San Miguel FAQ

As we all know, the pandemic put an abrupt stop to our Top Rated Historical Walking Tours.  These Tours are a celebrated win/win: the economically disadvantaged children of San Miguel received medical & dental services, and visitors (and residents) of San Miguel had a wonderful overview of our fabulous city and its rich cultural and historical heritage.

We restarted the Tours, as soon as we were safely able to, strictly on a private basis:  these Tours are an important part of Patronato’s annual revenue stream, and the need for funding does not just go away because there is a crisis.

Tours are presently limited to 10 people per group and are arranged at the visitors’ convenience.  Private Tours are led by Dali Amaro, a fully certified bilingual  Volunteer Guide:  he brings over 10 years of guiding experience and is a native son of San Miguel.  He provides wonderful Tours, in English, and with all safety protocols and precautions in place.  
 
While Dali was conducting Tours, the other volunteer guides and professional staff at Pro Niños were not idle.  They seized the opportunity of downtime to build on and update the Walking Tour portion of the larger Patronato website, leveraging new technologies not available when it was originally built by volunteer Donn Kelly.  Donn pioneered the use of the web technology to promote the Tours and his work served Pro Niños well for many years. 
  
One of the most exciting innovations in the relaunched website are the “highlight videos''. Says Alix Nicoll, Board of Directors and Liaison to the Walking Tours:  “we offer just a taste of the Tour through three short but informative presentations about San Miguel’s past. And some of the aerial photography is just spectacular”.  Your enthusiastic and knowledgeable Video Guides are Peggy Jones (Las Monjas), Patrick Greene (Casa des la Conspiración) and Tim Hawkins (Plaza Civica). 
 
For 50 years, Patronato Pro Niños, a Mexican non profit organization has been providing necessary medical, dental and psychological care to the children of families who cannot afford to provide it for them.   To benefit the children, book your Private Tour by going to http://historicalwalkingtour.org/   Or go to https://patronatoproninos.org/ for more information or to donate.

Cheryl Young
Volunteer