Arriving in Guanajuato

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When I booked my flights to Mexico I included time after the end of term in order to have the opportunity to travel further afield than I could for weekend breaks. Towards the end of term as weekends starting running out and my return home was drawing near I started to plan the places I wanted to visit that I had not seen and for my final week in Mexico I had quite an itinerary planned.
It is now my final week in Mexico and instead of enthusiastically leaping out of bed to hop on a bus and visit somewhere new I am wallowing in travel-apathy. It's not necessarily a bad thing. While the temperture has cooled off and the sky has been overcast of late I have also been ill and since the other teachers have already left and Mexican friends are busy with work I have been quite content to lounge around the flat alone. Apart from daily visits to the market for food and an occasional meander around the city I have passed most of my time sprawled across the bed with either a book or my laptop and have caught up on both my reading and essential tv viewing. It has been good to just relax and begin negotiating with my belongs how they are all going to fit in the suitcase again.
However Guanajuato was one place on my abandoned itinerary that I did still really want to see. A few students had recommended it to me and before leaving Colin had listed it as one of his favourite places he'd visited. I packed an overnight bag and met a friend who dropped me part way and I caught a quicker bus. I had to wait awhile in the bus depot while a mother struggled to keep her two kids from running off and ended up chasing them to an altar of a Virgin oposite the tickets desk. I soon settled into my seat on the bus and viewed the dismal weather as we drove to Guanajuato. We had a few stops along the way and I worried about finding the right place as I knew of nothing to look for to confirm my arrival in Guanajuato. Indeed when we finally arrived and I asked if this was in fact Guanajuato I found myself in a bus station with nothing much to see and had to take a relatively long taxi ride into town. The views were very pleasant and the recent rain at least means the countryside has an extra lushness.
I arrived at my hostel and was shown to my room through a door directly behind the front desk. I've booked a private room so I can relax on my last sightseeing trip and so was a little bemused to find myself with a dorm... all to myself. With a double bed, single bed and bunk beds to choose from I am certianly not lacking in space!
I spent the afternoon exploring the city. The hostel is very well situated, walking directly along the road I passed the Teatro Principal and arrived at a central plaza.
Guanajuato was rich in gold and the area was mined long before the Spanish arrived. The oldest known name for the area is “Mo-o-ti” which means “place of metals" whilst the current name of 'Guanajuato' comes from P'urhépecha “Quanax huato” which means “hilly place of frogs.”
The Spanish found deposits of gold here in the 1540s and as soon as they knew the area could hold extreme amounts of wealth, they sent soldiers and built forts. In 1548, the outpost formally established with the name of Real de Minas de Guanajuato by viceroy Antonio de Mendoza. Despite Chichimeca attacks, the population of the area grew rapidly with the arrival of Spanish and Creole adventurers and indigenous and mestizo laborers. It was soon declared a town with Preafán de Rivera as the first mayor with the name of Santa Fe Real de Minas de Guanajuato.
Throughout the 18th century Guanajato was the world’s leading silver extraction center and amounted huge wealth. Despite the huge wealth coming from the mines the lower classes remained in poverty. One event foreshadowing the Mexican War of Independence was a revolt carried out in the city attacking the Caja Real (building to hold the Crown’s share of mining production) to protest the high taxes. The War of Independence broke out in the state of Guanajuato in the town of Dolores when Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla raised an insurgent army in September 1810 and marched to San Miguel then onto the city of Guanajuato. After Independence, the province of Guanajuato was made a state and the city was made its capital in 1824.
My initial walk took me first to El Templo de la Compania, built 1747 and 1765, and I wandered the interior, which though undeniably beautiful is little different to the countless Catholic churches I have visited in Mexico. From there I reached the main plaza, Plaza de la Paz, so named for the 19th century statue of a woman symbolising peace. The garden plaza is overlooked by the impressive Basilica Colegiata de Nuestra Señora de Guanajuato which was built between 1671 and 1696. The basilica is a vibrant yellow and red building and despite there being a service on I was able to stand at the back to view the interior. The interior of the basilica is breathtaking, by far the most beautiful I have yet seen as it is lit by a series of ornate chandeliers suspended from above.
I continued my rather aimless walk, passed the impressive university building and followed the road upwards through narrow alleys, up winding stairways until I reached the small red Santuario de Guadalupe. After stopping in the church I retraced my steps, more or less, and began explorig around the city centre.
There are many small plazas throughout the city, accompanied by churches who gave them their names. Walking down from the large Basilica I found the Jardín de la Unión, a beautiful plaza filled with pruned Indian Laurels which shelter numerous cafes and restuarants. Across the road is the San Diego Church and beside that, the Juarez Theatre. Beyond the plaza I visited a couple more churches before searching out the route to the monument of El Pípila which stands above the city.
I think I followed my own trail rather the the set tourist route and I walked uphill between the backs of the houses and along winding footpaths at the edge of gardens. The streets were deserted and no one troubled me as I made my way upwards, apart from one unwelcoming sign on a front door announcing clearing in Spanish that 'This is a Catholic home. No Protostants or other sects.' Friendly!
I finally reached the summit where the statue of El Pipila stands over the city one arm raised to the sky. The story goes that in the war of Independance Hidalgo entered the city of Guanajuato and engaed the spanish in the first battle as he attacked the granary in the 'Siege of the Alhondiga'. The insurgents were unable to take the building as royalist gunfire kept them from approaching the only entrance into the building. Then a poor miner by the name of Juan José de los Reyes Martínez, better known as El Pípila, strapped a large flat stone onto his back for protection. Crawling, he carried a flask of tar and a torch. When he reached the wooden doors of the main entrance, he smeared it with the tar and set it on fire. This allowed the insurgents to enter and take the building. The statue honours this local hero.
The whole area is perfect for viewing the city from above. A flat walled patio sits below the statue and the road above is filled with eating stalls and little shops. I passed a fair amount of time doing some overdue souvenir buying for friends and family back home and was bemused by just how many frogs were on sale in every shop. I sat and admired the view in the early twilight and realised I couldn't be bothered to walk down into the centre and then back up again to see the city by night so I opted to huddle on a bench and wait. I have never noticed just how long the sun takes to go down before! I sat on the bench for nearly two hours before the gathering gloom made any real difference to the scene before me and I remained over three hours in total until true dark took the city. The view was worth the wait as all the churches were beautifully lit up and lights twinkled across the slopes of the mountians opposite. Eventually I walked back down hill, treading carefully in the dark. As I reached one of the lower streets behind the houses I heard men's voices and the odd note from a string instrument. When they finally came into view I was bemused to see them in costume, lookng like they'd wandered out of the renaissance period in padded hosiery and doublets of black velvet trimmed in gold. I have absolutely no idea what a group of renaissance minstrels were doing sharing beers with others clad in more modern fashions down the back streets of Guanajuato at night, but after several hours sitting on a bench outside I was more interested in tracking down food and returning to the hostel. I spent the evening picnicing in my room and making full use of the endlessly hot shower before curling up in front of the tv while the rain started again outside.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

I'm glad you made the trip
Very nice blog and photos.