Day 5 Guanajuato

This morning we have breakfast at the restaurant in the nun’s house.  What a treat!  We felt so plush eating in the fancy dinning room.  Lace curtains, heavy tapestry table cloths.  It really reminded me a lot of Dutch decor. I thought I had a picture to insert here.........

After breakfast, we head for our next city, Guanajuato.  We want to get there early as the Cervantes Festival is going on and Juan tells us that as the day goes on, the streets will get more and more crowded.  He was right!!!  We got there about 11 and dropped our bags at the hotel  Later in the day, it would have been very difficult for the van to get close to the hotel.   The hotel is definitely the weak link in the hotels of the tour.  But, with the festival, it was slim pickens.  

We set off walking.  We see that one of the many stages for the festival is a block from our hotel.  Nothing is happening there now but we learn that the closing festivities will be held here on Sunday night.  We walk about another block to the house where Diego Rivera was born.  There are several temporary exhibits that are quite interesting.  One is very playful and then at the other extreme is one on the hardship of migration.  Diego’s family moved from Guanajuato to Mexico City when he was a child. From the house, it was clear that the family was quite wealthy. 

 We walk down to the center of the city.  The number of people on the streets is increasing by the hour.  On the steps of the university, it appears that they are preparing for a show.  We enjoy a lunch outside on the square.

 We continued to the main triangle park where we enjoyed lunch.  Guanajuato is nestled in the hills so lots of up and down and twisting streets.  There isn’t room for any one big central park so there are several charming smaller ones.

 

 The theater next to the main plaza.
Several students wanted to interview us for a school project.  One would video while the other did the interviewing. 

After lunch, we take the funicular to  an overview place.  At the top there are food stands, a statue of  El Pipila, the hero of the city whose brave actions achieved the first vicotry of the Mexican independence. 

           It looks like it could start to rain so I stand in line for the cable car going down as I figure when it starts to rain, the line will suddenly get really long.  Clap of thunder, clouds open up and our group joins me at the front of the line.  That worked well!   At the bottom, we rush to where we had lunch for a drink while we wait for the rain to stop.  The waiter put several tables together inside for us.  Glad I left such a generous tip……The hot chocolate was wonderful!  I hear the mezcal was too. 

The rain stops and we continue our exploring the little streets.  One of them is famous as the kissing street. It is so narrow that you can be on balconies on different sides, lean over and kiss. Glad that Juan knows his way around.  I really don’t know how to get back to the hotel from where we are and there is no going around the block in Guanajuato.  The streets are quite crowded now this merry makers.  We made our way through one street where they were playing Greek folk music and doing chain dancing.  OK, not dancing but jumping, hopping.  Not the Syrtos that we did to the music in folk dancing.  But it was fun. 

We go back to the hotel and check in.  Oh, this is definitely the weak point of the trip on hotels.  Location is nice but not nearly as nice as the other hotels we’ve been staying in AND, they only have rooms with one bed!  I give the few rooms with a king bed to the single women.  Because of the festival, I was lucky to even get this hotel.  Reservations are made a year in advance during the 2 weeks of the festival.  Everyone is a good sport and I promise that the hotels in Morelia and Patzcuaro are nice and have elevators. 

Time for dinner.  Because of the Festival, none of the restaurants are taking reservations.  We decide to have a little bit of an early dinner to try to beat the biggest of the dinner crowd.  We head towards the center of town.  On the way we go through a small plaza where there is performance of traditional dancing. 

We stay to watch for a few minutes and then continue on.  It gets more and more crowded.  Somehow, we stay together and eat at the closer of the 2 restaurants that were recommended.  We were happy to eat inside rather than on the sidewalk.  The music was about the right volume inside.  We were all having a bit of sensory overload.  We were probably older than the crowd by about 40 years.  Lots of university students from Mexico City.  The energy was fun and happy.  By the time we finished  dinner, the crowd had thinned somewhat and we didn’t feel like we needed a rope in order to stay together. 

Bed time!