazilian and the other in Uruguayan grilled meat platters, that friends have tried and recommend highly. They’re both on our list to visit soon. Kafé and Chocolat is another of those gourmet coffee places tucked into that same stretch, and many of our friends say they are already addicted. I added a photo of that one to our Food Scenes gallery, too.

Keep heading toward Mega and you'll come to El Chai Ecommunity Cafe, Salida a Celaya 24, 185-8314, cafeelchai@yahoo.com, open Monday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. for breakfast and lunch. Artist Arlete Jeziorska, also an acting and tai chi instructor, offers Polish pierogis on her menu!

When you reach Mega, Bocatta coffee shop inside offers a big slice of pizza and a soft drink for 39 pesos, a breakfast special for 39 pesos, and my favorite, the Oslo, a smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwich on a very nice roll with either salad or French fries and a soft drink for 49 pesos. Don't hold me to these prices--they keep going up at Bocatta in particular. The big pizza slice and Coke were only 22 pesos last year. They just added a grilled hot dog as well that may be the same as the ones sold at Costco, the chain affiliated with Mega and Comercial Mexicana.

Over at their Starbucks-like Grand Cafe, Mega serves two small sweet rolls along with all kinds of coffee specialties, including my favorite, the cappuccino mocha frappe, for 30 pesos. It’s a lunch in itself, if not the most well-balanced meal you’ll eat that day, and you’ll meet the friendliest people who stop by after worshipping at the center gourmet aisles.

Another of our most favorite "cheap eats" is Pollo Feliz across from the Mega at the El Pipila glorieta. For 120 pesos, you get an entire, very large rotisserie chicken, quite tasty, plus the salad bar with unlimited char-grilled jalapenos, iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, onions, carrots and cucumbers, thousand island salad dressings, fried tortilla chips and fresh red salsa. It's certainly enough for two and possibly even four, if a quarter of a chicken plus all those salad bar fixings could be a meal for you. Just the half chicken and all those sides is 60 pesos.

It is usually jammed with Mexican families—don’t even think of trying to get in on a Sunday afternoon or when buses of churchgoers unload--and very few gringos. The big children's play area is entertaining to watch in itself. The noise can be loud and it can be chilly inside--I think they even have air conditioning. They recently added a big hamburger and fries platter for 35 pesos, and the 20-peso quesadilla oozing almost a quarter pound of cheese is excellent, especially if you stuff some of the chicken meat inside. On Wednesdays if you order a whole chicken takeout, they'll throw in another half chicken for free.

Across from Mega to the west are two new restaurants in the Oxxo/Curves/Radio Shack strip mall which I just found out is called Plaza Alhondiga. One is the second Italian Coffee Restaurant to hit San Miguel, the other is Bové, which is decorated with a cute cartoon of a cow, at the rear of the Banamex.

As I say in the description of the first Italian Coffee restaurant in San Miguel, at La Luciernega mall below, you can maneuver a low-cost meal at Italian Coffee Restaurant if you stick with a simple sandwich and a small American coffee. I suppose the same could be said of the Starbucks on the Jardin, but you'd have to work really hard to keep under 60 pesos.

Bové might also be considered part of a chain--it's run by the same Cordon Blue chef, Gerardo, who owns and operates St. Pauli's Hamburgers on Hernandez Macias described earlier. Among the offerings are a spinach salad with cashews, chicken, mango dressing, and a delicious garlic-herb aoli; and a pibil, like the traditional cochinita pibil, but made with chicken instead of pork, served with pickled onions, beans and tortillas, each for about 55 pesos. Of course the store also sells dairy products. Gerardo plans to open a "Mexican sushi" (more local ingredients like avocados and chicken) restaurant in the same plaza.

A few doors east of Mega on the Libramiento is La Casa del Matador, known for its large inexpensive hamburgers.

On the southeast outskirts of SMA is La Luciernega mall, with a SuperGigante, Office Depot, MMCinemas with eight screens, and a major department store, Liverpool, which have certainly changed SMA life. McDonald’s is obviously a "cheap eats,” though you could spend 85 pesos on a meal there now if you went for the “Big and Tasty” grande combo and added a McFlurry. Not that I would ever do such a thing, you understand. A large tossed Caesar salad with a slab of grilled chicken is 60 pesos for our sane days.

Across from the McDonald’s is a Sportorta, another chain sandwich shop that has many meal-sized (or enough to split) sandwiches in our price range, with every combination of half a dozen fillings imaginable. They’re served on very large round miche buns, not the smaller oval bolillos that usually are the base of a torta.

Itacate Mexican Grill has opened a couple doors from McDonald's in the food court. Burritos (large flour tortillas, the kind of burrito we think of in the US), tacos (three small flour tortillas the way Mexicans tend to think of burritos), and bowls with the fillings and no tortillas (great for carb counters) are 50-60 pesos. The veggie meals in particular make it onto my "Cheap Eats" list.

The main ingredient can be meat or veggie, and the additional fillings include rice, beans, lettuce, cheese or sour cream, and several salsas including their house pineapple salsa. The meats include norteno (dry salty grilled meat), emplumado (marinated grilled chicken), itacate (marinated pork pastor), and ranchero (arrachera, marinated lean thin strips of beef). Extras are all 5 pesos--corn, guacamole, sour cream or pineapple--and sodas and bottled water are 10 pesos, beer is 15-40 pesos.

Also in La Luciernega food court are Sunshine, a Chinese fast food restaurant (photo of one of their combo meals is in our Food Scenes album); a California Sushi restaurant; a natural foods restaurant that has excellent yogurt smoothies, and a salad bar restaurant. You can manage to put together a meal for under 60 pesos at any of them, though at the sushi place it would be most difficult, just side dishes. The salad bar is a la carte, adding an ingredient here, another there, so that the price soon adds up.

The Italian Coffee restaurant serves ham and cheese croissants for 20 pesos and a half dozen paninis (grilled sandwiches) are 54 pesos or less. Their mocha frappuccino includes an Oreo cookie on top and cookie crumbs throughout, for 34 pesos, which you could couple with a croissant sandwich for a "cheap eats" lunch. I suppose you could eat for under 60 pesos at the MM Cinemas snack bar whch also has paninis and fancy coffees as well as pizza. And there is a Hollanda ice cream shop in the food court if you can make a meal out of ice cream. Add a burger from McDonald's to one of their sundaes!

Liverpool in La Luciernega opened a restaurant in June but everything except some breakfasts are out of our price category. It's open 9 am to 9 pm and has extensive buffets for both breakfast and comida. It's great if you're driving around and looking for a place that includes parking nearby.

We have only begun to explore all the inexpensive eateries in San Miguel in our six years living here. So many restaurants, so few calories, days and pesos to spend. If I’ve left out one of your favorites, or if one we've listed goes downhill or disappears, please let me know! Consistency is the big problem with all non-chain restaurants, especially, it seems, in San Miguel."

Travel

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Discount Airfare and Travel Deals
SideStep.com searches over 200 travel websites to bring you the very best travel values on the web. Also consider using Kayak.com and Vayama.com. As the dates come closer we're going to do our best to secure group rates if travel plans coincide for enough of our guests.

Airports
Léon/Guanajuato airport (BJX) is the most convenient airport to the hacienda, about 70 miles from San Miguel de Allende. There are daily flights to Léon (BJX) from the US on American Airlines, Continental Airlines and Aero Mexico from Dallas and Houston with connecting flights from elsewhere in the US. Mexicana Airlines offers direct flights from Chicago.

Querétaro airport (QRO) is closer (40 miles) to San Miguel de Allende but 30 minutes further from the Hacienda than BJX. Flights are usually more expensive and less frequent (one per day) than flights to BJX.

Although it is cheaper, flying into Mexico City may ultimately be more of a hassle because it is four hours away by car from the wedding site. However if you are an experienced traveler or feel adventurous and want to explore more of Mexico, you can rent a car (it's extremely affordable in Mexico, so much so that we don't see any reason not to rent while we're there, and the roads are fine), take a bus (see below for more information on buses, most are first class and you can get one that is direct) or hire a taxi to take you to San Miguel de Allende. If traveling by taxi, be sure to either hire a professional beforehand or go to the taxi kiosk to get a legitimate driver.

Guadalajara is another city you can fly into, which is 4 hours away from San Miguel de Allende.

Ground Transportation
Some hotels have their own professional drivers to pick you up. If you would like, you can also take a bus or taxi to San Miguel or Dolores Hilgado only 90 minutes away. Car rentals are cheap and easy, and can be arranged online with most major companies for pickup at BJX airport. Remember, stick shifts are more economical. Just like in NYC, parking in San Miguel de Allende is hard to find. You may want to book a parking spot beforehand, but some hotels offer free parking.

Taxis and private hire cars are affordable in Mexico. If traveling by taxi from the airport, you should hire a driver beforehand so you don't get gouged on prices at the airport or go to the official taxi kiosks. Tipping customs, in most cases, are the similar as those in the U.S.

Buses to San Miguel
To/From Mexico City: It's a 4-hour trip to San Miguel from Mexico City's Terminal Norte, on a first-class bus (with one stop in Queretaro). Primera Plus, Satelite, ETN, and Omnibus de Mexico all have one to six deluxe buses per day and run from $18-25 per trip. Flecha Amarilla and Herradura de Plata have buses that leave almost every half hour (most are first-class). Make sure that your bus is a "directo". If you can't get a quick departure, catch a bus to Queretaro and change buses there.

To/From Guanajuato: Flecha Amarilla has nine buses a day to San Miguel.

To/From Queretaro: If you arrive in Queretaro by first-class bus, go out the front door and cross to the opposite terminal. Buses for San Miguel leave about every 20 minutes during the day, and every 1-2 hours in the evenings. You can choose between Satelite, Flecha Amarilla, and Herradura de Plata. The trip takes about one hour.

To/From Laredo/Nuevo Laredo: Transportes de la Frontera/Estrella Blanca has a first-class bus that leaves Nuevo Laredo at 6:30 PM, arriving in San Miguel de Allende between 7 and 8 AM the next morning. The return bus leaves San Miguel at 7 PM and arrives in Nuevo Laredo around 7 AM. You can buy a ticket through Greyhound. There are also several smaller charter bus lines with offices in Laredo which specialize in carrying passengers to and from central Mexico to Laredo and points north. The prices are generally lower, but they can be crowded, and the bus's comfort and quality varies considerably from company to company.

San Miguel de Allende's Central de Autobuses, (the bus station) is 1 1/2 miles west of town on the westward extension of calle Canal, called calzada de la estacion. Taxis from the bus station to the center of San Miguel are 20 pesos during the day and usually 25 pesos at night into town and available at all hours.

Driving in Mexico
Driving in Mexico can be a challenge, even for experienced drivers. Even the most modern highways weave through the mountains of Northern and Central Mexico. As a Texan friend once put it, "seems like the only roads in Mexico not going up are the ones going down..."

There are many modern toll roads (marked as "cuota") running throughout Mexico, however toll fees can add up quickly. It costs about US $70 in toll fees to drive from Nuevo Laredo to San Miguel de Allende.

Before deciding to save money by taking the free highways (marked "libre"), do be aware that these roads are generally poorly maintained, and usually only 2 lanes, which means that you may find yourself trapped behind a slow moving truck for miles on winding roads with no possibility of passing safely, or forced onto the shoulder by oncoming drivers who have lost their patience and decided to use your lane to pass.

Speeding on the highways in Mexico is customary, possibly because of lax traffic enforcement. Drivers in Mexico tend to be remarkably aggressive compared to drivers in the US and Canada, so drive defensively. It is commonly expected that slower traffic will move to the right lane immediately. A small percentage of drivers will tailgate and/or use their left turn signal to demonstrate their impatience if the car in front of them does not change lanes quickly enough. This can be unnerving for inexperienced drivers, especially at speeds in excess of 80 miles per hour.

Gasoline is generally more expensive in Mexico than in most parts of the United States, approximately $2.60 per gallon for unleaded ("Magna"), and $2.85 for super unleaded ("Premium"). All gas stations are "Pemex", as the petroleum industry is a government controlled monopoly. The strict majority of gas stations are cash only, and the farther from the border you go, the fewer will accept dollars. Be warned that in remote areas you may not find an ATM machine within 50 miles, so bring plenty of cash in pesos.

Driving in the cities, the "uno por uno" (one by one) rule at intersections often deteriorates into whoever is bravest goes first, and usually that one is followed by another three. If you receive a parking citation, don't be surprised to find the car's front license plate removed, as well as a parking ticket under your windshield wiper. This is common practice in Mexico in order to ensure payment of parking citations. You'll have to go to the local transito (traffic police) office in order pay the fine and recover your plate.

In order to enter Mexico with your own vehicle, you need to get a temporary import permit at the office of Aduana Mexico (the Mexican Customs Agency) at the Mexican side of border. You will need a valid driver's license and you must have ownership documentation, such as the original title or vehicle registration (it is also a very good idea to make extra copies of these documents and keep them in a safe place).

You also must pay a permit fee of Mexican peso equivalent of US $27. In order to guarantee your car, this fee must be paid with a major credit card (American Express, Visa or Master Card).

Unfortunately, checking account debit cards with the Visa or Master Card logo are not acceptable. If you don't have a major credit card, you must pay a sizeable cash bond, based on the model year of your vehicle. This bond is usually from $200 to $400, which is refunded upon leaving Mexico.

Depending on the time of year, day of the week and time of day, it may take anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours to process the paperwork to enter the country with your vehicle. Starting in 2004, the process of importing your car can be done online at the banjercito.com.mx website or at some consulates located in the larger cities of states bordering Mexico. It costs more to process a vehicle for importation online or at a consulate, the current fee is US $39.60.

Auto insurance is not required in Mexico, however, most US car insurance policies do not cover driving into Mexico, and the few that do limit coverage to within 50 miles inside the border. At either side of the border you will find insurance brokers selling Mexican car insurance. The coverage usually includes fees for a defense lawyer in the case of an accident. By law, the at fault driver is generally incarcerated until restitution is determined by a judge and paid to the victim(s), or a surety bond is posted for the estimated amount of restitution. Foreigners are usually considered flight risks, therefore an uninsured foreign motorist involved in a major accident might find it impossible to post bond, and for this reason alone, Mexican car insurance is very highly recommended, especially if your Spanish isn't very good.

It is important to note that it is illegal to abandon a vehicle in Mexico, and it is also illegal to sell a vehicle with an temporary import visa to a Mexican. Also, it is against the law to allow a Mexican to drive your vehicle. The penalty for this violation can be the permanent confiscation of the vehicle (with no appeal).

Finally, don't be surprised if you find periodic roadblocks, especially at state lines throughout Mexico. These might be manned by Federal or State Police, the Mexican anti-drug authority or even Mexican soldiers. These roadblocks are efforts to stop the flow of drugs, weapons and the trade of illegal wildlife. The best advice is to be as cooperative and honest as possible.

This might be an appropriate moment to note that Mexico's laws, like those of France and Spain, are based on the Napoleonic code- that is, in contrast with the United States, persons accused of crimes are presumed guilty until proven innocent.

Passport/Visa Requirements
You will need a valid U.S. passport book to Mexico when travelling by air. Check out "Do I need a U.S Passport for my next travel?" for more information. If you are not a U.S. citizen, please check with your consulate on entry requirements.

On the Wedding Day

Never fear- we will be hiring buses to take people to and from their hotels on the day of the wedding. We want everyone to be able to celebrate with us without worrying about traveling or driving themselves, so we'll have buses available for round trip travel to whichever towns our guests wind up staying in.

Mexico

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Safety/Security
The San Miguel de Allende area is a safe area of Mexico; however, we recommend exercising a good dash of common sense. See more information on the U.S. Department of State or on TripAdvisor.

Weather Expectations
November is one of the more mild months of the year and signifies the end of the rainy season. The area is considered semi-desert with a high altitude of 6,400 feet, so it can get cool at night.

The temperature ranges from 74F - 48F. For more information, go to www.sanmiguelguide.com/weather.htm.

Money in Mexico
Mexico's currency is the Mexican Peso. There are one hundred Mexican cens (centavos) to every Peso. Currently, the exchange rate is 13 Mexican pesos to 1 US dollar. Check for the most current rate.

Cash is the most acceptable form of money, in fact, many businesses are still cash-only in this part of Mexico. Credit card machines are not as ubiquitous as they are in the U.S. We strongly recommend alerting your credit card company that you will be in Mexico if/when you do plan to use a major credit card during this time. Ensure that you know your ATM/credit card pin numbers by heart before traveling to Mexico.

You will find ATM machines in the airport. Banks with ATM machines are also found throughout the downtown area of San Miguel and Dolores Hidalgo. During business hours, they and the local Casas de Cambio will buy traveler's cheques and cash from you as well. Most machines have a maximum limit of 3000 pesos per withdrawal, but you can make several withdrawals in succession up to your card's limit.

Want no-fee withdrawals? Some US Banks are affiliated with Mexican banks (i.e. Mexico's Banamex is owned by Citigroup, HSBC, Bank of America to name a few). Bank of America has a membership in the Global ATM Alliance where card holders can make no-fee withdrawals at more than 11,000 ATMs outside the U.S. Check with your bank to see if they have a partnership with Mexican banks.

If you have a Capital One credit card, you'll pay no extra fees on foreign transactions which can be as high as 3%. That does not apply to debit cards or cash advances.

Of course, traveler's checks are a safe way to carry money in Mexico. Most banks should not charge additional fees for cashing in a traveler's check, you get the face value of the check multiplied by the day's rate of exchange. If there is a fee, go somewhere else.

For more about money essentials, go to: www.mexperience.com/guide/essentials/money.htm#TC

Using your Cell Phone
Should you want to have cell phone access during your time in Mexico, you can easily get such a service added to your phone plan by your carrier for a nominal fee.

Wireless/Internet Access
The new, one and only Starbucks in SMA has WiFi access as does the town's central library (biblioteca). Internet cafes are commonplace in Mexico. Some hotels have their own wireless. The Hacienda Las Trancas also has WiFi access, however the service cannot handle downloading large files, so please refrain from doing so.

Electric Outlets
Appliances, radios, and other devices requiring electrical power in Mexico typically use the same voltage as those in the U.S., however, you may need a socket adaptor should you bring any devices with a 3-pronged plug. Most plugs in Mexico contain two flat prongs.

Tipping
Tipping guidelines for Mexico are nearly the same as tipping guidelines used in the United States or Canada , with some exceptions. Most service employees earn very little or no base salary and the tips they earn comprise the vast majority of their overall income. Read more on www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g150768-s606/Mexico:Tipping.And.Etiquette.html.

Social Etiquette
www.mexperience.com/liveandwork/mexicosocialetiquette.php

Health and Safety
Many hotels and restaurants have their own purified water system (including the Hacienda Las Trancas). Ask first to make sure. When in doubt, use bottled water to be on the safe side.
Immunization is not required for travel in Mexico, unless you plan to go to some remote jungle area which we don't recommend.

Read more about the health, medicine and safety in Mexico.

Places To Stay

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Village of Trancas

Hacienda Las Trancas
www.haciendalastrancas.com
We have booked the entire Hacienda Las Trancas for the week leading up to our wedding. You are more than welcome to stay the entire week with us (or just a couple of days), however space is limited and we are of course obligated to give preference to our families (there are 11 huge suites, but the hacienda is capable of sleeping 36 people in total. Contact us sooner rather than later to go over the details if you're interested). The hacienda is all-inclusive, has a heated pool, horseback riding, mountain bikes, private cybex gym, high-speed internet, satellite television, hot/cold water filtration system and a full-time staff of 16. There is a flat fee per guest and those details and more can be found here. Half of the rental fees are donated back to supporting the village of Las Trancas.

If, after reviewing the lodging choices below, you are unsure/confused about where to stay or would like to know where other guests are staying, please contact us directly.

City of San Miguel de Allende

Nestled high in the cool hills of the Mexican altiplano, the neighboring town of San Miguel de Allende(SMA) is one the hippest, busiest, most charming towns in Mexico. This seductive little city with clear nights and warm days is overflowing with art, music, and culture. We recommend lodging in San Miguel de Allende which is 40 minutes away from the Hacienda (easily accessible by taxi) as it is host to a wide array of activities as well as a large variety of choices in lodging. San Miguel de Allende has no shortage of charming B&Bs for any budget. Read about San Miguel de Allende in a recent article in The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/greathomesanddestinations/21expat.html

Here is a list of our hotel recommendations depending on your budget. Please keep in mind that any hotels run by Americans will probably have more comfortable beds.

budget-friendly (less than $100/night)

Hacienda De Las Flores

www.haciendadelasflores.com/english/inicio.htm

moderate (less than $200/night)

CasaLuna
www.casaluna.com

Casa Quetzal
www.casaquetzalhotel.com

Casa Schuck (moderate to expensive based on suites)
www.casaschuck.com

Casa de Sierra Nevada (moderate to expensive based on suites)
www.casadesierranevada.com

Dona Arraca Suites and Spa (modern)
www.donaurraca.com.mx/principalsma.asp

Posada Corazon
www.posadacorazon.com.mx/laposada_eng.htm

expensive ($350-425/night)

Oasis (private, 5 room hotel)

www.oasissanmiguel.com

rental

Interested in your own casita? Vacation Rentals by Owner (www.vrbo.com) is fabulous for finding homes to rent. You will be surprised at the beauty and relatively inexpensive accommodations offered particularly if you lodge with extended family or friends. Simply click on Central Mexico and then choose between San Miguel de Allende or Dolores Hilgado.

reviews

TripAdvisor.com is a useful website to get the latest reviews on accommodations:

cheap eats

http://will-emily.blogspot.com/2009/08/budget-places-to-eat-in-san-miguel.html

Town of Dolores Hidalgo

Hacienda Las Trancas is located just outside the village of Dolores Hidalgo. Dolores Hidalgo is quainter and sleepier than San Miguel de Allende (20 minutes away). It is well known for its pottery and considered just as beautiful and charming. There are not that many hotels however it is considerably less expensive along with everything else in the town. Consider this option if you're looking for something more authentically Mexican with friendly locals.We are not making specific recommendations however here is a sample of what you can find:

El Relicario De La Patria Hotel

tel (001 52 418) 182-6300

A very nice hotel in Dolores, possibly nicest. Actually has Jacuzzi suites. See photos.

Hotel Posada Cocomacan

www.posadacocomacan.com.mx
tel (011-52-418) 182-6086 / 182-6087
Plaza Principal No. 4 - Zona Centro
Located in the Central Historical District - the nicest hotel in Dolores downtown. Rooms are clean and neat plus a restaurant on premise. English speaking receptionist available before 12pm. Average price is $47/night.

Dia De Los Muertos - The Day of the Dead

2009-08-11T10:10:00.019-04:00

To some it may seem strange that we picked our wedding date around a festival commemorating the dead, and I can understand this initial response. A wedding is all about new beginnings and starting a life with someone, so why would we want to begin the week before our wedding with a celebration honoring the dead?

The most simple answer is that I've always wanted to see it. The more complex one will need a bit of background information.

The Mexican Day of the Dead festival has a connection to both All Saint's Day (Nov. 1st) and All Soul's Day (Nov. 2nd), festivals that we may be more familiar with as Americans, but its roots can be traced back to the indigenous Olmec, Zapotec, Mixtec, Mexican or Aztec, Maya P'urhepecha and Totonac. The rituals created by these peoples, celebrating the deaths and lives of ancestors, have now been observed for 3,000 years and used to span an entire month. Today's modern incarnation of the festival is a two day event in which Mexican families gather to remember their loved ones who have passed.

On these days the souls of the dead are believed to be much closer to the land of the living, and to honor this proximity families and friends visit the graves of their departed loved ones. With them they sometimes bring the favorite foods and drinks of those lost or photos and memorabilia; all to encourage a visit from their souls. The visits can often be a source of great joy and humor, in which funny stories are recounted and anecdotes about the dead are told.

The most common symbol of the festival is the skull or skeleton, locally referred to as a calavera. You can see two at the top of this very page. Calaveras are exchanged or given as gifts, and can be figurines, masks (calacas) or sugary/chocolate confections.

During this time the graves are usually cleaned and altars are built to be adorned with hundreds of marigolds. Public schools build altars, government squares are decorated, poets compose works specifically for the festival, parades fill city streets. It is a nationwide event with traditions that vary from town to town across Mexico, but in everything I have read the heart of the festivities seems to remain constant. It is a time of joy and reverence, a time to remember and celebrate the lives of those passed.

Learning about this as an American is particularly remarkable. We are immersed in a culture that teaches us to evade and outsmart death by any means possible. Wrinkle smoothing lotions, hair dyes, cosmetic surgeries... we've made an industry out of it, but even beyond the commercialism (which is another point entirely) I think this is emblematic of our attitude toward death and getting old. It isn't something we embrace as a culture; we evade it.

Our response is not to run into the streets dancing, surrounded by costumed skeletons and brightly colored altars honoring our dead. We honor our dead with much more subdued and melancholy ceremonies, and often it seems that we are more focused on the death itself than the life that was lived. Of course this isn't universally true, but I am speaking only of cultural generalities- thinking mostly of our movies and books. We grieve differently and perhaps in a way that works best for our society, but oh how I admire the Mexican (and Brazilian, Guatemalan, Ecuadorian and on and on) traditions and sentiments. Death is a part of life, and ultimately isn't life worth celebrating even in death?

Let there be music!

2009-07-20T10:45:00.003-04:00

It probably comes as no surprise to anyone that I'd given very little thought to what I wanted at my wedding. Only two things had ever come up in my mind as important: good food and good music. As many may know we're heading down this fall to check out the food, but I'm already confident about the quality there. The food is all cooked on-site and many of the ingredients are grown in the hacienda's own garden, so deliciousness is imminent!

The music however was far less assured. While San Miguel de Allende is a lovely town by all accounts, its more rural feel made me worry about the number of musicians available for booking. Our eternally helpful wedding planner/hacienda owner was well prepared though and gave us some clips where we could sample the auditory banquet that the various performers provided.

There was everything from classical mexican guitarists/mariachis to a harpist and after much debate and discussion we decided. While we've been very open about how we're doing things so far (and will continue to be about many things), we're taking a cue from modern television by only giving some sparse hints about what you'll be hearing.

We're going to have three different musical acts; the first will be the accompaniment to the actual wedding ceremony itself and will be appropriately mellow and romantic, though I don't expect to remember hearing a single note of it. Following that will be the dulcet tones of our second act which will float through the warm Mexican air in a graceful pairing with the drinks at cocktail hour and the festive cuisine of our dinner.

Finally we get to what is undoubtedly the most lively and joyous part of any wedding; letting your hair down and channeling the sheer exhileration of watching two loved ones join their lives together into the most primordial form of celebration there is: dancing. If you've ever seen Emily and I at a wedding you'll know that we're out there til the music stops, so picking a fun group was extremely important to us. We've gone with an up and coming band with a more modern style of music, though they are still Mexican.

So there you have it, a sneak preview into the soundtrack for our wedding experience!

¿Pero, por que Mexico?

2009-07-08T09:19:00.018-04:00

When Will and I first started looking at the Hacienda las Trancas as a possible wedding destination we considered many things. Was the state of Guanajuato a desirable vacation spot? Did the surrounding area have enough attractions for our guests? Would it hold and enchant everyone the way Mexico had already enchanted us? Well, we spoke about it a lot. We scoured the hacienda's web pages, did our research online and read just about everything on tourism in the heartland that we could find.

Then, just to be fair, we researched other ideas. A New England wedding? A New York City garden? A Californian estate? An armory in upstate New York? Every place we looked had its own appeal, but after looking at each site I was left craving the splashes of color, rustic features, local flavor and the intrinsic foreign allure of a destination wedding in this colonial part of Mexico. I realized I was quite in love with the idea, and upon discussing it with Will we understood that the sentiment was indeed mutual.

Once that was decided, we dove right in and couldn't even think of looking back. Best of all, a destination wedding means that we get to vacation with our family and closest friends. A full week of relaxation, laughter and great food. I really can't imagine a better way to celebrate, and what a fantastic way for our extended families to meet. Did I mention that the Hacienda Las Trancas has 10 horses on site? My mother grew up riding and I rode a little in high school on our equestrian team- I know both of us are beyond excited to get to ride a little bit every day!

For those who will be staying in a nearby town or city (San Miguel de Allende being the closest city and Dolores Hidalgo the closest town) there are so many wonderful sites to see, restaurants to visit and outlying areas to day trip to. I plan on posting a little bit about each outlying area for your touristic pleasure. I also want to do a little segment on Dia de Los Muertos. The festival falls on the Monday and Tuesday before our wedding, and we will certainly be making plans to attend and celebrate in Mexican style!

The Hacienda Las Trancas has numerous photos online for you to explore. I hope you will, and in doing so fall a little bit in love with it as well.

The Top Reasons to Go

2009-06-29T14:47:00.017-04:00

Courtesy of Fodors (a website I have been positively stalking since we started planning) here are the top reasons to visit San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato, and what is lovingly called the Colonial Heartland of Mexico. Direct from the source:

"Also referred to as the Bajío, this area (parts of the Guanajuato, Querétaro, and Michoacán states) really is the heartland of Mexico—geographically and historically. This is where men fought and died to create the United States of Mexico and where a 60-foot-high statue of Christ the King (Cristo Rey) keeps watch from atop the highest mountain in Guanajuato. The main attraction of the region is a collection of colonial cities, many former silver- and gold-mining centers. Beyond city life, the mountains beckon intrepid bike riders and natural hot springs invite all to relax.

Experiencing modern life amid colonial grandeur: The Heartland's cities preserve the best of colonial Mexico, but they're not stuck in the past. Each city has its own personality, restaurant scene, nightlife, and classic zócalo, usually anchored by a grand colonial church.

Enjoying the outdoors: The region's farmland, lofty volcanoes, lakes, and river valleys afford many opportunities for day hikes, riding, and mountain biking.

A calendar full of festivals: From jazz in San Miguel de Allende to Pátzcuaro's elaborate Day of the Dead celebration, they're always partying somewhere.

Staying in a hacienda: Colonial mansions with gracious courtyards are ubiquitous in the Heartland's cities, and many have been restored into gorgeous hotels, where you can fall asleep to the strumming of guitars in a nearby plaza.

The chance to see millions of butterflies: Monarchs migrate to the Santuario de Mariposas el Rosario, 115 km (71 mi) east of Morelia, between November and March. The pine forest, layered with orange-and-black butterflies, looks as if it's on fire."

I know we'll be able to enjoy at least the first four items they highlight. After all, we chose our wedding date so we'd be able to experience an authentic Dia de los Muertos festival, and we just happen to fall in the range of the fifth- the Monarch butterfly migration (which just has to be gorgeous!). This would make it possible for a pilgrimage to the Sanctuario del Mariposa Monarca el Rosario, although the Sanctuary is quite far afield from the area of our festivities. It's about a four hour and 30 minute drive, but Morelia's airport is supposed to be a convenient distance away. For anyone hoping to extend their trip an activity like this would also take them closer to Morelia and the beautiful lake town of Pátzcuaro. Pátzcuaro does indeed have the most "elaborate" Mexican Dia de los Muertos festival, but it is also the least authentic and most tourist-laden. We will happily be staying closer to the hacienda for our festivities!

For Your Listening (and Dancing) Pleasure

2009-06-29T13:44:00.004-04:00

We've just begun another extremely important part of the wedding planning process: selecting the fine ladies and gentlemen who will be providing the dulcet tones which will serve as the backdrop to our actual ceremony and later the joyous and invigorating music we'll be dancing to. If you've ever seen myself and my lovely fiancee at a wedding you know we like to cut a rug.

Dancing... sort of.

The hacienda owners have supplied us with some samples of musicians in their area they've had dealings with, so we've begun listening to figure out what we're looking for. Dicussions so far have come up with the consensus that we'd love something a little more simple and mellow for the ceremony, with classical guitarists and a harpist being some of the things we've hoped for.

For the reception we're looking for something that everyone can dance to. After all, even if I knew how to tango I'm not sure I'd want to be doing it the whole night. We both agree that a DJ is far from ideal, but so far we've got a few prospects in mind. Regrettably we only have a song or two from each artist available to us online but when we head down to Mexico in November we plan on tracking some of these people (and any other possible musicians) down and checking out their tunes!

The Wedding Lull

2009-06-12T10:52:00.010-04:00

I think we've reached a point in planning, now that we're about 17 months out, where we've done all we can for the moment. At least from an event perspective; my hunt for accessories never really seems to end. I relish it!

In the meantime we've been busy with other fun activities. We've booked a trip to Portland, Maine for August. We'll fly in to Portland, pick up our rental car and breeze up for an hour on beautiful Maine roads to spend half the week with Will's family in a lakeside cabin. Then we'll drive back down to Portland for a few more days of eating and touring. This will be the first week-long vacation we've been able to take together, as St Michael's used to take up a solid week of our time and we could never seem to swing another one. We're both ecstatic about the prospect of spending a week on nothing but leisure. How glorious it sounds!

We've also planned to visit San Miguel and Guanajuato to do some wedding research this November. The picture above portrays one of the sleepier streets of San Miguel. I can't wait to stroll down those streets, eat Hidalgo's famous ice cream (in flavors like avocado and tequila!), explore the cultural haven of Guanajuato and, most of all, traipse through the hacienda where we'll be married. So much to look forward to!

Wedding planning and life planning!

2009-04-24T12:29:00.007-04:00

Once again life proves that Emily and I are a wonderful balance for each other. Having only existed on the periphery of most weddings (a.k.a. drinking, eating and dancing) I was completely unaware of the incredible amount of detail it was possible to obsess over. Granted much of this burden is due to our choices and desire for an experience that truly reflects our life so far and the life we envision for ourselves going forward.

My darling fiancee has provided the motivation and endless amounts of research for all of this. I have simply given my input when necessary and done all I can to keep her from going crazy and tearing out her hair (veils don't affix well to bare scalp or so I've heard). This weekend we're working on her sanity by having a picnic with Charles in Astoria tonight and tomorrow she's off to the city to shop for jewelry to go with her wedding dress which has been her most recent fixation. I myself will be sitting somewhere plucking feebly at my guitar (I hesitate to call it 'playing' so far) and meeting her later.

So we forge on ahead with the planning while still keeping our lives going and our love intact!

(Photo: At the Cloisters in NYC)

Invitations

2009-04-16T13:18:00.011-04:00

We've purchased our invitations- now the wait to send them out commences. I had so much fun playing with colors and envelope options. I'm not sure if Will enjoyed it quite as much, but he has been cheerful and willing to pore over samples of just about everything with me. I feel very lucky to have someone who I can deliberate over these things with. He's also very good at telling me to put everything away when I get too caught up in all the different shades and which best conveys our theme and oh my gosh what other color will compliment it best... !?

We decided on a color scheme/theme for the day. Originally I was completely against the idea of a color palate. I was swayed only by the idea of rejecting it so fully that we would wind up with an assortment of clashing colors. Better to stick with a palate, we reasoned- although it's still a palate of about 5 colors! I toyed with the idea of posting it, but some things are better left a surprise!

Another couple weds in the San Miguel area.
Photographed by Holly Wilmeth.

I think we both agonize just about every other day over how far away November 6, 2010 is. I was overjoyed to point out that we are almost one third of our way through 2009. I know the year will fly by and I don't want to miss a minute of it, but we are both just so excited!

MyRegistry

2009-03-27T09:34:00.008-04:00

What a wonderful tool the internet is for wedding planning. Will and I had an idea from the beginning: wouldn't it be great if we could register for our honeymoon?

We already live together and thus possess a lot of the things that couples register for. I'm a baking fiend, so we already have every glorious, shiny red KitchenAid product known to man. We've got service for eight (thanks, mom!), we even have fabulous formal china grâce à the ever lovely Grammy Hazel.

Of course, we will register for a few things we're lacking; I know some of our guests may prefer to give us a more tangible gift. Setting up an account at MyRegistry.com and enabling guests to send us to the Greek Mediterranean coast sounds like a good start to us though!

Finding a Photographer

2009-03-16T08:40:00.009-04:00

What fun all of this is going to be! Kelley, a very helpful half of the married duo that owns the hacienda, has been recruited to help us plan and put us in contact with local vendors. She showed me about 10 local photographers that Will and I then sifted through, trying to determine what best suited our tastes. There are so many little pieces that fit into the puzzle of planning a wedding that I never even considered. I had no idea that most photographers asked for a list of requested photos: moments to be recorded and people that must be included. Thank goodness for wedding magazines, which I am now discovering are not just for the frivolous bride.

We wound up deciding that we liked the work of Holly Wilmeth best. She has a wide assortment of galleries up. The previous link goes to her projects. This will take you to her wedding portfolio. And this is a link to her blog, where you can see a couple of slide shows from weddings she has shot at the Hacienda Las Trancas.

One thing about having a two year engagement- you certainly get your pick of vendors. It's so nice for us to be able to sort through knowing that our number one choice will almost definitely be available.

Testing!

2009-03-03T16:54:00.007-05:00

Here's our first post to test out the new site!

Wedding information forthcoming...