San Antonio. 14th October 2025.
San Antonio is currently experiencing unseasonably hot and dry weather, it hasn’t rained in over thirty days and there is none showing in the forecast for this week. The temperature in the afternoon has been hitting the low to middle 90’s F (33-35 C) which is a lot hotter than we were anticipating. However from today the mornings are getting cooler so we took the opportunity to take a ride back into the city.
Our first destination today was the Historic Market Square, a three block area that boasts of being the largest Mexican market in the USA.
We arrived at around 11 am just as the stores were opening and we passed stalls selling leather goods, clothes………
……..and brightly coloured pottery and other ornaments.
One of the major Mexican festivals is Dia de los Muertos ( The Day of the Dead) and throughout the area displays featuring skulls and skeletons were to be seen.
Often there were small shrines to people who had recently died commemorating their lives.
It would be wrong to be walking through all this Mexicana without sampling some of the local cuisine and thankfully there were several restaurants within the market. We choose to eat at La Margarita right in the centre of the area. We were told by our waitress that the place was originally a Chinese restaurant with a brothel upstairs, the current owner bought it and converted downstairs to a Mexican restaurant. I’m not sure what he did up above.
The restaurant is connected by an underground tunnel to a bakery further up the street and all the food and cakes are cooked underground.
Before our food was served we were serenaded by two guitarists who treated us ( after some cash had changed hands) to a few choruses of La Bamba.
For the meal Sylvia chose some Puffy Tacos with chicken, this is a local delicacy that consists of deep fried taco shells filled with chicken and salad. She enjoyed them but felt the tacos were a little greasy. I had George’s Special which was a cheese enchilada together with a crispy beef taco, guacamole, rice and beans. It was delicious, spicy without being too hot.
Needing some exercise we decided to walk towards the San Fernando Cathedral passing many of the brightly coloured murals on the way.
The cathedral houses the remains of the heroes of the Alamo which are located just inside the main door.
Some of the early settlers of San Antonio were immigrants from the Canary Islands and they provided much of the funding for the cathedral. Opposite the church are statues commemorating this.
Tomorrow we hit the trail again heading south to Del Rio.