A lovely Sunday Hike

There is a hiking group that meets early every Sunday morning in SMA and goes out into the campo, the country, to hike in scenic areas.  We made our first hike earlier this month and joined the "moderate" group rather than the "ambitious" group.  It's a good thing we chose the easier group because we hiked over 6 miles with some moderate gain in elevation.  It was a beautiful day and the scenery was rugged but lovely.  We started and ended near a little village called Juana Ruiz.  (Click on photos for larger versions)

 It seems that every little village, no matter how small, has a church.  We encountered this one just after starting out.  The next one we came to a little higher up in the hills is probably abandoned or seldom used.  

At one point we crossed a slow moving river.
During the rainy season, it might not be
passable.

We walked through some farmland and had to go through a number of fences.  We were very careful not to do any damage and to leave the fences just as we found them.

We also encountered some stone walls and I loved the bright colors of the lichen.

 

Some of the scenery-the lake is in the background but hard to see in the mist and haze.

Murals in Colonia Guadalupe

The Guadalupe neighborhood is famous for the murals painted by a variety of street artists.  Graffiti was a problem in the area, so an expat lady organized a program to have good artists paint murals instead.  They have become very popular with tourists and many residents, but now some residents and city officials oppose them and are painting them over.  The city is painting buildings, for free, in the Centro area in historical colors of red and ochre, which to my mind will make the streets monotonous.  I like the mixture of colors on the houses.  Guadalupe is not part of Centro, so many are hoping that at least some of the murals will be saved or that new ones will be painted when the owners of the houses give permission.  Here are some photos from our walking tour.  It is amazing how talented the artists are and even more amazing to see what can be done with cans of spray paint (some use other kinds of paint as well).

My favorite

This is painted on a huge textured door.

Revolution Day

I've been so busy with Spanish school and all sorts of other activities that I haven't had time to post anything.  Now I'm catching up.

November 20th is Revolution Day in Mexico, and there are parades all over the country.  Young people, both men and women, dress up as revolutionaries and march through the cities.  Here are some photos from the parade in San Miguel de Allende.

This soldier has plenty of bullets

Many women joined the military, but according to Wikipedia, the men
believed they should be home cooking and cleaning.

Groups of cheerleaders represented various corporate interests

Participants in youth activities marched - these kids attend a cooking workshop

Parade royalty watch from a balcony

These large puppets are very popular