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Published: January 20th 2011
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Today I'm leaving Guadalajara for Guanajuato. Everyone I have spoken to says Guanajuato is very beautiful, so I have high hopes. I will be staying there for 2 nights and intend to go for a day trip to San Miguel de Allende on the second day.
This morning, I was again awake at the crack of dawn. Someone had arrived in the dorm late last night so I decided to stay in bed for a while to not wake her up. I got up at about 7.30, got ready, had breakfast, packed and left by 8.30. I asked the receptionist where to get the camion to the station and he said to get one to the centre on the next street and then one next to the Cathedral to get to Central Nueva. Got no problem with the first one but struggled with the second. For a start, I didn't know which side of the street I was supposed to be on. So I asked and was advised to walk 2 blocks down as I wasn't in the right spot. Then I asked someone else who gave me some more info about which bus and which way and then I basically
flagged every bus that said “Tonala” on it (it's the name of the suburb) and asked them if they were going to the station. Third time lucky and I hoped on. The driver looked miserable and I thought there was no way he'd tell me where to get off. I wasn't even sure if he really was going to where I wanted to go... So I pulled out my map and tried to follow the route (which I think I did pretty well.) After a little while, a man on the bus turned round and asked me what kind of bus I wanted (I knew there were 2 stations, one for local and one for longer routes), so I told him where I was going and he confirmed I was on the right bus. I was a bit relieved. Then it was a question of not missing the stop... I knew I wasn't far but I couldn't see the station and then, this other chap called me and told me that was where I needed to get off and which way to walk. I thanked him and disappeared, once again being grateful towards the lovely people of Guada!
It was
9.40 and I'd checked the buses online the previous night, so I knew there was a luxury one at 9.45, but I wanted the chicken bus this time (for which I couldn't find a timetable). I went to the counter and asked, but the lady told me there were no normal service from here, only luxury and that the next one was at 10.45, not 9.45. I wasn't too happy and wondered if I should have gone to the other bus station for the chicken bus (I will never know) but reluctantly bought my ticket and went to wait for an hour.
At the time of boarding the coach, some man from the coach company started telling me that I couldn't take my rucksack with me because it was too big. I explained it was fine and that I always took it with me, but he insisted it had to go below, in the luggage bit of the bus (whatever it's called). Trying to build a reasoned argument in Spanish... Well, that's not quite the level I'm at, so I had to admit defeat on this one when he started pointing at the Ryanair type “This is the hand luggage
size you're allowed thing”... The journey went smoothly and thankfully my bag was still there when we arrived at Guanajuato.
As I got off, I noticed a tourist information desk and the man saw me and jumped on me asking if I needed some tourist information (maybe he doesn't see too many tourists around this time of year and he was happy to have something to do). I didn't really, because I knew what I had to do, but I didn't want to crush his hopes of helpfulness so I asked him how to get to where I was going. He told me what I already knew but I was happy enough to have it confirmed.
So I got on the local bus and asked the friendly looking driver to tell me when we got to Campanero which was where I needed to get off. “No problem, I'll tell you”, great, only he forgot, didn't he? So I ended up way too far and had to walk back to where I should have got off. On the bright side I got an early tour of the town, which did look stunning.
I got to the hostel in the end and
it looks OK, not great, but for under £5, I'm happy to have a bed. And it looks like there are only 3 of us in the 10 bed dorm, so hopefully not too much snoring!
It was 4pm by the time I left the hostel to go and explore, The view arriving into town on the bus was amazing, all those brightly coloured houses packed on the hills. The pictures tell the story better than I ever could...
I managed to have a really good look around in the space of 3 hours. I went up a lot of steps and obviously down too, went up to the top-ish on 3 different sides to have panoramic views and this time I really managed to get away from the tourist trail. Unfortunately, once you get away from the main streets it does get a bit unattractive in places (fair bit of litter and a lot of graffiti). But overall I thought it was very “precioso” as they would say here. I loved the village atmosphere, even though it's not that small (it is the capital of the state and has over 70000 people living in the town), it feels small
because most of the streets are narrow cobblestoned alleyways and inaccessible to cars. Anyway, I'll let the pictures do the talking today...
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delphine
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c'est joliiiiiii
coucou, ma copine qui est allee en vacances au Mexique pour Noel m'avait que c'etait beau. tres riche en couleurs, pour le moment et d'apres tes photos, c'est mon endroit prefere. j'attends la suite... hier soir, j'ai fini de lire le chapitre sur Ontario et WAHHH, il me tarde... bises