Casa Luna – An Oasis in San Miguel de Allende
The outer courtyard at Casa Luna
This is my new screensaver since returning home from my photo workshop in Mexico earlier this week. After three days in Guanajuato, we were taken in a van to San Miguel de Allende, lovingly described in its pre-American-expat discovery days by Tony Cohan in On Mexican Time. The streets of San Miguel are narrow and hard on your feet because they are paved in cobblestones. But as soon as we entered the doors of Casa Luna Quebrada, I forgot my aching feet and just stood with my mouth hanging open.
You don’t have to be a gardener or photographer to love this hotel (or technically, bed and breakfast inn), but it doesn’t hurt. From the street, all you can see is a beautiful door in a reddish wall (complete with a fantastic polished knocker and handle). Greenery drapes down from above.
Casa Luna, at 117 Quebrada in San Miguel
Door knocker and handle
The rest of the property is visually rich and equally beautiful. I couldn’t decide where to look – at the fantastic inner courtyard with its lush plantings and beautiful stone pots on upper ledges,
Large stone pots onthe ledge of the second floor at Casa Luna, around one of the interior courtyards
or at the fountain that draws your eye to the end of the walk from the front entry,
Fountain with hibiscus flowers
or the hallways, adorned with framed local costumes and lit by fantastic metalwork lanterns.
View from the inner hallway to the outer courtyard
Stained-glass window and beaded costume
The rooms are lovely (and reasonably priced), the breakfasts delicious (our workshop leader kept saying he wanted to take the cook home with him, and we all shared his admiration of her talents), and the afternoon margaritas and guacamole outstanding. San Miguel, in central Mexico, is a safe, lovely and picturesque town to which I would return in a heartbeat. So many more photographs to take! (And I haven’t begun to share the best with you). Whenever I can manage to return, I will. And I know where I’ll stay – Casa Luna.
For information on Casa Luna’s facilities and rates and its sister establishment, Rancho Casa Luna, visit their website.
Explore posts in the same categories: landscape, photography, TravelTags: color, D300, Mexico, photography, private gardens
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November 6, 2010 at 9:00 pm
aaaaaaaaargh!! so beautiful! I want to goooooooooooooo!
November 7, 2010 at 11:39 am
The red is so incredibly vibrant!!!!
November 8, 2010 at 10:21 am
San Miguel is a beautiful city. When we went in 2006, we stayed at a B&B with a beautiful interior courtyard and rooftop garden, Casa Granada. The jacarandas were in bloom. Lovely. Your pics bring back memories.
November 9, 2010 at 11:55 am
Thanks for all the comments. I encourage anyone who reads this post to consider a visit. The area couldn’t be safer, everyone is friendly, and Casa Luna is a great place from which to explore the rest of the city. Go in the winter, after Christmas, to avoid the holiday influx of the faithful celebrating the holidays, and tell Dianne I sent you!