For some of you, this story will confirm my nerdiness.  I’m ok with that.  My trip to San Miguel de Allende is almost over – we’re flying home on Saturday.  I have hundreds of door photos to sort through, and I will post some in the coming weeks.  But there was one pair of doors that I had not been able to photograph properly – the doors of La Parroquia, the beautiful church on the south side of el Jardin, which is the garden at the heart of San Miguel.  I have visited the church MANY times during my stay, at all times of the day and night, hoping to find the doors closed.  I’ve asked several people what time the doors open in the morning, but so far, no luck.  I couldn’t go home without photographing the doors of the unofficial symbol of SMA, right?

Feeling the pressure of my impending departure, I went to el Jardin early yesterday morning.  The doors were already open.  I asked a man sweeping the front courtyard what time the doors were closed.  I’m pretty sure he thought I was a little crazy, and I couldn’t understand his answer so I decided that I’d go even earlier this morning.  I arrived before 7 a.m. – the doors were open.

My Spanish is not very good, but there was a different guy sweeping and I decided to make another attempt to find out when the doors would be closed.  I was actually pretty proud of myself for communicating effectively – “Me gustaría tomar una foto con las puertas cerradas. ¿A qué hora se abren las puertas?”  He thought for a moment and said, “A la seis.”  Oy.  6 a.m.  I would get up early and hike up to el Jardin before 6 a.m. for y’all, but around here it’s dark at 6 a.m.  Not ideal conditions for photography.  I thanked him and said “Hasta mañana,” as if I was actually going to try again the next day, and was walking away when I heard him ask if I wanted him to close the doors for me.  QUE?!  SI!!

There’s no way I would have dared to close them on my own, but he closed them for a minute or so – just long enough for me to take some quick photos.  When he opened them again I gave him “un regalo” (a gift) – all I had in my pocket was a 50 peso bill, worth a little less than $4.  His eyes lit up and he actually let out a gasp – I think we were both equally excited.  🙂

La Parroquia day and night:

Doors open and closed:

Some of the beautiful detailed carvings – can you see the keys?

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