Central Mexico

San Miguel De Allende

It's a wonderful version of Mexico for hundreds of artists and writers, international students drawn to the city's language and art schools, and retirees from the US and Canada. San Miguel has the largest expat community in Mexico, and property prices are on par with San Francisco. 

One of the reasons for this influx of Americans is Tony Kohan's book About Mexican Time (published in 2000), which tells the story of a writer and his artist wife who left smog-ridden Los Angeles for a quieter life in San Miguel. where they restore an old house, learn about the local way of life and are gradually seduced by the unique charm of the colonial city.

The city is a very pleasant place to spend a few days, provided you have enough money. Here you will be surrounded by art galleries, boutique hotels, private museums, jewelry stores and gourmet restaurants. And all this is surrounded by ancient colonial buildings.

In the suburbs of San Miguel, you can have a pleasant time in one of the local hot springs. There are many hotels and resorts with geothermal pools in the area, but the best and most easily accessible are located about ten minutes northwest of the city on the road to Dolores Hidalgo. The Temple of Santuario de Jesus Nazareno de Atotonilco with its unusual paintings and the mysterious ruins of Cañada de la Virgen are a must-see. If you're by car, you can take a drive to the intriguing semi-desert settlement of Mineral de Pozos and the historic towns of Dolores Hidalgo and San José Iturbide.

Jimmy Ray Chapel

2 Americans - Anado and Richard McLuachlin left the United States after George W. Bush became president, bought an old house in the suburbs of San Miguel and over the course of 20 years created an art center there. Anado, in March 2021, flew to heaven, but Richard is happy to welcome guests and show the museum.

The complex consists of the “Frog House” - a private house of artists and a museum where all this splendor is exhibited. This is one of the favorite party spots for bohemians from San Miguel, Guanajuato, Mexico City and other places. Apparently, bottles and mirrors broken during parties provide a good source of creative material for artists.

Real De Catorce

A very unusual place. Silver mines were established in the surrounding hills in 1772, and at its peak in 1898, the town had a population of forty thousand. But by the early twentieth century, mining had declined and ceased entirely in 1905, leaving the town deserted and abandoned for the next fifty years. The city has turned into a ghost. Real was rediscovered in the 1970s by Italian hippies looking for peyote, and from the mid-1990s, artists, traveling musicians, and then wealthy Americans flocked to the city.

Xilitla and the surreal world of Edward James

Our hero was born in 1907 into the family of a British aristocrat and an American millionaire. He grew up educated at Eton and Oxford, had plenty of money, and began life as a poet and artist. Having failed to achieve success in these arts, he turned his attention to ballet, partly in an attempt to prolong his disintegrating marriage to the Hungarian dancer Tilly Losz. 

Despite this, she eventually left him, after which he moved to Europe. Here he became friends with Salvador Dali and bought all his paintings for 1938. Picasso described James as "crazier than all the surrealists put together. They're pretending, but he's real." 

During World War II, James moved to the United States, where he partially financed the Watts Towers in Los Angeles and made his first visit to Mexico. Having fallen in love with Shilitla, he moved here in the late 1940s and experimented with growing orchids (all of which died in a snowstorm in 1962) and running a small zoo. After this, he began to build his fantasy world in the jungle in the suburbs of Shilitla. With the help of longtime associate Plutarco Gastelum Esquer and 150 workers, James created Las Pozas Park. He constantly altered and developed something in it, but never brought anything to completion. By the time of his death in 1984, he had created 36 sculptures spread over 20 acres of jungle. 

The park is full of strange concrete statues and structures. Near the nine pools (“poses”) of a cascading jungle river stands a spiral staircase that winds upward until it disappears into nothingness, stone arms almost 2 meters high, thick useless columns, a mosaic snake and buildings such as “A house with three floors, of which there may be five" and "The House Meant to Be a Cinema". Only one structure is in any sense habitable, a secluded four-story apartment where James spent most of his time. In 2007, the Fondo Xilitla consortium bought the site for US$2.2 million with the aim of turning it into a museum.

Today this unusual park is open to the public.