Guanajuato

Isabel and I got out of D.F. after about ten days or so and took a trip to Guanajuato. Guanajuato is a small colonial town about 5 hours north of Mexico city. It's built in the shadow of some mountains (which ones I'm not sure) and developed around a huge silver and gold mine that they still mine out of today. I believe at one time it produced 20% of the world's silver. Many of the town's buildings are painted vibrant colours which led to wonderful views across the valley we were starting.

I was like a bear with a sore paw after 5 hours on a bus and when we arrived we found our hostel was 167 steps up the side of the hill. Thankfully the taxi dropped us at the top and we only had to walk down with our bags.

The hostel we stayed was called La Casa de Dante. It was a lovely place.The owner lets local art students decorate it and keeping in theme with the town it was very colorful. The hostel did an authentic breakfast and the owner was really kind and motherly to everyone there. Her and Isabel had a great chat about how the politics on Mexico were a little dodgy.

The first evening we had a wander down into the historic center. This area is one way because the streets are so narrow. And through all the hills run a series of tunnels for traffic going in other directions.

The squares and plazas were full of music and noise. Plenty of bars cafes and restaurants and hundreds selling all the normal bits and pieces. Unlike places we had already visited Guanajuato was more arts orientated and the merchants were a lot less tacky.

The following day we led ourselves around and visited some of the museums. I really enjoyed the Diego Rivera muesum. He was an artist who was quite outspoken against the government of his time. The museum was actually the house he lived in in Guanajuato.

We also took a trip to the historical museum for the entire area. Guanajuato played a large part in Mexican history but I will do it a terrible injustice by trying to repeat my half cocked knowledge.

The low-light of my day was a trip to see the mummies of Guanajuato. These are mummies from relatively recent times. However the display of them is a huge money spinner. To me it appeared disrespectful to the bodies so we left quite quickly. I also gave them a bad review on google.

There was this fantastic handcraft market back closer to where we were staying. So far this trip they were certainly the best we had seen. Of course we had to by a few bits. (Nothing like the last purchase thankfully).

During term the population swells with 20000 students. The affect of this could be seen in the youth around the historic center. I believe there is also a town nearby (in Mexican terms) that attracts the older generations. I highly recommend everyone that has the chance to come here though.

That evening we sat on the balcony of the hostel with some of the other residents and the owner and had a beer before venturing back into the town. Isabel got something stuck in her eye. She wasn't happy. I got her a chocolate and banana crepe to cheer her up. It did.

After seeing how beautiful Guanajuato is/was I think we both would have like to have spent more time in it. Unfortunately we could only spend two nights as we had to come back to Mexico city on Friday for out flight to Huatulco on Saturday.

We are currently in Puerto Escondido a small beach town on the Pacific coast in Oaxaca. I'll write more of it next time round. I think we will be home in two weeks today. I better check that before then though.