The colorful Guanajuato. Upon seeing a picture of the city many years ago, it was immediately put on our list. We were instantly captivated, even in a photograph. There is a small rv park in town, with a surreal view overlooking the city. Navigating the city was quite an experience, but proved fun. Tunnels and steep, narrow, cobblestone streets led us to our home in Guanajuato.
Going into full tourist mode, we covered every inch of the city. Boy were our asses hurting when we left town, literally. Guanajuato is built on mountain tops, you can travel through the deep tunnels underneath or climb the towering stairs over.
First we used the tunnels, but eh, dark, fumey, claustrophobic, and Jodi was worried about zombies. So we then switched to the stairs, which didn’t have any zombies, but boy did the buttocks get a workout! We easily climbed a couple thousand stairs in one, tourist filled excursion. We decided we had to retreat back to the tunnels our last day in town. Dark and dingy or not, the tunnels were flat! In Guanajuato, if you’re not going up, you’re going down. But did I say a fun city to navigate? The endless bright stairwells and small alleyways in every direction makes for a real life, colorful maze.
The first evening in town, we were invited for drinks and a magic show. We normally do really well at keeping to ourselves, but this trip has been incredibly helpful at opening us up. Repeatedly, we have to go out of our comfort zone, even to complete simple tasks. So a stranger’s house, in a foreign land, for drinks and magic? Why not? A couple very witty magicians kept us well entertained. We were in awe of their tricks and laughing with a great group of people that made us feel comfortable. That hospitality thing seems alive and well wherever one might be in Mexico. While our Spanish is still muy malo, we are not sitting around in total darkness anymore, and everyone is willing to help and encourage us.
We spent the remainder of our time exploring the city. Guanajuato was founded in 1559 with the discovery of it’s silver veins, supplying over 20% of the worlds silver for the next 250 years. The city is rich in history, with many entertaining museums to share it’s past.
Hearing for years about the mummy museum, we made sure not to miss it, but left with mixed emotions. The mummies are not thousands of years old, but maybe a couple hundred. They are in fact graves that were dug up because the families of the deceased quit paying taxes on their graves. They found a small percentage of the bodies, for one reason or another, naturally mummified. For a small fee of 20 pesos we were given a ticket to hang out in this strange museum.
Guanajuato truly felt like a foreign place. Unlike many of the other cities we have visited, we were one of the very few gringos. After hiking all over the city during the day, we would retreat to camp in the evening. The view of the city from camp was unbelievable. It was also quite noisy, but the noise mostly added to the experience. Kids playing, thumping music, roosters, dogs, lots and lots of dogs. Guanajuato is truly a charm, but gotta keep moving……….
