Guanajuanto - a colonial treasure without neon

Jardin Union
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After a cheap (40 US cents) bus trip to the Central Bus Station I caught the bus to Guanajuato via a transfer in

Leon

. I decided to upgrade to one of the better hotels – the Sante Fe. It is in a terrific location on one of small beautiful squares but imagine my surprise that (1) there was no heat in the rooms and (2) they keep the front doors wide open so the dining room was chilly at breakfast. The elevation here is 6,649 feet (1.25 miles), so it is cold in spite of lots of sunshine.

Municipal market
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Guanajuato is one of the most impressive colonial cities I have seen in Mexico ; it was many churches, public buildings and squares all connected by extensive pedestrian ways. Most of the traffic of the city is carried through tunnels under the city formed from a one time river bed. At first it seems almost too perfect (is this Disneyland?) but then you realise that tourists still make up only a small part of the population –even on a weekend – and there are ordinary Mexican people living and working in this place. I would love to see a 3 D (axiomatic?) drawing of the city .. it is built in a valley between two steep hills and with stairs going up hills and down into the tunnels, it is almost impossible to determine where ‘level ground’ is. It is like a very friendly maze .. at one point I thought I was lost and then there was my ‘corner church’.

A pleasant maze
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Saturday 3 February

Not warm enough (Note to myself .. stop coming to these high elevations in the winter!). A big surprise was the Diego Rivera Museum ; he was born here and there is a museum in his house. Actually he lived with his family for only a short time on the first two floors of the building. It is furnished in a Victorian style (reminded me of a better taste version of the Pancho Villa home in Chihuahua). Upper rooms have many early drawings and paintings during which he went through all of the phases of modern art (Impressionist, Cubist, etc before finding his own style and subject matter (Mexican history and its Indians).

In the market
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Another museum (Alhóndiga de Granaditas) is most important as the site of one of the bloodiest battles in the War of Mexican Independence. Father Hidalgo headed the group of peons who eventually massacred the Spanish wholesale. The exhibition contains few artifacts and too many words (in Spanish only) but the rather grim windowless building (built as a granary in the 1790s) is impressive and evocative.

Imagine a city of 80,000 people with no traffic lights, no neon signs, no Starbucks or MacDonald’s .. and that is Guanajuato. The well sited Casa Valadez on Jardin Union produced a first class chicken salad and the nearby Bar Potro serves a Guinness type beer which is dark and sweet but tasty.

Sunday 4 February

Oh dear! Bit of a wasted day. I walked up to the Museums of the Mummies (described in the Lonely Planet as ‘absolutely gross’ which should be right up my street). The light rain turned heavy, I got a bit lost and by the time I climbed way up the hill to the museum there was a very long queue of Mexican families (just the thing for kids) so I decided the whole enterprise was a bit silly. I was not about to spend hours waiting to get in and I retreated. I got some stunning views of the city which made it worthwhile and after a great lunch from a basic place on Avenue which spit roasted chicken over wood fires. The rain increased again so I spent the afternoon reading and resting.