Weekend in Guanajuato

We made another of our weekend trips again. We'd heard from all kinds of people about Guanajuato and how cool it is. So it was time to finally see for ourselves and we loved it. It is our favorite city in Mexico so far. (except Ajijic, of course)

On the way to Guanajuato, we stopped in Leon. This city makes most of the country's shoes and you are supposed to be able to get a great deal. It was all a bit overwhelming and so we only bought Charlie some shoes. He was growing out of his and wouldn't let me put any others on him. His old shoes were blue and he seemed taken with the color, so we looked for another pair of blue ones. We found some that were all leather and suede. Though I probably wouldn't have picked them out on my own, he seemed taken. I think they are pretty good quality and we spent less than $20.
Look behind the street performer and you'll see a bit of the large amounts of shoes we had to choose from. Blocks and blocks of these shops.

On to Guanajuato. It was truly amazing. The whole city is full of driving tunnels. I heard that they used to be rivers, but don't know if that's true. It reminded us a lot of Venice. Except that instead of canals you have tunnels and instead of gondolas, you have cars. Driving there was a little like trying to drive in Venice, too. Nerve-wracking with people everywhere and very narrow streets.

The town is also very hilly. We went up to a "panoramic" area to look at the town on a tour we took. They use very bright colors to paint the houses and shops. You can see them even from very far away.

In the center, was a great church and a beautiful plaza. This city hosts an internationally famous Cervantes art festival and supposedly is booked a year in advance. We ate dinner one night at a restaurant just outside the church. It felt like we were in Europe somewhere.

We went to a couple of museums while we were there too. Very morbid people, the Mexicanos. One was a museum that showed the torture devices of the Spanish priests during Colonial times. The other was the Mummy Museum. It was a museum of the bodies of people they found in a cemetary that were mummified because of the elements in soil here. Of course the kids loved both of these museums.

Riley thought this one had very clean teeth for a mummy.

We also went down into an old silver mine. Not as interesting to the kids.
I highly recommend Guanajuato to anyone. It was an awesome trip.

Before we left the area, I wanted to stop by another town that had been on my list of possible candidates for our "year of adventure." In my research, lots of people talked about a town called San Miguel de Allende, near Guanajuato. I wanted to see if I had made a good decision.
This very cool gothic church was in the plaza.

San Miguel was very different from Ajijic. Much bigger and more hip. Lots of interesting shops and nice restaurants. But also in the middle of the desert, an hour from Guanajuato. I have to admit that I really liked it. But I didn't feel at all like we were in the wrong place. Ajijic has been perfect for us this year and we'll miss it terribly when we go.