An Amazing, Breathtaking Sight!

Friday, while I did my weekly stint on the bench in the jardin, much to my absolute astonishment, there was a sight that I had never seen before in the area between the jardin and the Parroquia.  That is the large, open area where anything that is going to happen - parades, taxi blessings, horse blessings, dances, political speeches, happen.  This is the living room of San Miguel.  Now, there is even a webcam to check it out on a 24 hour basis.

I sat down on the bench just to figure out how what was in the jardin got there.  You see, San Miguel was founded in 1542.  The buildings that still stand in centro were built in the 1500's, 1600's and 1700's, mostly.
One can realize then why the streets are so narrow.  At that point it was single rider horses or later on,  carriages.  No thought of big SUVs or Hummers or whatever, that now traverse the streets. In fact, I'm told by a reliable source, who moved here in 1955, that there were only two cars in San Miguel when he moved here. It stayed that way for a long, long time.  Oh, for those days!

I sat on the bench and contemplated this new wrinkle in who and how and why what was in the jardin got there and how the heck it was going to get out.  NEVER had something so big sat and blocked the church. Nothing.

Finally, some men appeared.  Aha, now the mystery would be solved, maybe.  And, thus began the epic unload.

 Over a period of 1 1/2 hours they unloaded the 18 wheeler parked adjacent to the former home of
Allende.  It had backed down that street.  Now, I have to tell you I could not back my Pathfinder down that street, it is so narrow! 

 Each item, whatever it was, was being stacked along the wall in front of the jardin and benches.  No one, still had any idea of the point of it all.

 Then the OTHER 18 wheeler that was parked in front of the church had its back doors opened as well!  It was FULL of stuff.  Metal stuff.  It was still a mystery.

 It took a lot of guys to get a lot of stuff out of both of these 55 foot containers.  A lot.  Then, all of  a sudden the 18 wheeler in front of the church started its engine.  Oh my gosh, what now?  Everyone got out of the way and this driver BACKED up this eighteen wheeler into a side street in just a few maneuvers and parked it behind the other eighteen wheeler that had been almost completely unloaded!  

We figured they had to clear a place for all the rest of whatever it was, so they could set it up. 

One of our group went over to someone walking around and asked what was going on.  By this time, they had a banner about 50 ft x 30 ft. stretched out on the ground.  It was for the new mayor.  It was the backdrop for the stage.  Aha, the inauguration of the new Mayor.

His inauguration was set for some time on Saturday.  I finally had to leave to meet friends and did not see everything get set up.  As I passed by in my car about 3 pm on a side street on Friday, while it was pouring rain, everything, the whole area, was covered with tarps.  Still nothing was set up.

Yesterday, when I looked on the webcam, the trucks were gone!  The stage was set up where the moved 18 wheeler had parked and about 600 chairs were set  for the ceremony in early evening.  How or where the trucks went is a mystery.  They certainly could not have gone forward and made the turn onto the street at the end.  I'll never know.  You'll never know.

I know they had the ceremony because at some point in the evening, when the fireworks began, I looked at the webcam and the jardin was packed with people along with many people on the huge stage.

This morning when I looked at the webcam to see what was the status of all the stuff, not one thing is there.  It is ALL gone!  The area in front of the jardin is spotless.  Absolutely spotless.  Not one kleig light, not one speaker, no stage, no trucks.  IF I had not seen it all with my eyes, I would never have believed that it could all be gone by early this morning.

It's a testament to the hard work of the Mexican men.  A testament to the planners.  And, a testament to the ability of those two truck drivers..........wherever they may be!