Guanajuato

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The trip is winding down and I'm torn between fantasizing about cranberry juice and loved ones back home and focusing on living in the moment while I'm here. It seems to have gone by fast, yet when I think back to things that happened at the beginning of the trip, it seems so long ago.

With that said, let the adventures continue. This past weekend was a day trip to Guanajuato. The city is in another state in Mexico. Our bus ride was only about 3 hours long, which seemed like nothing compared to Acapulco! We arrived and checked out an old Catholic Church. The altars where very intricately carved and ornamented in wood. It is hard for me to get into looking at these churches, which are prevelant all over Mexico, possibly because I don't have a good understanding of the Catholic religion. They are, however, very beautiful. Many feature paintings in honor of the Virgin Guadalupe. She is the only dark skinned saint. The history of Mexico and Catholicism is strongly tied to this saint. A Mexican man named Juan Diego had visions of the virgin and was utilized by the pope to spread the word about Catholicism. One point of view questions that the Spaniards were using this story to secure their control of the Mexican territory. Regardless, from that point, the population of Mexico found their niche in the Catholic relgion and it is still the most popular religion in Mexico today.

We then stopped by a museum of mummies. The tour was optional so I opted out. Most of the students who went in were grossed out, and I decided not to push my quesy stomach. Instead, a few of us putzed around the tourist shops and ate churros.

After the museum, our guide took us to a look out above the city of Guanajuato. It is so amazing to see these huge cities spread out at your fingertips, farther in all directions than the eye can see. The colors of the buildings bring so much life and character to the country! The lookout point was on a hill, so we took a "trolley" down into the town. It actually resembled the gondola at Keystone, only it's main purpose was to deliver people down into the town or bring them back up.

We had ample time to shop and eat before our tour of the downtown area. Guanajuato is known for its mines as well, so there were lots of little shops with silver, as well as other Mexico souveniers to poke through.

On our tour, we walked underground to see the public transportation roads. The town has a history of flooding, so the canals were actuallly orginally constructed as an escape for the excess water. As the twon developed, the canals were used as roads to prevent excess traffic from crowding the city. Now there are other canals further down for the flood waters to drain into so that the underground roads can always function. It was actually quite nifty not to have much traffic while we were shopping and romping about in the city.

With the long day behind us, we headed for the bus where I sat with a girl from K-State who I hadn't had a chance to meet. Turns out she is from California, went to her first year of school at NYU, and knows all about places to visit in New York City. We talked about sushi, boyfriends, church, and family vacations. It was quite a nice little chat at the end of a long day!

Only one more week left and I'm home free!

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Photos

View from lookout point
This stretched out in all directions. Quite humbling.

Underground roads
Here is a passage into the roads that are underneath the city to control the traffic flow.

Icecream break
Icecream must be a universal attraction. This picture was taken in a plaza, you can see the typical open air cafés in the background. Monuments or fountains like this are also pretty commun in the plazas.