Blogs from Guanajuato, Mexico, North America - page 24

Semana Santa (holy week) On Good Friday locals and visitors crowded the streets of the procession route to watch the reenactment of the solemn occasion of the Holy Burial. 2000 people participated in the processional. An 18th century life size figure of the Virgin of Solitude and the figure of Jesus of Nazarene were the main but certainly not only old statues and figures from principal churches. The crowd was absolutely quite throughout the three hours it was spectacular. Uniformed Roman soldiers, young girls dressed in white as angels, women with black lace mantillas and black suited pallbearers…accompany carved statues of archangels. On Sunday they had a paper Mache live size Judas which they ceremoniously exploded! I hope to down load some pictures. In San Miquel de Allende (SMA) they boast 300 churches. This means at ... read more

The sun was fading fast when I finally arrived at my 17th century colonial apartment. The lady that I’ve come to know as Vera the housekeeper answered the door. She immediately starting speaking to me in Spanish - I told her I didn’t understand but this did not deter her. She went on and on showing me where I had access to and how things worked. Some of it I understood. She then summoned the senorita of the house Georgia. I was taken into a room at the back of the house to wait. Apparently electricity is expensive as it was completely dark in the house. I was surrounded by heads. Many paintings filled the walls. They were paintings of heads both male and female - portraits of a type that were popular in Paris in ... read more

We got on the bus, which was an amazing effort on my part. I could not eat the free ham sandwich proving how sick I feel right now. We left our lonely planet in the cab, I had every faith the cabbie would bring it back, San Miguel is only a small place, just in case anyone finds it, it was left in the front seat of a green and white cab the driver had a moustache and a beer belly. San Miguel is an old Spanish colonial wonderment, famous for its silver mining and natural spas, steeped in history. The wobbly cobbled streets gave me blisters that hurt like hell, thing is I did invest in some good walking boots for this trip which were worn in well before I came away, however they are ... read more

Yesterday we took a taxi up to the small lakes at one end of the valley or bowl where the town is located, and walked back down. There were lots of old, beautiful government buildings along the way down....I went into one "museum" that turned out to be a very hokey haunted house... Today we took a taxi up to a mining town above Guanajuato, where there is a decaying but lovely old church ad an active silver mine. The church was locked but I asked woman nearby if it would open later. Turned out she had the keys in her house and let us in.... Next we decided to hike up to one the pilgrimage sites on a near-by mountain, passing by a few silver mines. The hike took about an half hour each way, ... read more

We took a luxury bus from Mexico City to Guanajuato today, traveling through the countryside northwest of Mexico City for 4 and a half hours. This city is an old mining town, where silver was found before the Spanish arrived. It is in small basin surrounded by hills, and reached through a series of tunnels. Most of the city is only accessible by foot. The buildings are painted in many colors, and there is a magnificent theater in the middle. The town is crowded (there is a university here, so there are lots of students), but really pleasant...with many small side streets and alleys, shops, parks, and museums. It warm during the day, and cool in the evening. A few things I forgot to add to yesterdays blog: our taxi driver told us that most people ... read more