Guanajuato Trip

So, what happened in the last few weeks? The big excitement was my first out of Monterrey experience. The international programs office organized a trip to Guanejuato and Queretaro. Both of these were pretty cool towns with very high ratings in terms of color variation per capita (you'll see in a bit). Anyway we started off with a totally sweet overnight bus ride involving a somewhat puzzling mandatory 4:30 AM rest stop at the world's most expensive Subway. Anyway we eventually arrived at Queretaro (there's an accent on that second e but I'm a bit tired right now so I apologize). We ate breakfast at a fairly awful chain place called Vips and continued with a visit to several important revolutionary sites in Mexico. Unfortunately for all of you interested in hearing the history of Mexico you'll probably have to find another blog as I, being a superior engineer-type, have no room in my brain for such things (also I can't for the life of me remember half of them). We saw where Maximilian (bad guy) was killed and various places around there where he ran around and various rebel groups chased him etc. This building pictured below was where numerous prisoners of state were tortured and which served to sway public opinion towards the whole 'let's not let the government kill us' way of thinking (an important step indeed):

We also had a very nice lunch at a small restaurant off the main streets which was cool and showed the importance of having friends who speak Spanish well. Fast forward a day (and another sweet bus ride) and we arrived at Guanajuato. That night we had some pizza for dinner which counted as a cultural experience because it had chorizo. Most of the group went to a Salsa club, and while I had no idea what was going on I gave it a go or two, which ended up being pretty fun. The next day we set off through Guanajuato to see the sites in the city proper. We saw this church, which apparently is noted for having gold coated decorations but they hadn't aged well so here's a picture of the ceiling:

We also had a mini tour of a mine, which was interesting enough (but too dark for photos). Next we went to an overlook above the city, here's a panorama (click for bigger again):
There was also a funicular to bring us touristy types back to the city. I personally chose to see its lack of safety fallbacks as an endearing embodiment of the Mexican can-do attitude, but you can make up your own mind.

After a nice lunch (listed on the schedule as Lunch (optional), presumably to save on the 'all-inclusive' package cost), we had a jaunt through the lower parts of the city. Guanajuato has three layers, the bottom two of which are now used as footers for the top. They apparently have a lot of problem with drainage, so they just kept going upwards until it worked. Here's what happens when your significant other wants a window box in Guanajuato:

The second night in Guanajuato didn't go quite as smoothly, as the first club the group went to wasn't quite right for us (whatever that means). Eventually we ended up meeting up with a few friends who were doing a strikingly similar trip on their own at a local rock establishment which was a bit packed but certainly something unique. The next day we got on the bus and saw San Miguel de Allende, which was the most tourist-tastic place I have ever been to with the possible exception of Disney World. It's a cool town because it's pretty well maintained and has some great plazas and it was certainly nice and certainly beautiful but I don't think I've anyone's ever tried to sell me quite so many things in my entire life. Anyway, here's the reason the place exists, a very nice church:

After San Miguel we booked it down the road to another church which was apparantly a half-way point for some revolutionary marchers. Next, we went to Dolores which is where a priest rang the church bells to call the people to action. It was this church, in fact:

After that we had a stop at some ice cream vendors who had some very interesting flavors (including mole (the sauce, not the animal) and beer, which both tasted frighteningly like the real things). I bought some avacado, which had little chunks in it and was really interestingly good:

That essentially marked the end of the trip, and after another sweet bus ride and stop at the world's most expensive Subway, we arrived back at Monterrey to prepare for exams. Unfortunately this meant I had to delay my birthday celebration, but we'll see about that next time! Hopefully tomorrow sometime I'll have the last week written up (including an amazing hike), but given my track record you should come back in June. Until next time!