Wandering Words: How Roaming San Miguel Unlocks Creativity

San Miguel de Allende doesn’t just invite you to look. It insists that you notice. The city’s narrow cobblestone streets, bursts of bougainvillea, and ochre-washed walls don’t simply decorate the landscape. They animate it. And when you roam those streets with no destination in mind, something remarkable happens: your imagination wakes up.

Photo Credit: Tiarra Sorte

Roaming, meaning slow and aimless walking without an agenda, is more than romantic. It is supported by brain science. Studies from Stanford and other research institutions show that walking can boost creative output by up to 60 percent. When you move, your brain becomes more fluid. It begins to form unexpected connections, break out of habitual thought patterns, and open new channels of insight.

San Miguel’s centuries-old streets amplify this effect. The city is a sensory trigger. Church bells echo through the alleys. Murals seem to whisper their backstories. A breeze might carry the scent of jasmine or roasted corn from a vendor’s cart. Each of these elements nudges the imagination and makes it easier to slip into creative flow. This is your brain’s default mode network at work, the same network responsible for introspection, imagination, and storytelling.

Photo Credit: Chris Luengas

At Eat Write Roam, we build roaming into our writing practice. We encourage writers to walk without purpose and to observe without rushing.

It is often in these unstructured, open moments that the story you have been searching for quietly finds you.

So let yourself drift.

Take the long way.

Poke your nose down that quiet side street.

Let San Miguel guide your thoughts — and see where they take you.