Backpacks and Flipflops: Guanajuato...city of churches, plazas, tunnels, steps and hills....

Happy belated Valentine's to everyone!!

The 4 hour deluxe bus ride from Guadalajara to Guanajuato was just as great as the previous ride. On this ride we were given a free goodie bag which contained a really good sandwich, cookies and a drink of choice. We had the strongest WiFi signal we have had anywhere in Mexico!! That's where we sent our last message from!!! Would be great to have that at home!

Inside our bus - this is not a plane!!!

An interesting mountain that reminded us of Ayers Rock in Australia.

We are now past the half way mark of our journey. Hard to believe that one month ago (Jan. 10) we helped dear Dores celebrate her 90th in Los Angeles.

Weather inland continues to be cool to cold at night...+6 C, days are warm, more rain than usual; so say the locals..bringing along a base layer underwear has been great for night times.

Guanajuato is a UNESCO world heritage site. It has very very narrow cobblestone streets, alleys, passageways and tunnels throughout the city where buses and cars race through.

Cars park and the bus stops under the streets in the tunnels that crisscross everywhere. The word subterranean comes to mind. Stairs to the light above, along with dark doors dot the tunnels. Taking a stairs up, one suddenly emerges into the light and bustling streets above ground.

Our hotel is right beside one of these tunnels and the traffic sounds are kind of muffled so not bad at all!

Our lovely hotel Terasse.

The tunnels looked to be the remains from the heady days when Guanajuato was King of Silver mining production. However, the tunnels evolved as a means of flood control to control run off in the steep, narrow valleys that the town grew up around. 2 major floods just about wiped out the city in the early days. The original river course around which the town was built, was dammed, ditched and eventually made into a tunnel roadway system going the length of the city underground.

The best 5 peso bus ride gave us more thrills than a fun park roller coaster, as the bus flew through the tunnel chasing down cars and taking turns that made us wish we were strapped in tight.

Guanajuato is a great, vibrant university city with lots of students buzzing about with book bags, computers or sketch pads looking for cheap places to eat or meeting with friends for a drink. There are also Spanish language schools here for anyone interested! This would indeed be a great place to do that! It is always nice to visit a town with this atmosphere. Lots of culture, theater, arts and music.

One of the places we investigated was an exhibit called the Mummies of Guanajuato - google if interested in those pictures. This museum houses over 100 naturally preserved bodies from the mid 1800 to 1960ish. During those earlier times there was a massive cholera outbreak and bodies were buried standing up to preserve space. When families could no longer pay their plot taxes the bodies were exhumed. This is when they discovered that the bodies had been naturally mummified due to the chemicals in the soil. Specialists are still trying to figure it out. No doubt, it was not for the faint of heart, especially seeing the children.

Onto a less macabre viewing was our ride up the funicular to view the whole city. Absolutely stunning to see the colourful city set out in terrain very similar to the dry Okanagan and Boundary regions of BC!

One night here we spent a few hours sitting on the university steps watching the Scorcese movie Hugo as part of the free movie nights that go on here. Haven't seen an outdoor movie in a very long time! Concentrated on reading the Spanish subtitles.

Another night, we walked into a plaza and sat at an outdoor bar. A Mexican couple started talking to us. We ended up spending several hours with them, drinking local area beers and mezcal.

.....Mezcal, it seems, is best sipped, after sucking on orange slice that has been salted with worm salt - that is, a worm that has been crushed after being in salt. It is not shot back, but taken slowly, along with the juice of the orange........

At the end of our night, we exchanged emails with them in the hopes of seeing them again. A day later, we got an email inviting us to join them at their 200 yr old hacienda for a traditional cactus meal, after our bar talk about how to best eat the cactus we'd seen being sold in the markets. What a treat and a privilege to be invited to this home and meal!

He met us at our hotel and we rode the bus to their hacienda. It sits on 6 acres overlooking the valley. It was huge and filled with antiques from his grandparents. Brian and Sue, you would have been drooling!! Such a wonderful evening!!

Otherwise we have just been walking through the maze of streets never quite knowing where we will end up. Our final evening we went to the symphony at Teatro Principal. This theater has high backed, padded, plush seats. Locals entered with drinks and in casual attire. We paid 80 pesos or about $6.