Not so random observations

I just wanted to update my post of yesterday. I didn't want to make it too long, people might get discouraged at the length and stop reading them, we all know that time is precious.
Regarding Guanajuato although it is a pretty city not all of it is pretty of course. The one thing that does stand out for me is how incredibly difficult it must be to live there if you're old and infirm. The very steep streets are a challenge and we have noticed a lot of older people going poco a poco with some difficulty. Those who don't have cars usually walk to get their groceries and in the center the place to get your goods are found in the main market. The market was at least a good 20 min. walk from where our hotel was none of it easy. Of course there are buses but they seem very slow, the traffic is so congested that it's still faster to walk sometimes than sit on a slow moving bus. The buses are extremely noisy. I wonder how Guanajuato is going to make out in 10 years from now with more cars behind added to an already gridlocked situation.
There is so little parking available in the center that the city has allowed car owners to park in the main tunnels which makes for some very tricky driving. Rows and rows are parked down there, interestingly those tunnels would seem perfect for a late night robbery or assault but the crime against persons or property appears to be quite low. It's wonderful news when all one hears is how violence prone Mexico is.
In Guanajuato they seem to love cheesies to an inordinate extent. The cheesies here are like fat, nubby fingers but they're not gnarled, they are smooth. They store them in these humongous bags, I took a picture of them, it's hard to believe but they must eat cheesies by the bucket full and that's not exaggeration.
It was nice to see so many young people about. It's a vibrant, university town and it shows.
We didn't notice too many tourists around, if tourists there were they were mostly Mexicans from neighbouring towns or states. Certainly not as many gringos as on the coast.

The drive out of Guanajuato wasn't bad but it didn't go quite as smoothly as anticipated. We did however learn the Mexican word for roundabout it's called a "glorietta" we became acquainted with that "glorietta" twice once going through it and a second time when we had to turn back because we had taken the wrong exit. It is a very cute word.
Stan was ready to drive back home and I do admit it's very frustrating and hard. These colonial cities have narrow streets, parked cars on the side, topes,(speed bumps) everywhere, pedestrian crossings, pedestrians dashing across, kids, dogs, bikes, motorbikes, it's all very haphazard, it does get very stressful. Driving to the coast is one thing, relatively easy in retrospect, but driving in the interior is another kettle of fish altogether. Two years ago it's the reason why we sort of gave up after Lake Chapala and headed for the coast and then Baja California.
Baja California is really easy to drive through.
This time though we're not giving up but driving to Mexico City is definitely out of the question.
While driving to San Miguel we kept seeing people walking on the side of the road either in pairs or in groups, all sorts of people of all ages actually. You have to understand that there is nothing to walk to. Nothing for hundreds of Kms. it's a desert, there is no agriculture, just a little ranching. It starts getting greener and irrigated for crops around San Miguel. It was just so very puzzling, we wanted to know where they were going. Stan slowed the car and I asked.
It turns out they are pilgrims (pelegrinos) and they are walking for 9 days from San Miguel to San Juan de Lagos where the Virgin there is "muy milagrosa" (very miraculous). What an amazing sight. They walk with nothing, just the clothes on their back and the odd bag. We saw teens, women with infants, women with children, men, old and young, old women. Further up the road they were carrying banners and a portrait of this milagrosa virgin. They even have a roving "capilla" which is an ambulatory chapel. Wow! That's faith whether born of desperation or religious fervor it is faith indeed. More about San Miguel in a later post.