Guanajuato, Gto.

Guanajuato, Gto.

Guanajuato is the capital of the state of Guanajuato, and our destination for Wednesday. We got out of the B&B in time to catch the 8:45 AM bus to Guanajuato. We rode ETN bus line again, very nice. The internet on the bus worked near the cities, but not out in the country, as one might have expected.

We took a taxi to the Jardin (central square), and then took the funicular up to the monument to Pipila, a hero of Mexican independence. The story is that Pipila put a stone on his back to protect him from Spanish bullets, and burned the door to the grainry where the Spaniards were holed up. A guide gave us a few minutes of description of the city, pointing out the landmarks.

We took the funicular back down, and went into the Juarez theater to admire the architecture. The theater was built around 1900, and is extremely ornate. When Marianne and I were in Guanajuato for the Cervantino festival, we saw the Royal Shakespeare company perform there.Guanajuato, Gto.

We had lunch on the jardin in the upscale Casa Valadez. After lunch we strolled downhill, seeing a few other small parks, and visiting the Basilica. We stopped in the Mercado Hildago, where we were able to find Eileen some “papel picado”, the cut out paper that Mexicans use as decorations.

We took a cab to the Templo Valenciana on the hill, a kind of over the top Churrigueresque style of architecture. The painting shows the bible story where the crowd was going to stone the adulterous woman, and Jesus said “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” We took a cab back to town to sit in a park while waiting for our bus.

Barbara really liked Guanajuato, which is one of my favorite places in Mexico also.

We took the Primera Plus bus back to San Miguel, not quite as nice as ETN, but very good.

Unfortunately, Thursday was a sick day, with literally all three of us sick, spending lots of time in the bathroom. We strolled to an expensive hotel ($300/night US) for an evening drink, but none of us felt like eating anything.

Barb has decided to cut her stay short and return to the US with us.