Mexico 2012 - un viaje mas grande - Day 7 January 2, 2012 Guanajuato, Mexico

This is the first day I feel like we are “touring” in Mexico. We took the scooter into town today to check out Guanajuato and stopped at the first roadside tourist stand to get a map. They had a "free” map we could take but they wanted a tip for it. We didn’t have any change so they gave it to us “gratis,” which is funny, because it was a free map they had gotten from a hotel, not the tourist bureau!

Guanajuato is tucked into the mountains at an altitude of 6700’. We drove through some of the subterranean roadways and along the cobblestone streets – not sure where we were headed – but we eventually arrived at the city centro – exactly where we wanted to be!

We parked the scooter across the street from Mercado Hidalgo and decided to walk to see the sites – and the first one we spotted was a Tel-Cel office! Thirty minutes later and only $399 peso later, we had our internet data stick and one month of service ($200 pesos less that our Walmart encounter in Matehuala).
We took off walking down Avenida Juarez. There are many churches, theaters, and shops along this street.

This is the 17th century Basilica Colegiata de Nuestra Senora de Guanajuato which has the oldest Christian statues of the Virgin Mary. It was beautiful inside.

We passed by Jardin la Union, a beautiful tree-lined plaza that is Guanajuato’s central square. Because the city is so hilly, there isn’t one large central plaza that you find in many towns, but there are 15 shaded plazas scattered around the centro district.

  

Across the street from the Jardin la Union was the Teatro Juarez. We found the architecture to be very interesting throughtout the city. 

Further down the avenue,  we passed the Museo de Don Quixote.

It was interesting to see the mix of old and modern architecture and art.

After lunch at a local “loncheria,” we set out to find Callejon del Beso, or  “The Kiss Alley.” Tobey and I shared a kiss on the third step so we are supposed to have fifteen years of good luck, according to the legend.  http://www.donquijote.org/travel/guides/guanajuato/legends3.asp
With our good luck in hand, we set out for some shopping at Mercado Hidalgo. We needed some vegetables and tortillas and it was the perfect place to find them.

Further down the street we saw the BIGGEST bags of cheese puffs we have ever seen. We didn’t buy any, but they were big!

Tonight we are again the only guests at Bugumville RV Park. Tomorrow we travel to San Miguel de Allende – only about 60 miles down the road.