The Kahlúa Kids

Dom, Ying and myself caught the 4 hour bus to my next town in central of Mexico Guanajuato, Another Silver mining town in the heart of Mexico this small town was also an important place for the fight for Mexicans fight towards independence. In the late eighteen hundreds it was also the birth place and home to Mexico’s most famous artist Diego Rivera. Right that’s the history lesson out of the way, now i shall continue.

I shall just stop and pause for a second or two just because I have to tell you I have been to some beautiful towns in this world but nothing comes close to the beauty of this place, if its romance you want come to Guanajuato, if you want art come to Guanajuato, if you want to party, Guanajuato is the place. I’m not sure why the world hasn’t heard about this town. Sure its a world heritage site but its not overrun by groups of tourists. It is really this is the most beautiful town I’ve been to on this trip so far. Gothic churches, tree lined plazas and colourful houses that hang to the side of the steep mountains. Tiny alleyways that zig zag there way across the city, once you are in them it feels like you have stepped back in time, old women selling homemade food from the front of their tiny houses to the kids washing there clothes outside in a bucket. This isn’t a poor city, its just very laid back. It also boasts a fine university and is one of the best uni’s in the country. If there are students you can bet your life there is a good bar scene and nightlife.

Rolling up to my hostel I say goodbye to Dom and Ying as they were staying in other areas. Little did i know I would meet Ying later on that night as she got lost in the maze of alleys trying to find somewhere to stay. After a hour of walking she gave up and stayed at the same hostel as me. The hostel was ok….. not the most amazing hostel, the wifi didn’t work so i found myself outside hotels piggy backing there connection. The one good thing about the hostel was the terrace on the roof with its panoramic views overlooking the town. Great to sit up there and have breakfast from the great little bakery up the road.

My first full day there I decide to take a look around and climb the hill up to the statue of El Pipila Monument that bears down on the town. The views from in front of the statue can be scene here.

That night Dom, Ying, guy from Taiwan and Tamara who I keep bumping in to in ever place I got to in Mexico decide to go out for drinks. I found such a wicked dub reggae bar called the Bar Fly. Stu, you would love it, its like Hipsters meeting Mossop’s bar in Bilbao.
The only problem was everyone except me got sick, it must have been the ice or something. This met only me and Dom could take the bus to San Miguel De Allende the next day.

San Miguel De Allende is about 2 hours away from Guanajuato on the bus, its well know for being an artist town and boasting the most church bells in anyone town in Mexico. I’m afraid I didn’t warm to it as much as other people. Yes the buildings are stunning and have been lovely restored but its what is behind these buildings that bothers me. Full of ‘Gringos’ wearing designer suits and panama hats with there orange tanned wife’s who drive around the little cobbled streets in there SUVs getting in the way of the locals. Coffee for $5 a cup which is very expensive in Mexico terms and restaurants serving ala carte dinning. This didn’t feel like i was in Mexico anymore, more like Cannes or Monaco. Cousin Paul and Lee would love it here as it so posh. I only stayed the afternoon and then headed back to Guanajuato.
When I walked in to the door of the hostel i was met by the Whirlwind Chris from Zacatactus. Randomly he was staying at the same hostel as me. That night we ended up getting wasted at some of the local bars. I think the main reason Chris and I got on so well is that we both are both on the same level of sarcastic sense of humour and the more we got drunk the more outrageous the chat became.

Nursing a hang over the next day that didn’t last long as I wanted to see the celebrations of Dia de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe (Our lady of Gadaluple). This is a weeks long Celebration is to celebrate the Virgin who appeared on Dec 9th 1531 to a Mexican called Juan Diego. You can find out more about this celebration here.
12th of December is the main day of Celebration, People from all over the town descend on the church and offer fruit and other food to the statue of the Lady of Guadeloupe inside. Children will dress up as little Juan Diego’s and Indonesia girls. Its rather sweet watching all these children run around with draw on moustaches on. The Church in Guanajuato where the offerings take place is on the top of a steep hill. Many people set up stalls selling food and drink for the patiently waiting crowds to get in to the church. It was so busy I found it so hard to move and took me nearly 1 hour to get to the top of the hill. There was no way i was going in to the church or really thought I should as its nothing really to do with me. I just stood back and took photos all afternoon. People were still queueing to the church well in to the night.
The next day the celebrations start for the run up to Christmas, every day until Christmas Eve people will join a line, at the front of the line and leading the parade is a priest/holy man. The line walked up the hill to the church all holding candles and chanting. It is quite a moving thing to watch.

That day we also went to the rather cool but rather disturbing Mummy Museum. These mummies have been so well preserved some even had hair on them. There was also the smallest mummy in the world being about 6 months old and looking like Chucky out of the horror film Child’s Play.
Later on that night Chris and I thought it would be a great idea to buy a bottle of Kahlúa (Its so cheap in Mexico) and drink the whole bloody bottle whilst inventing a drinking games to our new favourite Mexican Soap Opera called Lola.

We were joined by some other travellers, two girls from France and Michael from Canada. The evening went in to a downward spiral as the Kahlúar took over our minds and bodies. We ended up on the hostel roof reenacting the Virgin meeting Juan, The Virgin played by me with a seat cover on my head and Chris playing Juan Diego offering me a huge plants pot this night was turning in to a very random night. It wasn’t a nice drunk feeling as the thick liqueur stuck in my stomach and caused me to feel sick all night. Apparently i was sitting on the sun lounger giggle like a school girl according to the others. This behaviour caused us to miss the early bus to one of the most surreal places I have been to in the world…. Mexico City. See you there next week.