State of Guanajuato: Leon and Guanajuato

Thanks to Benito Juarez's birthday, we had a puente (or long weekend). Kurt and I decided to visit Janet in Leon, Guanajuato and then take advantage of her close proximity to Guanajuato to revisit a slighly more appealing city. Leon has a colonial center, but there's not a whole lot going on in general other than shoes (home to mexico's leaterh industry).

The city of Guanajuato on the other hand, is a cute, colorful old mining town nestled in a valley. I visited here during training, but the return trip was just as nice.

We took a quick trip to a small town perch on the mountain above Guanajuato to visit an ornate church and a mine.

So we found what we assumed to be the enterance to a mine (which it was), and figured we could enter on a tour (kinda true). After asking the man at the door, he looked around a couple of times and then quickly ushered us through the door for the start of our clandestine tour.

This is the enterance to the mine that supposedly drops 150 meters. This mine, soon to be active again, had large deposits of gold and still some silver veins. it was originally run by a Spanish count, and now has just been bought by Canadians.

Since Guanajuato was an old mining town, there are mining tunnels that run underneath the city. Planners have decided to utilize these to reduce traffic in the city and now many of the major roads run beneath the plazas.

After returning to Puebla on Monday night, we had a meeting for one of our projects in Jalapa, Veracruz on Tuesday. We got caught in a little bit of afternoon fog on the way home as we passed through the mountains.

More from the state of Guanajuato

Last Wednesday I had to return to Queretaro for a group reconnect meeting (basically to make sure things are ok alter the first 4-6 months). It was nice to be back in Queretaro and amazing to see how clean it is compared to Puebla. Plus I can never pass up a stop at my favorite food stall in the market, which might have the cheapest beer in all of Mexico (25 pesos for a liter of indio) and the best alambres (chorizo, bistek, onions, cheese, and peppers all mixed on a grill and served with tortillas and salsa).

So for this past weekend’s travel I was pretty much in the state of Guanajuato. From Queretaro I went north to San Jose Iturida and then to a small town called Mineral los Pozos. This is a tiny town that back in the 1850’s was well populated due to its prosperous mines. However, when the mining creased, so did the town’s population. In recent years there has been a small push to begin developing the town as a tourist attraction (addition of 2 upscale hotels), but for now it remains relatively small and a little isolated (last bus to anywhere leaves at 7). You walk down the main streets and they are abandoned, decaying stone buildings all over. We no problems just wandering into them. There are also some old churches that have been overtaken by cactus and dust. On the main plaza in town we wandered into what might have been the only bar in town, complete with swinging doors, walls adorned with black and white photos of the Mexican Revolution, and a bartender with a long white beard, cowboy hat, and a vest make out of snake skin and leather.

From Pozos we caught the bus to San Luis de la Paz, a cute little town with a nice colonial center, and surprise surprise a couple pretty churches. The next morning we back tracked south towards Queretaro and then headed west towards Celaya and finally Valle de Santiago. After a little too much time on a 3^rd class bus (think dirt road and no suspension for 1hr 45 min), we finally arrived in Valle, home of the 7 luminarias, or 7 volcanic craters. One of the craters is just on the edge of town and has houses built up the side of it. After a quick stop at the craters it was time to head back on the 1.45 hr bus trip to Celaya followed by an hour to Queretaro followed by 3 hours to Mexico City and then 2 hours back to Puebla.

December in Queretaro

Lots to report since the last update. I’ve been super busy trying to finish everything up before the end of training, but as of the 19th I am officially a volunteer and as of the 20th I’m officially on vacation until I have to report to Puebla on the 4th of January. So here’s the summary of the last couple weeks…. We visited two different children’s homes (orphanages more or less) and brought Christmas things and piñatas (piñatas are traditionally used in Mexico during Christmas).
December 12 is the day of the Virgin Guadalupe (this is the patron saint of Mexico) and the day is capped off by masses, fireworks, and other festivities. The church is the picture below is the church of the Virgin Guadalupe in Queretaro and the metal structure is the firework tower for later in the night. There was also day of the payasos (clowns) in December. Also, around Christmas time, many posadas are held. These are basically a type of Christmas party and have a piñata. Unfortunately for me my attempts at actually hitting the piñata were fairly unsuccessful, although as can be seen in the picture, the piñata was a little high.

I also spent a day and a night in a small town in the state of Guanajuato called Apaseo el Alto. Not a whole lot going on in this town, but it was nice to spend some time outside of Queretaro, in a small town, and without any other gringos or tourists to be seen. There was supposed to be a huge old convent somewhere on the outskirts of town (as seen on the towns website), yet someone not a single person in town had heard of it or knew where it was…..

Then finally, on the 19th, we had our official swearing ceremony. Our host families, some of the heads of the SEMARNAT offices (unfortunately no one from Puebla could make it), our Spanish teachers, and officials from the embassy were in attendance. After the ceremony, there were tacos and a mariachi band. Still awaiting the official pictures, but the one below is me with my host mom.

That is about it for now. I’m headed out of vacation for ~10 days to visit Zacatecas, Morelia, and Pazcuaro. Happy Holidays!

San Miguel de Allende

On Saturday I went to San Miguel de Allende, a town in the state of Guanajuato that has become a major destination for North Americans. A lot of Americans are currently building homes there along with some other oddities like a retirement ranch for old burros. It’s another town with a picturesque city center, lots of churches, and a large botanic garden with many native cactus species. Not too much more to say about it but here’s some picts…..

Guanajuato

This weekend Janet and I took a weekend trip to the cities of Leon (leather and shoe capital of Mexico) and Guanajuato. We went to Leon Saturday morning en-route to Guanajuato to see the shoe markets and a little bit about the shoe industry. That’s about it for Leon, but Guanajuato is an amazing city. It is an old silver mining town that is nestled in a valley. This basically gives the town three layers: (1) the old mining tunnels under the city are now used for most of the car and bus traffic, (2) the main/center part of town, and (3) the rest of the houses that are build ascending the valley walls on two sides of the city.

The city is also the birthplace of Diego Rivera and his boyhood home is now a museum that contains sketches for his murals and of Frida, as well as water colors and other paintings. There is also a unique tradition that was imported from Spain. During the weekend nights, there is a group of students from the university, called the Estudiantinos, walk through the streets dress in medieval Spanish dress playing traditional musical instruments, telling jokes, singing, and passing out wine to the crowd that gathers to follow them through the streets. There is also a “Romeo and Juliet” story that takes place in the callejon de beso (alley of the kiss) where the street is so narrow and the balconies of the houses are so close, that two forbidden lovers were able to kiss from their respective houses.

Guanajuato also has unique soil that creates natural mummies. In Mexico, it is very common to only bury someone for 6 years, after this 6 years the body is removed, cremated, and the site in the cemetery is rented to someone else. When this occurred in Guanajuato though, it was discovered that with the combination of minerals in the soil and a very dry climate, the bodies being removed were fully mummified and many are now on display in the museum of the mummies. They even go so far as to sell mummy shaped candies. All in all a good weekend away from Queretaro and first experience with the Mexican bus system. This week things are pretty much back to normal with Spanish classes, training, and working on our technical project that is an assessment of a nearby watershed……