Mexico Day 5
Today marks the midpoint of our holiday and to celebrate this fact the locals began our day with fireworks at 6am through to 9:30am (when we left town for the day) and church bells from 6:30am accompanied by singing. 🙂 Thank you very much people of San Miguel. We have been told to expect the same tomorrow.
Since we were up so early we decided to have the butler, Gustavo, bring us a morning tea and coffee before we had breakfast. He brought it down to our room, and had a flower in a vase especially for “Miss Deborah”. 🙂
Our drive to Guanajuato (the capital of the state of the same name) took about 1 1/4hrs (it’s around 55km away). This is an old town with very narrow streets, so narrow that in some places cars and pedestrians cannot share the width of the road +footpath. They have built a network of tunnels around and under the city to help with traffic flow.
The city itself is built in a valley and the houses line the slopes, while the shops, churches (lots of them) and other buildings hug the main street and about a block either side in the floor of the valley. The view from the top of the hills was stunning, like one of those jigsaw puzzles that takes ages to do. The colours of the city were amazing, yellows, browns, greens and white, in a patchwork all through the valley.
We parked at the top of the hill and got a funicular down to the main street. The funicular was at angle of 42 degrees and started about 75m above the valley floor. We walked the streets visiting an array of churches (everyone different from the other, from very ornate Baroque to very simple, and each with its own presence), a spattering of museums (telling the history of the area, its role in Mexico’s independence and that of prominent people from the area), various shops and a market. All so very colourful and interesting.
We had lunch with our guide in a nice restaurant, Casa Valadez, I had Chicken enchiladas with black and green mole (the black has chocolate in it, a lot of chocolate) and Deb had a Calda Loco (Chicken soup with lots of things in it). We sat at a window table, and as we ate, a guitar playing and singing duo walked up next to our window and began to serenade us with local Mexican songs.
It was nice to share lunch with Ariushka, she leaves us tomorrow after we get to Puebla. We have both enjoyed having her as our guide, she “got us” very early and has tailored our trip on the go to our liking and given us hints of things to do and see and taste after she has said goodbye. Very thoughtful.
When we got back Gustavo had left a note for us, wishing us a good stay and also had left flower petals all through the room. (we both felt bad we hadn’t left a tip for him on the bed when we left. Ooops, tomorrow we will do it. 🙂
5:15pm, the fireworks begin, again. LOL
We had dinner just around the corner from our hotel room (more on that soon) at a place called “The Restaurant”. I had Duck and Deb had Scallops, seriously good food.
On the way back we ran into a wedding procession passing the entrance to our room. Led by a child riding a donkey and a Mexican band in white attire and sombreros, the bride and groom were strolling the streets of San Miguel with their wedding party and guests. It’s a Mexican tradition.
Now our hotel, it’s a bit different. It is made up of a series of houses, not all connected, or on the same street/block for that matter, that have been converted into a series of 4 to 6 room satellites of the “Hotel”. Ours used to be stables, that they have converted into six 2 storey “rooms”. Very comfortable and great staff.
Tomorrow to Puebla
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