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Published: January 30th 2010
After Mexico city we headed for some old Spanish colonial towns to the north west. First stop San Miguel de Allende about 4 hours bus ride. It was nice to get away from the big city and arrive in this beautiful colonial city. After arriving in San Miguel i began to realise the spanish influence on the country with the architecture, the colours and the churches. We spent two lazy days strolling around San Miguel, taking in the sun and drinking coffee. I discovered a dish called Mole. Its a chicken dish with chocolate sauce, sounds crazy but in fact is really good. The sauce is more spicy that sweet but chocolate is the main ingredient. The night life was pretty good and we found a decent bar with live rock music and live salsa music.
There is a touch of the picture perfect mexican town in San Miguel with its Disney land style cathedral. It is also over run with retired Americans. Its is probably their money that lead to all the art shops. Overall it is nice but just feels a little bit fake. Lets move on.
Sunday the 24th of January we left San Miguel de
Allende and headed for Guanajuato. This place is a gem. It is set in a basin between a number of hills. Originally it was an old Spanish colonial mining town for silver and with all the money from this silver a beautiful city arose. The streets are small and wind up through the sides of the surrounding hills. Some of the streets should actually be called stairs. There are churches, plazas, museums and theatres galore and the houses are a mix of the most colourful of colours.
The hostel we found was a little uphill from the centre and our room was right beside the rooftop terrace which had an amazing view of the town. We fell in love with the place immediately and decided to stay for a week and learn some spanish. Monday morning we enrolled in a school for the week. Babette joined an intermediate class and i joined a beginners class. We each had four hours of classes everyday ranging from 9.am until 2 leaving us the afternoons to explore the town as we wished. My teachers were Juan Carlos and Esme (Esmerelda). They were fantastic and now after a week i can order a
Shopping
For those of you wishing to fing Saws and Valentines day cards in the same shopbeer and ask for directions to the toilet. Mighty.
The afternoons and evenings were spent in cafes, in restaurants eating, cooking in the hostel kitchen by the roof top terrace, strolling around and of course climbing an nearby mountain with a cross on top. We went for a jog one evening and on the way back Babette had the great idea of joining a salsa dance class. In a salsa dance class you change partners regularly and you do from time to time lift your arms up. That was nice for my dance partners after my run. I didnt know how to stay in Spanish "sorry ive just been for a run excuse my stench". I also bought a new travel companion, a guitar. Cost me 30euro and it doesnt actually sound to bad.
We also took part in the cultural side of things, attending a orchestra symphony in one of the theatres and we gate crashed a private karaoke competition in a karaoke bar one evening (they didnt mind), but you didnt really need to go in anywhere to experience the culture. At night the streets were full of music with mobile bands prowling the streets playing
Breakfast in the sun
The terrace in the hostel in Guanajuato was suberb with a view of the city their Mexican music to restaurant goers and people on park benches.
Guanajuato is a little touch of Paradise. I leave it happy and with a few words of Spanish. Adios Amigos.
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