Guanajuato

Last weekend, Brendan and I celebrated the sunny skies by hopping a bus and travelling an hour and a half to Guanajuato, a neighbouring city steeped in history, colour and sheer liveliness.  We arrived by noon, cabbed it downtown through underground tunnels and emerged at their Jardin in the Centro.  Founded by Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century, silver was discovered here a few decades later.  By the 18th century, Guanajuato and the surrounding silver mines were THE leading suppliers of silver in the world. It's also the birthplace of Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo's hooligan husband. It's a magical place, now a university town with the craziest maze of the narrowest streets you can imagine.  And the entire downtown area is off limits to traffic.  Everyone parks underground in the refurbished mining tunnels and takes to stumbling along the cobblestones above.

They're very hospitable here... this sign welcomed us as we got out of the cab.

After stopping to listen to a few Sousa marches by a local band in the Jardin, we hoofed it down to the Hildago Market.... a gigantic mecca for tourists and locals where booths were overflowing with souvenirs, food stuffs, and endless tchatckas.

walking down to the market  

Hildago Market - 7 days a weeks since 1910

peck of peppers

The rest of the day was spent walking and eating sugar. Two stops at a candy store, gelati in the street and a double dose of churros had me feeling like I had just come off a high school date to the Red River Ex.

candy shop sign.  How could we resist? The sweets haven't hurt Catrina's teeth.

a maze of narrow streets.  Remember this Leslie?

a quilt in the making, methinks.

The weather was absolutely perfect - such a gift after the torrential rains of the previous week. We hopped the 6 pm bus, walked an hour from the bus station (just in case we hadn't walked enough that day) and were home in time for leftovers and trashy TV.  All in all a great day.  

I was much more prolific and inspired to take pictures when I had visited here before.  My 2006 pictures of Guanajuato are posted on Webshots.  here -  Guanajuato 2006  and here - Guanajuato Market 2006