🇲🇽 One Week in Guanajuato City 💙 - 03.05.23
“You will never untangle the circumstances that bought you to this moment...”
And here’s my closing arguments for Guanajuato City… It’s been nearly a week and I have one day here remaining before I pick up and go to a new town.
I landed here purely out of circumstance. The last day of my apartment lease in Berkeley would be the end of February and couple of months ago I had set a specific date to be in San Miguel de Allende which was March 6th… and a boy needs to be somewhere in between. So… I thought I would fly into Mexico and tool around the region for a week before I needed to be in San Miguel.
There’s an affordable non-stop flight from Oakland to Leon, Mexico, that is within an hour and half of San Miguel. The flight lands in Mexico at 8pm… I’m not a fan of navigating new cities or distances at night… and especially something that is located in a foreign country. Simple… find a room close to the airport for the night and and go from there. And that’s how this story begins.
Guanajuato City Centro is 25 minutes from the Leon airport and it had a ton of listings for rooms. Works for me. I didn’t know squat about the town but it didn’t matter… it was a jumping off point. So I booked a room for a couple of nights and would figure things out from there. Yup… that’s how I roll.
Welps… I happened to pick up some crud as a parting gift from the State of California and was rebounding by the time I landed in Mexico… it wasn’t horrible but it did absorb some life force and motivations.
I have considered myself lucky to have not caught some cold… or flu… or pandemic mutation… or rash… in my recent travels. I’ve been on plenty-o planes, trains and buses in the last 3 months and walked away unscathed. I do take curcumin and mushroom supplements so I may have a kick ass immunity system… or maybe I just wash my hands a lot… I don’t know… I didn’t finish medical school… I didn’t even START medical school!
So… I checked out what Guanajuato was about on the Google… after the fact. Yes friends… understand this… especially if you travel with me… I pick a place on the map, go to that place, then research the weather and things to do, and crime rates, and close coffee shops… after I land. ☺️ Boop.
Guanajuato is a UNESCO world heritage site. Established in the 16th century because of the silver deposits and the wealth and city prospered from mining. Today… it’s a tourist destination for Mexican Nationals but slowly catching on with world travelers… because of the social media technologies… that we all love. Admit it! You do!!
Anywho, I read all that stuff on said social media technologies… but it means bloop to me until I find out for myself in person.
Long story short… and then proceed to a much, much longer story… I decided to stay in the city and catch my wind and take care of the body.
AND… it turns out… the place… this place… Guanajuato… is all kinds of awesome. So here’s a million billion pics and a week’s worth of journaling, and arguably amusing anecdotes. Still with me? Hands off the ‘unfriend’ button, Samantha!!
My time here began with me being dumped off at night at a cafe to find the host for my boarding room. A little bit of Spanish and playing dumb goes a long way. And now i have keys ☺️ my room was near a busy bus stop and at the edge of centro but was tucked away in back so it was peaceful and quiet… as quiet goes for city life.
I explored the area on foot for the next 3 days and despite feeling a little gooey from the California crud, I was thoroughly enjoying the myself. Stops at the Mummy Museum, Mercado Hidalgo, and Al pastor street tacos that made me skip down the street. I like this place… I like like this place! 🌮🌮
The town is full of subterranean roads (tunnels to you and me) and it lightens up the traffic around town. There apparently was no typical Spanish colonial city planning as the town grew and the layout is erratic and its full of back alley and staircases and I was happy to just explore those all day.
I have learned my sweet spot for stays. Three nights is the magic number. Enough to settle in… but not enough to get bored and never want to come back. So… I moved locations… up the hill and out of the city for some relaxing vibrations. I lugged my gear up the hill, a 1.5km walk which isn’t much in the world of schlepping… but the hill got steeper and steeper as I went. The last 100 meters were brutal and the final 10 was like a 5.7 pitch of free climbing and I wanted to call out for a belay and rope but I don’t know that phrase in Spanish. The host told me I should take a taxi because the hill is very steep… only as I arrived at the door. I do know how the say “really?!?” in Spanish.
It was a peaceful spot and the view was unreal. There were some high end restaurants in the hood and an American style grocery store within a 10 minute walk so I wouldn’t have to go down the hill and then back up the MF hill.
So… I’m running low on tooth picks and I found toothpicks at the ‘súper mercado’ up there. I felt complete… very complete. I’m in flow with the universe… and zen.
Not much to do on the hill but I did come across a mine site. It looked to be decommissioned and set up for tours. There was one guy on the steps guarding the bathrooms… which was totally odd because it’s in a remote area with little foot traffic. I asked him if I needed a reservation for the tour and he replied in a lengthy volley in Spanish. “The mine is closed…” “something about being free… something about something…” no one else was around and there was a locked room with hard hats and jumpsuits but the entrance to the mine was open. I do often wander into places I’m sure I’m not supposed to be… and for the record, I do have level 1- MSHA certification (true story), which is a miner safety training that I received when I worked at an Engineering firm in Golden, CO. It consisted of 40 hours of some guy telling stories of gruesome industrial accidents (totally true story!!!)…
…then again, I’ve watched too many episodes of “Locked up Abroad” and I had a vision of myself telling my story of being locked in a Mexican silver mine and lived to tell, by eating bugs and sipping on stalactites… and then made the decision to only take pictures from the outside… like a good lad. Yawn…
I wanted some painting time and paid a bit extra to stay at the house on the hill with the view and broke out the watercolors… and enjoyed it so… but it was time to get back to the city mush.
I took an Uber down and we drove through a series of tunnels, which was very cool, and I was dropped off near my new joint. Near… not at! The driver said “caminando!” Which means I walk… it’s a pedestrian neighborhood simply because cars will not fit. Back alleys and stairs… and a lot of them.
I found my room and yet another fantastic view… opened the window and… rooster!!! All day and all night… right outside my bedroom window. Reminded me of my time in Talpa, NM… all night long with the sounds of screaming things.
It is what it is, and city noises happen to be part of the experience. It was a cool place to be. Lots of art… lots of tasty food… nice people… and on and on. Visits to the Diego Rivera Museum, enchiladas “mineras”, a ride on the funicular to Al Pípila, and loads of walking, pics and people watching.
One last move to a new joint on the opposite hill. It’s beautiful and peaceful and I had a lovely conversation in Spanish (pigeon Spanish on my end) with my host, Erica Isabel. Annnnd… I could still hear that fk’g rooster from across town… I kid you not.
Today is Sunday and officially ‘the day of doing whatever the hell you want.’ And I don’t know what I want yet… but I loved my time in Guanajuato City and plan to return someday, and if you happen to have stayed with me to this point in the story… visit and find out for yourself… you won’t be disappointed.
Tomorrow I need to figure out how to get to San Miguel de Allende for the next round of adventure… now time for coffee and a Spanish lesson on how to say “do you have roosters near the room?”
