A side trip to San Miguel

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San Miguel de Allende is a lovely (colonial of course) town to the east of here. There's a lot more foreign (mainly US) investment there and consequently the buildings and town (and prices) show a degree of wealth not much evident in Guanajuato. Generally a lot more greenery exists in the streets and the city has several large parks in addition to the usual plazas. It's quite a pretty and relaxed place although receives some criticism for having "too many Americans". Not sure about the level of geography studied here.

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There are lots of cafes, bars and restaurants. We had a lovely evening and dinner on a rooftop terrace overlooking the cathederal drinking absolutely fabulous, antartic margaritas with Anna from our grammer classes.

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San Miguel was a short bus ride away from Guanajuato (an hour and a half) but an interminable ride back. Driving at hair-raising speed around blind bends on the wrong side of the road and overtaking on curves and up hill (on crests) were part of it. A tendency to pull in front of other vehicles and slam on the brakes for effect (and presumably to annoy the other driver) was the icing on the cake. On our (unexpected) safe return I was inspired to use my best Spanish to lodge a complaint ("me no gusta"; "muy peligroso") at the teminal office. The man there appeared to take me seriously. Mind you, his look of concern could have easily been about my lack of words rather than my intended message. I'm seeing that look quite a lot. Back to school....

A walk in the hills

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I had my eye on the hills (mountains I guess) around Guanajuato from the moment I saw them. How to get into them though was a mystery. The odd conversation produced a few hints and suggested, although it always seems dodgey to head off into the "beyond", it was a safe thing to do.

We actually set off for a little trip to the famous-person-statue that looks out over Guanajuato. That turned into a stroll along the road (La Panaramica) that circles around the top of the town. A place not to be ventured into at night apparently (even for Mexicans - as warned by a staff member of our Spanish school). And then we just got closer and closer (comments like "around the next corner"; "just a little bit higher" (from Mary!) etc) and before we knew it, were climbing into the spectacular hills that rise up around Guanajuato.
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Starting from the upper edge of the town, which sits at around 2000m, it's a fairly impressive scramble up to a plateau with massive rocky outcrops worthy of the equivalent of national park status. The land is fairly dry despite regular afternoon thunder storms. The odd burro is grazed up there. There are no fences so the poor things have their front legs tied (tightly) together to stop them going too far.

Auditory Overload

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You might think the alleys would be quiet but Guanajuato has an insatiable appetite for fiestas and nowhere is safe.

Most nights (weather permitting and I've taken to praying for rain) touring bands of musicians and singers wind up and down through the streets and alleys with 100 or so followerers pausing every now and then (and regularly just up from our windows at 11 pm) to sing or relate some historic event. It's a practice from the past and mostly for tourists (mainly Mexican) but local families seem to join in as well for a bit of an outing. There's absolutely no point trying to sleep (even with ear plugs and sleeping pills) until they pass.

But as if to punish all those who stay up late (and we're all forced to), men who have the unforntunate job of supplying houses with very large gas cylinders (carried on their shoulders from the streets at the bottom of the ravine) commence to wander through the alleys calling out "gaaaaaaassssss" at dawn.

And fireworks? Whenever someone (at any time of day or night) feels like it they seem to be able to fire a sizeable rocket into the sky. The "bang" in this tight little valley is quite something.

And then there are the religious fiestas. This morning (for a virgin saint Carmen we think) the bells (as tuneful as a toddler with a very big stick plus saucepan) and rockets began around 5.30 am. They went for about 30 minutes non stop. Any attempt to go back to sleep was twarted by repeats of the bells plus "canon" fire every five or ten minutes after a break. It's a remarkably tolerated imposition on all by the religious few. There really aren't that many footsteps heading off to church. Although I'm about ready to wander down myself and fire my own rocket.

Alleys of Guanajuato

Since traffic in the old centre is restricted to a few main roads at the bottom of town, access to everything on the steep sides of the valley is by foot (or the odd motor bike) along winding alleyways (callejones) and stairs.

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Genarally, the further you go from the main thoroughfares the thinner and shabbier things become. But where people have the money and/or interest they paint the buildings bright colours and hang plants from their windows and balconies.

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Sub-terrainian Guanajuato

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Guanajuato, sits mainly in a steep valley at 2000m. It's an old colonial town and extremely pretty. Traffic (except the odd mountain goat of a motor bike) is restricted to a few main streets and numerous, pretty (think a land version of Venice) sunken and underground tunnels, some of which run along the old river bed. The river was diverted after it flooded the town in 1905 (I think).




Pedestrain access to the sunken roads and tunnels is via sets of (geranium capped) stairs scattered around the old city centre.

Guanajuato, Mexico

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Not a sick pig in sight but all this talk about the flu has left Guanajuato (our first stop), and probably Mexico as a whole, just a little less well (off) than it already was.

For our part, we've ignored the travel warnings (although we did fold a wee bit under pressure and bring masks and tamiflu) and defied the travel insurance people to embrace Mexico by enrolling in Spanish lessons, taking a tiny unit for one month and sitting in the pretty town plazas with a cerveza or bad wine (which is mostly what it is) to do our bit for common sense and the economy.

The town has about 70,000 people and sits in a pretty impressive valley at 2000m above sea level. It's surrounded by very impressive mountains.