Postcard from Guanajuato

We have been in Guanajuato for three lovely, fun filled days. The only part which was a little difficult was getting here. Read the directions wrong in Guadalajara,my fault, ended up circling around the peripherico till we finally figured out how to get the hell out of there. It's very frustrating at times, a car is nice to have but not always easy to manoeuvre in a city of millions harboring drivers with mostly bad driving habits. It's our second kick at the can when it comes to driving in Guadalajara and that can is getting pretty dented.
Guanajuato is a city built on hills, houses scramble up the hillside, there are only 3 main arteries which very inconveniently change names periodically. In addition there are countless smaller streets and the tiniest passageways which they euphemistically call "calleron". In other words it's still a calle of sorts. Guanajuato is situated at an altitude of 6000 ft. not as high as La Paz, Bolivia which at 10,000 ft is one of the highest capital in the world, nevertheless you can find yourself a little short of breath especially when climbing some of those steep hills or stairs.
Our hotel Posada Santa Barbara is lovely but it's a little far from the center and to get to the center we must navigate this very steep street, fine going down but murder coming back when you're tired, still I'm not complaining we could be battling a blizzard instead and or shoveling snow not to mention having to report to a job.
Yesterday we took a tour, all in Spanish with a few other Mexicans who were also visiting the city. We visited a "haunted house" built during the colonial era who's owner went mad when his wife died. He proceeded to kidnap young girls thinking they were his dead wife. When he saw that they weren't he killed them and eventually took his own life. All very macabre, lots of sound effects, it was pretty cool. Mexicans love this kind of ghoulish stuff.
Our next stop was a viewing of the Inquisition's favored tools for torturing people. All I can say is they were endlessly creative when it came to punishing people, especially women who strayed. It wasn't quite as graphic as the museum in Lima which I was very happy about.
In the heydays of Guanajuato mining was what made the town prosper. As a result of having found a very rich vein one of Guanajuato's patrons built this lavish church in a totally baroque style, very ornate and that's where we ended up next. I found it ironic that we went from torture initiated by the church to "venerating" in a church. The Inquisition was a brutal time and there's no erasing that history.
In between we visited a shop that sells sweets, they have a wide assortment of specialties typical of Guanajuato.
After the sweets and the Church we visited a very small part of the original mine called Valenciana and to which Guanajuato owed a lot of its riches. We went down approximately 70 meters which seemed like a lot till the guide told us that the original mine went down about 600 meters. Everything was done by hand,inhuman conditions, slavery really and very hard to imagine how so many endured. Of course they generally didn't have a choice,
Many miners died in La Valenciana bringing back the precious gold and silver while others got morbidly rich, nothing ever changes.
We ended our day with a view of the city from one of its highest points. When the sun sets and hits the houses just right, the houses look like little jeweled boxes of color in blues, pinks, reds, oranges, purples. Not all the houses are colored but enough are thus giving the city its distinctive look.
I forgot to mention that the famous painter Diego Rivera was born in Guanajuato and we visited the house where he was born. The house contains a lot of his earlier works which map his trajectory as a painter and muralist. The only problem was that the lower level of the house stank of "aguas negras" (sewers) which marred our enjoyment a little bit. Guanajuato has kms. of tunnels, about 27 of them, you must go through some of those tunnels to get out of the city and they form like a labyrinth if you don't know where you're going. They were also used, at one time, as conduits for the "aguas negras", they haven't quite solved the problem of the smell entirely. Of course it doesn't stink everywhere but periodically one does get a whiff.
Today we explored more of the city and went to a lovely museum which celebrates the fictional character of Don Quijote. Guanajuato has a love affair with the writer Cervantes and D.Quijote is revered as a mythical, inspirational character. It was interesting to see how many different types of representations of the same character could be done, in pastels, bronze, oil,marble, wood, silver etc... We really enjoyed this museum, made me want to read the novel all over again. We also went to visit the famous Museum of the Mummies, these are the bodies of ordinary people which were found to have been mummified when the cemetery was being redone because there were too many bodies. Apparently something special in the soil of Guanajuato allows for some beautiful specimens of mummification. We didn't linger too long, Stan was not a fan at all.
It's all very macabre but Mexicans embrace death, they don't fear it, in so doing they embrace life. It's an interesting way to look at the time we spend in this world and yet welcome the after life.
Tomorrow we leave for San Miguel de Allende and we were seriously considering hiring a cab just to guide us out of here. However this evening we managed to get some pretty good directions so hopefully we won't be stuck endlessly circling in Guanajuato forever. It should be a piece of cake, I'm always an optimist. Will let you know how it went.