Reflections on the ‘best small city in the world’: San Miguel de Allende
A “GT” Travel Experience by K Michael Haywood
A recent “Good Tourism” Insight about ‘jouissance’ prompted me to reappraise the concepts of sensation and perception and the pursuit of pleasure.
It triggered memories of San Miguel de Allende, a magical UNESCO World Heritage-listed colonial town in central Mexico.
The story begins with an artist and one of Canada’s former figure skating champions, the late Toller Cranston.
My wife and I had always wondered why he and so many artists had taken up residence in San Miguel.
The inside track
K Michael Haywood is Professor Emeritus of the School of Hospitality, Food & Tourism at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.
In 2012, to escape a frigid winter, we headed south to Mexico from our home in Canada and found ourselves ensconced in what could easily be characterised as a sacred place, a moral environment, a place that led our minds somewhere else.
All our senses were engaged and put at our disposal an outward flow of attention, an awakening to surprise.
Such extreme levels of awareness about our surroundings and their purpose fed a newfound awareness of ourselves, a wonderment, and a fresh connectivity to the people and things around us.
Despite our advanced reading of how special and welcoming San Miguel de Allende was likely to be, we could never have imagined such a cornucopia of visual delight as we strolled through colourfully walled and shaded cobblestone streets to find Toller Cranston’s studio and home … Continue reading this “GT” Travel Experience in full and for free at https://goodtourismtravelblog.com/2022/04/reflections-on-the-best-small-city-in-the-world-san-miguel-de-allende/
