ALMOST UNDER THE VOLCANO

It is 7.45 am and the town is still shrouded in the grey light of dawn.    My thermometer says it is 50º but it feels five degrees less than that, and as I stand on my terrace looking west I can see the first glimmer of sunlight spreading through the colonia of Santa Julia.     And now it is moving south and further west and it has reached a house on the edge of the presa two miles away and the neighbourhood of Bellavista on the edge of town.

And the sky, which had been completely clear, now has some faint cirrus clouds on the western horizon.   And the sun then reaches the mountains to the north and it is the only time of day we can see those dips and crevices so clearly.   Now, on the mountains to the south, the colonia of Tres Cruces is touched by the sun - and the Santa Julia sun has spread to the contiguous colonias of San Rafael and Lindavista and Independencia - and it is 7.50.

And the church known as the Parroquoia is grey for just fifty-three more seconds.     Until the sun catches the cross on top of the spire and within five minutes the sunshine is creeping down towards the wedding cake turrets of its tower turning everything back to pink.

When I turn round to the east there is still no sign of the sun!  But the light is catching some of the windows on the houses above me, on the ridge running from Tres Cruces to Los Balcones and the Cruz del Pueblo is situated half way between the two.     Now looking back to the west again and the south, the dome of San Antonio and the whole of the church are bathed in sunshine.    And from colonia San Antonio in the south to Santa Julia and Independencia in the north the whole of the western side of the town is full of its familiar daytime colours once more.

At 8 o’clock all the bells start chiming as usual and the belltower of San Francisco and then its great dome see the first glimpses of sunlight for the day, and it is very close to my house but not as close as the Parroquoia!     I can hear water trickling on both sides of me and it is a neighbour’s fountain on one side - but an overflowing water tank on the other!    And I had been watching the egrets flying back to the botanical garden and seen the flusters of little birds disturbed from roosting in nearby trees and heard the cocks crowing and the dogs barking in the distance, but now for the first time I notice the hum of traffic and town is waking up at last.

At 8.05 the Parroquoia is glowing and a minute later the sun at last touches its two domes stretching out behind it away from the main square and five minutes later the whole Parroquoia is in sunshine …and yet after twenty-five minutes there is still no sign of the sun in the sky!

Suddenly on the terrace above me the salmon-pink bougainvillea is reflecting sunshine and at last as I turn back to the east again the first rays of the sun are beginning to appear on the horizon behind the Cruz del Pueblo.     It is rising due east because this is the week of the equinox!    And now it is 8.15 and it is still 50º but I am already feeling much warmer!

And this is San Miguel de Allende.