Day Seven, brief stop in Guanajuato

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Day Seven:
We left Teotihuacan around 8:15 for the drive to Guanajuato. We had to head back toward Mexico City and didn’t know how bad the traffic would be even though we were going to be skirting around the north side of the city. We found the roads without any problem but just as we were entering the highway toward Queretero (which we need to pass through along the way), we had our first experience with police corruption. A couple of Policia Federal cars parked along the side of the entrance ramp pulled us over and showed me what looked like a traffic law book that prohibited cars with foreign plates from circulating within the D.F. between 5 and 11 AM. When he mentioned that we were only 40 km from the border of the D.F. (the “safe zone”), he suggested that there might be a way to just let us pass through. So we started out at about $100USD per car but told him we didn’t have that much. I showed him my wallet, with all of about $15USD (didn’t want to have to reach into the stash in an envelope in my computer bag). He went down to $50USD but we said it was still too much. So we turned off our engines and told him we’d wait till 11 (I don’t think it was yet 9 by then). He then agreed to accept only $15USD each which is what we offered to begin with. Just after giving him the money, I asked for his name and badge number. When he asked why, I told him I’d call my friend in the American Embassy who would pass the info to the Security Office, who would then call the Ministerio Publico (Department of Justice) so I could file a denuncia (complaint). He gave me back the money and we left. We won!
No more excitement on the road till we hit Guanajuato after about 3.5 hours. This city is like no other in which I’ve ever driven. Many of the roads are underground. Fortunately the signs are good so I kept us heading in the right direction towards the historic center which is where our hotel is located. However, the roads are very narrow so there is no place to pull over and park to do a map check to locate yourself and figure out how to get to the hotel. Going around the center itself is a big loop, about 10 minutes around. We had to do it twice cause we passed right by the hotel without realizing it the first time. We finally found a place to pull over and call the hotel, which happened to be at the bottom of the hill (many hills and very steep here) only a couple of blocks from the hotel. So we did the loop again and just by chance I noticed the hotel just as we were about to pass by for the second time. At least this time I was going a lot slower cause I knew I had passed by the landmark telling us it was close.
The hotel where we are staying, Meson de los Poetas, is very nice—the nicest hotel at which we’ve stayed so far on the trip. I highly recommend it to anyone traveling to Guanajuato. Too bad we are only staying here one night—I could stay here for a while.
I broke one of my major rules of traveling and agreed to go on a guided tour this afternoon. Supposedly we would see all the highlights of the city. The two major things I wanted to see, Callejon del Beso (Kissing Alley, so-named because it is so narrow the balconies on either side are practically touching) and the Mummy Museum were not on the tour. We did get to see a couple of museums in which the feature attraction was torture devices---apparently the Spanish Inquisition was practiced with zeal here in Guanajuato. We also got to see a silver mine, although it wasn’t nearly as cool as I thought it would be. In one of the museums and the mine there were mummies, so at least we did get to see that—there are minerals in the soil here which mummify bodies, pretty wild.
I would really have liked to see the view of the city from the top of the hill and ride the funicular (cable car)—we had a brief drive-by of the view and it was raining. Also, the birthplace of the Mexican Revolution, Dolores Hidalgo, is very close to here. Between sights missed and a brief stay at a nice hotel, I feel for the first time on the trip that I wish I could spend more time here and that I’m missing out.
But Guadalajara calls.

For those keeping score at home: the trip odometer now reads 1530 miles, we drove 232 miles today and spent $349MXN ($26.04USD) in tolls.

Will try and post pictures tomorrow.

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Photos

Meson de los Poetas, patio
Our hotel

Mural panel by Diego Rivera
Center panel from a copy of a mural by famous Mexican artist and Guanajuato native Diego Rivera.

Rooftop view of Guanajuato
view would have been much nicer from an overlook or on the funicular (cable car)

Buried alive
Apparently a form of torture during the inquisition was to bury people alive in the walls

Mummified Remains
Not from the Mummy Museum but Guanajuato has enough mummies around that we were able to find some