Day Two - Sightseeing, Shopping & the First Concert

Monday morning we awoke rested and started with a nice breakfast buffet at our hotel of pancakes, eggs, cereal, yogurt and various fruit juices. A short stroll to the town square, and Fernando gave us a brief history of the town and also of the cathedral. We learned that the cathedral was built in the 1700's and the façade was redone in the 1900's based on a picture on a postcard of a cathedral in Europe. We walked through and the kids were allowed to sing and sounded amazing.

Next it was on with our trek through San Miguel. We were taken through the local food market, which was quite a new experience for most of the kids. Sue made the only purchase there of a different type of avocado than we have in the states. At lunch it was washed and consumed, the skin is edible, like a thick apple skin. The inside was silky and buttery. I am jealous of these, and need to find them in the states.

We split up into chaperone groups and wandered the local artisan-shopping district. The kids came back with all manner of tales of treasures, deals, and haggling. They bought hats, dolls, jewelry, toys, clothes, wrestling masks, and yes, even fake poo! Ill let you parents guess who made that purchase.

Lunch of lasagna with house made pasta was at a quaint restaurant that had few resident parrots.

After lunch the kids had an hour nap and then made the 10 min walk to the local theater for their rehearsal and concert.

The concert was to a full house. The kids rallied and pulled off a great performance.

The audience was very welcoming and quite an eclectic group. San Miguel is home to a large population of ex-pats from all over. To quote Suzie, the crowd was straight out of a Miami beach retirement community. We even had some from Walnut Creek and Oakland.

We had dinner across the street, fajitas and tacos, and flan for dessert. Half way through our lovely meal the sky opened up, the kids dinner chatter was drowned out by the huge down pour on the covered skylights, giving some of the chaperones flashbacks to Copenhagen last year. In our dining room there was also a small stage area, and a three-piece jazz band showed up, the drummer arrived dry, but the guitarist and the bass player were not so lucky. While sitting and hoping to wait out the storm, we enjoyed the jazz and Bob and Sue dancing to the kids delight. Walking home we caught a break in the storm and trudged through the flooding streets awash with the last hours inches of rain.