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Published: December 2nd 2006
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Places Visited : - San Miguel De Allende, Guanajuato and Zacatecas
After Mexico City we headed north to a pretty little town called San Miguel De Allende. This was a nice chilled out place with lots of quaint and quirky shops selling handicrafts and jewellery, pottery and lots of different types of art, this is a great place to relax which is why it was voted in the top 20 places to retire in the world, this explains why there are so many wealthy old Americans, they were everywhere! Women covered in thick makeup, plastic surgery evident and the men smoking huge cigars and talking really loudly about how rich they are!?! Due to the ex-pat influence and money in the town there were lots of great places to eat, we tried a restaurant called El Pegaso and the food was gorgeous, it topped our list for the best scran of the trip so far. We had shark for the first time, really delicious, we will be looking out for that on the menu in future! To top it off they had home-made lemon meringue pie for desert, my favourite!
After San Miguel we travelled to Guanajuato, this was
Michelle and Tequila
Only this size was good enough for the piss head! just like an old medieval English town, its architecture of winding streets a couple of meters wide, built on lots of different levels with jutting overhangs of balconies. It was very easy to get lost here and we did a number of times! Here´s a romantic story for you, due to the streets being so close, some of the house balconies touch at the top, a few hundred years ago, a young couple fell in love, the problem was the father did not like the lad as he worked in the local mine and the daughter was part of a rich family, so he forbade them from seeing each other, the miner didn’t let this stop him and rented a room in the house next to the girls. The two balconies were less than a foot apart so they sneaked kisses (besos) each night. As with most love stories, it ended tragically although I´m not sure how. The two houses are now a tourist trap where you can go and kiss then some bloke takes your photo! We went and kissed as you do but took my own photo, ever the pickey!
The town is built into a mountain
side so there are lots of steep winding streets, with tunnels that the traffic uses. Quite hard to explain as there is nothing like it in England! The main reason that people settled here is due to the huge amount of silver, gold and other expensive minerals in the hills. At one point the mine produced over 20% of the worlds silver, so you never know you may have a piece of Guanajuato silver in your jewellery box! For Mexico this place is famous as the starting point of the Mexican Revolution against the Spanish in 1810 by Miguel Hidalgo. The movement only lasted a year as the four main leaders including Hidalgo were captured and executed, their heads were displayed in metal cages at each corner of the towns fort as a warning to any up and coming rebels. This only spurred the rebels on more and the rebellion lasted 11 years and the Spanish finally gave up and left.
Next was Zacatecas, another silver town. We timed our arrival for their biggest yearly festival, ´La Morisma´, I´ve never seen anything like it, around 40,000 people were involved in the re-enactment of the battles that the Spanish fought
against the Moors. I´m not sure why they didn’t pick a famous Mexican battle, oh well!? It all began in the morning when both armies paraded the streets dressed in full battle regalia, they took turns to march through the town, I couldn’t believe the sheer numbers involved, each had the correct uniform for their battalion, there were kids as young as 2 marching, with their Dads, they were all so serious, acting like a true army. There were lots of different regiments, each with their own military band, really realistic. The two armies converged on one of the hills near town and the battle begins, they stormed each others castles with explosions and bangs, very impressive and as you may have guessed the Christians won! Also at the battlefield was other entertainment, similar to the travelling fairs at home, lots of silly games and strange and wonderful food to eat, none of it healthy!
As the festival is also a religious event there were also lots of people on pilgrimage, they travelled the 2 miles from the town Cathedral then climbed the steep hill to the battlefield on their hands and knees, in the mud and rain trying
to reach the small church at the top. The terrain was really rough and they looked in agony, they had friends and family members placing old blankets in front of them as they hobbled to ease some of the pain, it didn’t look like it worked to me. Their faith and commitment was very honourable.
The day after the festival we went down one of the mines here, the mine had similar horror stories to home, the indigenous people being treated like slaves with the kids having to work from a young age, most not reaching adolescence. Around 5 people or more died each day whilst working in the horrendous conditions. The tour was in Spanish but still very inciteful (Michelle translated some of it!?), it gave us a good idea of the local history. One of Zacatecas´ hidden gems is Parque Juarez, small but nice, lots of green with a very pretty pinkish stone church on the hillside overlooking the park. The best thing was the water fountains, similar to the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, except on a much, much smaller scale! For those who don’t know about the Bellagio Hotel its where the fountains ´dance´ to
classical music and look like fireworks as the water explodes with multi-coloured lights beneath the water. It was a great place to sit for a while and relax. Every city should have one! Its much better than Piccadilly Gardens with its semi naked kids running everywhere in every weather and the pigeons crapping all over too!
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