Okay, I admit it: I love Guanajuato! It has just about everything I like in a travel destination.
I think of it as sort of like the Venice of Mexico, though it's not near the sea and it doesn't have canals and singing gondola men. But it's built in rough hill country, and there is a whole network of road tunnels connecting parts of the town.
What it does have in droves is charming old world ambience and many pedestrian-only streets and lanes, so it's perfect for street performances, strolling, people watching, al fresco dining, and all the other things car-free areas are good for.
Some of the pedestrian lanes, known here as callejones, are so narrow it's a bit of a squeeze for two people to pass each other. One famous lane is called Callejone de Beso because two people can be in buildings across from each other, but still be close enough to kiss.
In colonial times, Guanajuato was an important center of silver mining, and you can still tour the old mines today.
But these days the town is a vibrant arts center with several beautiful theaters including the Teatro Juarez, an imposing old opera palace.
Guanajuato is also a major student center with an important university in town, so naturally there are lots of young people. Some of these youngsters join traditional choral societies, known as callejoneadas or estudiantinas, who dress up in elaborate old world costumes and serenade the public in those same narrow walkways on Friday and Saturday evenings.
And there are plenty of mariachi groups here, as well, so if you like the old world street life as much as I do, you can see why I've made Guanajuato a must-see destination on all three of my trips to Mexico.
Guanajuato is also the home town of Frida Kahlo's husband, muralist Diego Rivera. His childhood home is now a museum which I visited on a previous trip.
In one of the little plazuelas here there is a Frida y Diego Restaurant & Bar, and I can confirm they make a mean espresso. Their menu also features a desayunos (breakfast) "Frida", but none for poor Diego. . .
Just as I discovered in Queretaro last week, Guanajuato is in the midst of a free arts festival featuring theater performers, jazz musicians, clowns, performance artists, and others. Something is happening here, somewhere sometime, everyday this month.
That reminds me that I met one of the groups booked at the Queretaro festival last weekend, an international trio of stage performers based in Berlin called The Garden Project. This features two men, an Australian and a Greek, plus a woman from Poland.
I caught some of their show onstage outdoors on Sunday night. It was a very strange collage of dance, video, music, and light, but what was most interesting was The Garden Project's collaboration with a local group of like-minded artists.
I met two of The Garden Project at breakfast one morning, and mentioned that Guanajuato might be a good place for them to check out for future bookings.
Regrettably, they said they were headed straight back to Berlin on Monday morning so didn't have a chance to explore any more of beautiful old Mexico.
Showing posts with label Guanajuato. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guanajuato. Show all posts
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
San Miguel to Guanajuato
On the bus ride out of San Miguel this morning we made a brief stop at the old railroad terminal--then crossed the tracks to join the back road to Guanajuato.
This reminded me that the remains of Jack Kerouac's old running buddy, Neal Cassady, were found nearby the tracks in 1968, apparently the victim of an accident, suicide, or otherwise untimely death.
Cassady was Kerouac's inspiration for Dean Moriarty, the anti-hero of his seminal Beat Generation novel On the Road.
Today I fell from the lap of luxury into the rock bottom of grungy hostelries when I relocated from the very excellent value Posada de las Monjas ($42 per night) in San Miguel to an extremely divey $12.50 room in the Hotel Granaditas in downtown Guanjuato--described by the Lonely Planet as "best of the cheapies" in the area.
My edition of the LP is 8-9 years old. . .but this place is a dump!
In all fairness, though, I was looking for something a little cheaper to "average out" my daily budget after a couple days in expensive San Miguel.
The entire ordeal reminds me that Mexico isn't as cheap as it used to be. Yes, it's nominally cheaper than in the States, but I've found that my budget projections for lodging have fallen quite a bit short of the reality of 2011.
Strangely enough, I've seen that lodging in the capital is perhaps cheaper than in the provinces. Maybe that's because DF is saturated with hotels, and that glut of hotels runs the entire dive-to-five-star price spectrum.
The Granaditas seems to be run by Jehovah's Witnesses, judging by the piles of The Watchtower at the reception desk.
Again, this is a reminder to me of last Saturday night when I was out and about in Queretaro and made acquaintence with several JWs who were approaching people--me included--with tracts and invitations to their Sunday morning service. Turns out the JWs were in the midst of their annual convention.
Jehovah's Witnesses around town were easily recognizable by their sharp, conservative dress and their "Hello my name is. . ." name tag lanyards.
Also well dressed and approaching strangers were salespersons of Herbalife, Inc. I met a few of them, too. Each one showed me a "before" picture: sometimes overweight, now these folks were walking/talking cheerful promoters of a product "that really changed my life." And one young lady wasn't shy about telling me how many thousands of dollars she makes pushing the product.
Back to San Miguel, though: yes, it's really expensive, so apparently the influx Americans and Europeans is driving up local costs considerably (?).
The cheapest hotel I could find was in the 300 peso range, and in some cases that was without private bath. I paid 520 pesos ($42) for my room in Las Monjas, which was by far the most luxurious place I've stayed in Mexico so far. My room was very nice, and for a bonus it had one of the best views of the hilly old town available.
There is a mini real estate boom happening in the old town with For Sale signs everywhere. Long popular with Euro/American artists and other creative types, San Miguel's old town has many art galleries and expensive antique shops. Craft stores and touristy gift shops dot the Centro a-plenty.
And yet apparently the local expatriate community doesn't support bookstores. Both local bookshops, listed in Lonely Planet and described as "very good" and with a great selection of English language titles, either went out of business in the past eight years, or moved somewhere I couldn't find in my two days there.
An older boomer gentleman informed me: "The best place to find books is the Thursday sale at the Bibliotech." He was referring to an American lending library which I visited yesterday afternoon.
This reminded me that the remains of Jack Kerouac's old running buddy, Neal Cassady, were found nearby the tracks in 1968, apparently the victim of an accident, suicide, or otherwise untimely death.
Cassady was Kerouac's inspiration for Dean Moriarty, the anti-hero of his seminal Beat Generation novel On the Road.
Today I fell from the lap of luxury into the rock bottom of grungy hostelries when I relocated from the very excellent value Posada de las Monjas ($42 per night) in San Miguel to an extremely divey $12.50 room in the Hotel Granaditas in downtown Guanjuato--described by the Lonely Planet as "best of the cheapies" in the area.
My edition of the LP is 8-9 years old. . .but this place is a dump!
In all fairness, though, I was looking for something a little cheaper to "average out" my daily budget after a couple days in expensive San Miguel.
The entire ordeal reminds me that Mexico isn't as cheap as it used to be. Yes, it's nominally cheaper than in the States, but I've found that my budget projections for lodging have fallen quite a bit short of the reality of 2011.
Strangely enough, I've seen that lodging in the capital is perhaps cheaper than in the provinces. Maybe that's because DF is saturated with hotels, and that glut of hotels runs the entire dive-to-five-star price spectrum.
The Granaditas seems to be run by Jehovah's Witnesses, judging by the piles of The Watchtower at the reception desk.
Again, this is a reminder to me of last Saturday night when I was out and about in Queretaro and made acquaintence with several JWs who were approaching people--me included--with tracts and invitations to their Sunday morning service. Turns out the JWs were in the midst of their annual convention.
Jehovah's Witnesses around town were easily recognizable by their sharp, conservative dress and their "Hello my name is. . ." name tag lanyards.
Also well dressed and approaching strangers were salespersons of Herbalife, Inc. I met a few of them, too. Each one showed me a "before" picture: sometimes overweight, now these folks were walking/talking cheerful promoters of a product "that really changed my life." And one young lady wasn't shy about telling me how many thousands of dollars she makes pushing the product.
Back to San Miguel, though: yes, it's really expensive, so apparently the influx Americans and Europeans is driving up local costs considerably (?).
The cheapest hotel I could find was in the 300 peso range, and in some cases that was without private bath. I paid 520 pesos ($42) for my room in Las Monjas, which was by far the most luxurious place I've stayed in Mexico so far. My room was very nice, and for a bonus it had one of the best views of the hilly old town available.
There is a mini real estate boom happening in the old town with For Sale signs everywhere. Long popular with Euro/American artists and other creative types, San Miguel's old town has many art galleries and expensive antique shops. Craft stores and touristy gift shops dot the Centro a-plenty.
And yet apparently the local expatriate community doesn't support bookstores. Both local bookshops, listed in Lonely Planet and described as "very good" and with a great selection of English language titles, either went out of business in the past eight years, or moved somewhere I couldn't find in my two days there.
An older boomer gentleman informed me: "The best place to find books is the Thursday sale at the Bibliotech." He was referring to an American lending library which I visited yesterday afternoon.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Friday & Saturday in Queretaro
I'm keeping my fingers crossed now that I appear to have found a decent high speed internet shop in Queretaro, about a three hour bus ride northwest of the DF.
After puttering around near my Zocalo hotel on Wednesday--and taking a couple hundred photos of the vibrant street life in the area--I found myself held over in the big city for another day to take care of some housekeeping (laundry, to be precise).
With Thursday afternoon at my disposal, I decided to make the return trek out to Coyoacan to take photos and check out the museums.
It was another long walk from the metro stop to Frida's Blue House, and there was a long line of tourists at the ticket counter, so I continued my way back to Trotsky's house.
The admission, at 55 pesos--which includes a 15 peso "permit" to take photos--was reasonable, and I can confirm that history buffs would enjoy a visit to this museum since apparently nothing has been drastically changed since 1940 when the Soviet exile and mortal enemy of Stalin was knocked off in his study by a mysterious Spanish NKVD assassin.
I made full use of my photo permit.
Back at Frida's house I found I had to give it a miss for another day because of a temporary cash shortage. At 120 pesos (including photo permit), the admission charge was a bit steep for me, and the museum didn't accept credit/debit cards.
Friday morning I managed to tear myself away from the comforts of the capital and set out for Queretaro--a town I visited once before.
Queretaro is a well-kept colonial city with many pedestrian walkways and the usual high number of strolling musicians. Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende are both but a short bus trip away, and I'll probably head there tomorrow.
After puttering around near my Zocalo hotel on Wednesday--and taking a couple hundred photos of the vibrant street life in the area--I found myself held over in the big city for another day to take care of some housekeeping (laundry, to be precise).
With Thursday afternoon at my disposal, I decided to make the return trek out to Coyoacan to take photos and check out the museums.
It was another long walk from the metro stop to Frida's Blue House, and there was a long line of tourists at the ticket counter, so I continued my way back to Trotsky's house.
The admission, at 55 pesos--which includes a 15 peso "permit" to take photos--was reasonable, and I can confirm that history buffs would enjoy a visit to this museum since apparently nothing has been drastically changed since 1940 when the Soviet exile and mortal enemy of Stalin was knocked off in his study by a mysterious Spanish NKVD assassin.
I made full use of my photo permit.
Back at Frida's house I found I had to give it a miss for another day because of a temporary cash shortage. At 120 pesos (including photo permit), the admission charge was a bit steep for me, and the museum didn't accept credit/debit cards.
Friday morning I managed to tear myself away from the comforts of the capital and set out for Queretaro--a town I visited once before.
Queretaro is a well-kept colonial city with many pedestrian walkways and the usual high number of strolling musicians. Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende are both but a short bus trip away, and I'll probably head there tomorrow.
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