These transvestite dancers have nothing to do with Saint Anthony and started appearing only a few years ago, but it was such fun that now they take over the whole town and you don't even try to drive your car that day. It's possible, of course, to insulate yourself from all this messy, pullulating life if you wish to. In the golden gringo ghettoes that perch on the hills above the old town you can hide at your leisure from all things Mexican except the cheap labor and the glorious view, trekking occasionally into Quer taro to pick up supplies direct from los Estados Unidos at Sam's or Wal-Mart or Office Depot. Or you can try to go native, live in the barrio on a few hundred bucks a month, subsist on beans and tortillas and kid yourself that you're as poor as your neighbor who's feeding eight kids on less than you spend in a week. There are more interesting women in San Miguel than I've ever seen in one place.
Women marry younger and live longer, and so are more often left alone in life.
It is also said that we bear widowhood better, find greater consolation in solitude, learn to live on our own and like it. And San Miguel gives us ample opportunity to explore. For the artistic, there are the Instituto Allende and Bellas Artes. For the linguistic, there are Spanish schools on every corner. For the altruistic, there are unlimited opportunities to heal and to help.