LOVELY GUANAJUATO

The students are away. 30,000 of them. There’s room to move around the city. This lovely city of beautiful buildings and friendly people. Capital of Guanajuato state. A municipality of nearly 200,000. I feel wrapped in its arms. I could stay here for awhile. Get to know it. I could do that.

I admit I am a nervous traveler. Somehow it seems to bring out my issues about getting lost, making mistakes…leftover baggage from childhood. But with google maps on my phone, I thought surely we’d find our way to our rental casita in the neighborhood of Pastita. And we did. After going in circles for awhile. Turns out there is one main road IN and one main road OUT of Guanajuato and a panoramic highway that circles the city. A friend recently told me that it’s a given that you’ll get lost in Guanajuato. Now I know. Tranquila…

Our little casita sits just behind the green gate at 156 Pastita (one of the 4 oldest neighborhoods), a portal to the lush gardens, tall trees, and modern white adobe and stone house of our hostess Sue. A transplant from Cornwall, England, former artistic glassblower turned gardener, Sue has settled happily into life in this romantic European flavored city.

We quickly learned that walking into el Centro was easy, but taking a taxi was our best option going back. Guanajuato’s stacks of sherbet colored adobe houses tumble into a narrow valley with small winding streets and alleyways, many nowhere near car width. Even with its elevations it is definitely a walkable city (barring mobility issues) and there are few parking places to be had. Buses, taxis, and Ubers are cheap and plentiful.

Arches and underground tunnels are part of the landscape here. After major floods in 1760 and 1780 tunnels built by the mining companies offered a route for the water of the Guanajuato River to bypass el Centro. In 1960 a dam (Presa de la Olla) was built bringing the control needed to turn the tunnels into underground streets and providing a reservoir of potable water.

We spent our first day wandering with the intent of orienting ourselves to the city. Our second day was guided by Veronique, a French resident of Guanajuato for 20 years. She is deliciously fluent in Spanish and loved by locals who know her as a tour guide and former restauranteur. We never thought to ask if she was picking us up. It turns out she has never driven a car in her life. Our tour through the city was unexpectedly all on foot.

We started by walking to the Embajadores, a busy central plaza not far from our casita, complete with vendors of food, trinkets, and daily necessities. Small stores and tiny restaurants line the streets. It was a good place to snag a taxi to La Valenciana mine, still in operation, where the largest vein of silver in México was found in 1774. We visited Bocamina de San Ramón, an ex hacienda and mine functioning as a museum and event hall. It sits near the San Cayetano Church, built of pink volcanic stone (cantera) in the 18th century. Intricately carved wooden doors mark the entrance to altarpieces lavishly covered in gold leaf. Nearby are the fortress style walls of the old Guadalupe mine now also used as an event area.

Returning to el Centro, we wandered past the Alhóndiga de Granaditas, a large stone grain storage building with small horizontally set windows and giant wooden doors, perched on the hillside to escape flooding. Here the Spaniards holed up in the first battle of the Mexican War of Independence in 1810. El Pipila, “an extraordinarily strong local miner” (El Pipila)was chosen to set the wooden doors aflame and did so with tar and a torch after tying a large flat stone to his back to protect himself from bullets as he crawled to the building. Everyone inside was killed. When the insurgents were ultimately caught the four leaders were beheaded and their heads hung at the corners of the Alhóndiga for the ten years it took for México to win its independence.

Mercado Hidalgo. This classical iron structure houses three floors of market stalls selling a variety of food, crafts, and household items. The beautiful building (hard to get a good photo that day-see center photo below) was originally designed as a train station by the creator of the Eiffel Tower. But the idea failed and the striking metal building topped by a large four sided clock was quickly turned into a market and named after one of the insurgents whose head hung from nearby Alhóndiga. Here we ate the best food we had in Guanajuato (this is not a city for foodies or vegetarians) – carnitas with handmade tortillas, a creamy green salsa and a Boing! fruit juice drink to wash it down. So good we ate five apiece! To the tune of $10 for the 3 of us, including tip.

Leaving the Mercado we wandered to Positos, an area of wide plazas surrounded by colorful restaurants and narrow alleyways leading to treasures like the Diego Rivera Museum (the house he grew up in) and the Corozon de Plata jewelry store. A few small Japanese restaurants are tucked away in the alleys as well, a nod to the rising Japanese population in Guanajuato. Along the way we encountered a lively group of street musicians and artists ignoring the rain and the lack of passersby. Here we left Veronique with thanks and promises to be in touch. Gracias!

Mondays museums and many restaurants are closed so at Veronique’s suggestion we decided to visit the Alfarería Tradicional of Gorky González, known for his studies in Japan (where he met his wife) and for bringing majolica ceramics to México. As we wandered through the studio showrooms, a lovely older Japanese woman approached us quietly. As she found prices for us from a huge loosely bound catalog I learned that she was Tishiko Ono, wife of the famous ceramicist, now deceased.

As we finished our transaction she spoke softly in Spanish with the ending lilt that told me she’d asked a question. It took me a minute to understand that she was inviting us to see her home.  Honored, we followed her as she walked from the shop and turned the key in the tall iron grids containing her 2 sandy haired (friendly) perrotitos and massive untamed gardens. Tree sized plants spilled out of giant pots creating a courtyard jungle. 

She opened the glass doors to the sala and switched on the floor lamp, illuminating her prized possessions – Mis antiguas, she informed us, pointing to shelves filled with older ceramic pieces reminiscent of the shop’s current stock. We declined her gracious offer of café, I’m afraid, an unfortunate decision I now know. We had plans for the day and limited energy and were intimidated by the language barrier, even though she and I had managed it with relative ease so far.

As Tishiko walked us to the door and thanked us for coming, I pulled out my phone – Una foto, por favor? She nodded Yes without hesitation standing framed by the doorway. A sweet and gracious encounter.

We wandered on to Café Tal for beso de chocolate caliente (a “kiss” of thick hot chocolate), cappuccino and croissant, and then through the Plaza de la Paz where we encountered 2 weddings at the Basilica Colegiata de Nuestra Señora, shopped in a treasure trove of Mexicana handicrafts, and made our way to the Diego Rivera Museum. Enough for one day. Museums tomorrow. Don Quijote, Teatro Juarez, Museo del Pueblo de Guanajuato and others.

But on Tuesday, thwarted by the gray skies and persistent rain, we decided to head home a day early, saving the plethora of plazas, churches, and museums for another visit. On our first day there the rains had started just as we were leaving the Santo Cafe with its famous bridge over the alley. Initially stopped short by the “river” of water flowing down the sidewalk, ultimately we jumped in and made our way “home”. It took more than 24 hours for our shoes to dry. Time to go. We’ll head back in a sunnier time of year. There is much to see.

If you want to know more about Guanajuato City I highly recommend YouTube and Wikipedia. I’m also happy to share contact information for our casita and our guide.