Guanajuato (day 2)

It is definitely nice and quiet here. Not even any roosters crowing at 7:00am! So we actually slept in until almost 7:30am…that is something that does not happen very often.

But it was almost 10:00am by the time we wandered up to the highway to catch the local bus into town. Enrico (the owner of the RV park) had told us he thought the bus was 5 pesos (42 cents) each, but it was 6.5 pesos (55 cents) each person, each way. Pretty cheap for a 9 km trip right to the centre of town.

We only had to wait about 5 minutes for the bus. It was pretty full, and Ruth and I sat right at the back. Our driver was great! He thought he was driving in a Formula 1 race! Some of the turns he took pretty quickly and when I thought about this bus being a little bigger than Sherman, I was impressed with this guys driving skill. Only problem was when we went over a few bumps too quick we sure did bounce around in the back! We think these drivers get paid by the number of trips they make in a day…or some kind of percentage of the take. So they drive like crazy to get back to the start of their route again. I remember seeing a 40 km/h sign and I was sure we were doing at least double that. Dangerous? Maybe, but this guy was pretty skilled.

We got off in “el centro” (downtown) Guanajuato. Ruth had a list of things she wanted to see, and I had read about the city and was happy to do whatever she wanted to do. Only problem is that I found Guanajuato to be a very congested city given that it’s only 85,000 or so people. The traffic was heavy and there seemed to be an awful lot of people wandering around considering that it was before 11am.

It is an interesting city though. It sits in a valley and years ago they diverted the water that ran through the valley and made roadways out of the riverbed. Then, because of the number of hills in the valley, they have also devised a tunnel system that cars and buses use to get around dowtown. The city is a maze of narrow streets and tunnels with no gridwork to speak of so it’s not somewhere you want to drive.

We checked out some of the churches and then found the fenicular tram that brings you up to one of the overlooks. Cost was 15 pesos ($1.25) for the one way trip up. Fantastic views of the city and it’s bright colors. Then we walked back down and found the main market and wandered around there.

Panorama of Guanajuato

Fresh chicken at the market

Next was a kind of a quirky thing. We visited the Museum of the Mummies. I won’t bother explaining all about it, instead I’ll point you to the following link at Wikipedia…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummies_of_Guanajuato

It was kind of gross actually. Ruth says (and I agree) that it’s not right to have these dead bodies on display. Yet, we paid money to see them. There was a tour guide, but he spoke Spanish so we only understood bits and pieces. Very strange. Not a really good highlight of the day.

Then we walked back to “el centro” and took the bus back to Bugamville RV Park.

We were puttering around just before dinner when a backhoe and a couple of guys decide they want to dig a hole right in front of Sherman. And away they went. We didn’t know what they were doing, but the more they dug, the more frustrated we became. After all, we’re the only ones here and they had all day when we were gone that they could have dug this hole. Anyhow, eventually Enrico came by and I said that we had been thinking of staying another day but now we have no view…just a couple of piles of dirt and a big hole. He was very apologetic, but not to the piont of offering another day for free. I just thought they should have given some warning or maybe at least the opportunity to move to another site but no, they just went ahead and dug with that backhoe for an hour right in front of us. Dust flying and everything. Not impressed, so we are heading out of here tomorrow.

Spent a total of 186 pesos ($15.90) today for the bus ride, the fenicular tram, the Mummie Museum, and a tip for the guide.