Guanajuato

We decided to spend our last day and a half in Guanajuato, a larger university town about an hour from San Miguel.  The town is and was (since the 1600s) a major mining town, especially for silver.  On Friday afternoon we walked a few kilometers from downtown to La Valenciana passing several old silver mine entrances, and the current mine. Guards carrying submachine guns guarded all the entrances to the working mine (owned by Great Panther Silver)  along with German shepherds that barked as we walked by on the road.  La Valenciana seemed like a sleepy little hamlet topped by a church that had been a convent from the mid 1700s to the mid 1800s. We sat on a low wall shaded by a fig tree and waited for the little bus/van back to the center of town to pick us up. 

On the road to Guanajuato, the structure for an old mine

The old church in La Valenciana

Las Rayas mine with La Valenciana above it

Guanajuato is a very hilly town with a lot of pedestrian only roads and stairways.  The main roads are in underground tunnels where the river used flow.  Somehow the river got shunted aside to control flooding and the resulting tunnels were used to make underground roads back in the 1800s.  A few additional tunnels were added about ten years ago to alleviate congestion just on the outskirts of town.  There are lovely shady plazas all around the historic town center lined with sidewalk cafes and restaurants.  Our hotel, Posada Santa Fe, was on the main plaza.  The Posada had probably seen better days but they were working on putting a new floor in.  The room was adequate but had an aged feel about it.  The staff were friendly though and the hotel has a nice restaurant, a bar that seemed to be lively late in the evening, and a great location for exploring town. 

Entrance to an underground road

 

Looking uphill in Guanajuato

Theatre on the main plaza

Outdoor cafe where we had lunch - enchiladas divorceadas (red and green on opposite sides of the plate) and sopa azteca (like tortilla soup)

Friday morning we took a taxi out to the Ex-Hacienda Barrera, an historic hacienda a few km outside of town.  The Hacienda has lovely gardens each in a different style.  You start out walking through the gardens and end the tour at the house which is furnished with 18^th century heavy wood furniture.  There isn't much explanation about the grounds or house, but you can hire a tour guide.  We just wandered through.  You pay an extra 20 pesos for the privilege of taking photos.  After an expresso at the Hacienda's outdoor cafe we caught a bus back into town that dropped us off near the main market.

Roman garden room at the Hacienda

Mexican Garden at the Hacienda

Courtyard of the main house

Surprisingly, each bedroom had its own bath at the Hacienda

The market is in a big open building with a second floor balcony going around the inside.  On the ground floor are the vegetable and meat stalls and prepared foods, and on the balcony are the knick-knack shops full of cheap goods probably half of which were made in China.  The University has some pretty buildings in town and some very modern looking buildings on the outskirts of town. 

Overview of the market

One of the main university buildings in town

The university motto, the truth will make us free.  Note the beautiful colors of the limestone.

There are many museums in town, but we only went to the Diego Rivera museum, the house he was born in that features several rooms of his paintings and sketches and those of other artists.  Definitely worth a visit.  Somehow Cervantes is a big deal in town and the town holds a huge Cervantes festival each year.  There is a Cervantes museum and several statues of his characters. 

Tile mosaic at the Diego Rivera museum

In the evening we first sat outdoors at at Luna Bar on the main plaza and just took in the crowds of people that were circling the plaza along with many groups of musicians, flower vendors, and blanket sellers.  The musicians were traditional mariachis as well as some groups that play Norteňo music. They wore cowboy hats and fancy boots with jeans and western shirts.  Many of the people circling the plaza were young – from middle school through college age.  There groups of boys and groups of boys, and some groups of couples.  The only problem with sitting outside near the plaza is that people constantly solicit you for tips for a song, buying flowers or chiclets, etc.  We circled the plaza a few times before settling at a nice restaurant on the opposite side of the plaza at a table a little further from the flow of people.  We split a piece of seared tuna served with an avocado sauce and very thinly sliced dried fruit – melon, orange and pineapple.  It was topped with a crunchy nest of fried potato strings. 

A norteno group playing at for a customer at a restaurant

Crowds on the main plaza on a Friday night

Our other food find was the pastry shop, La Vie en Rose, just off the main plaza near where you can catch a bunch of different buses.  It has a restaurant upstairs which we heard was very good and we can vouch for the pastries being excellent! Jake things they were as good as anything in France.

Breakfast on the plaza in front of our hotel

I write this from the Leon airport.  We took a taxi here and chatted with the young driver.  He has been learning English, but we mostly spoke in Spanish.  He wants to go to New England and is excited about the Patriots playing in the Superbowl.   Our plane is at the gate.  In an hour we fly back to the cold, grey north!  

View departing from the Leon airport

A last few notes on San Miguel

Sunset on the rooftop patio

Other places we ate:

Ten Ten Pie on Cuna de Allende - the food was okay, good place though for a licuado or a beer.  They have outdoor tables on the opposite side of the street which are good for people watching and chatting with expats.  We shared a table with a couple from Toronto.  She has lived here in the winter for the last ten years.  They just got married last year and he is taking Spanish lessons and greatly enjoying his second winter in San Miguel.

Rooftop at Mama Mia near the plaza - very good tortilla soup, hamburger was good but tasted like a flattened meatball as it was heavily seasoned.  

Petit Four, near the theatre - Why did we not visit this place earlier?!  Absolutely delicious raspberry tartlet and good coffee including an iced americano. The glazed raspberries were so fresh tasting and were on top of a very small amount of pastry cream.  The flaky, buttery crust was coated with a thin layer of chocolate. We may have to go back to try the layered chocolate truffle cake.

El Pegaso - on Correo above the plaza.  Great lunch of chiles en nogada and a salad.  Friendly service.  We were entertained by watching 3 Japanese businessmen at the table next to us.  The youngest ordered a slice of chocolate coconut cheesecake for his lunch with a cup of coffee and a Coke and he was on his smartphone most of the time.  The one not wearing a tie appeared to be the guy who lived in Mexico.

And for our final meal (and drink) in San Miguel - La Posadita, a little rooftop terrace restaurant next to the Parish church on Cuna de Allende.  I got the tamarind frozen margarita and Jake had a sangria as we watched the sun set.  Then we split an order of slow cooked pork in a red sauce served with guacamole and a chipotle salsa.  A delicious way to end our visit.  We also had the pleasure of a young lady at the table next to ours getting up to sing with a little mariachi group that came up to play tunes for tips.  She is from the states but spoke Spanish very well.  She chose better songs than the first table where all the guy could think of to ask them to play was Guantanamera.

Tamarind margarita at La Posadita

The church at sunset

View of the sunset from La Posadita

Botanic Garden part 2

On Tuesday I took the botanic garden's free shuttle bus up to the garden and went on an official tour.  Before and during the tour I chatted with other people on the tour.  In a small world coincidence, one couple was from Chestertown and her father had been one  of the founding board members of Adkins Arboretum.  She was staying with an Adkins volunteer that I have met.  There was another couple from New York, NY and one from Oxford, MS.  Two young people from Australia and New Zealand were also on the tour.  She is a graphic designer and he is originally from Mexico but went to school in Australia and now works in New Zealand.

The tour was led by a very knowledgeable guide who had worked at the University of British Columbia for many years.  He had come down to visit San Miguel for a week and had decided to move here by mid-week.  He leads a tour for the garden once a month.   I learned that the tan grass that fills in between the cacti is Natal grass, a grass imported from South Africa for cattle feed that the cattle didn't like.  The garden manages the land on the far side of the lake and in theory there shouldn't be grazing animals over there, but there were some horses by the edge of the lake accompanied by cattle egrets.

Our tour guide showing us the fluff around cactus seeds used by the cactus wren to line its nest

Natal grass  between the cactus and horses grazing along the water's edge

Our tour followed the canyon and the guide talked about the history of the garden and about many traditional uses of the plants.  He carried a bag made from the fibers of agave leaves and showed us the cochineal bug on a cactus.  The Spanish were apparently as excited about fibers for ropes and the deep red of the cochineal bug for dyes as they were about the silver they found in the area.  We looped back through the children's play area and plaza of the 4 winds.  Part of this area was funded by a grant from botanic gardens conservation international.

The snake slide

We ended the tour with a visit to the greenhouse designed by Charles Glass, a cactus expert who helped get the garden's collection going.  The garden is a center for rescued and confiscated cacti, agaves and yuccas in Mexico and is raising many rare species.  The land for the garden was purchased by 10 local families who saw how quickly development was happening around San Miguel.  We got back to the visitor's center in time for a refreshing licuado (fresh blended juice) and some shopping before the bus left for town at 1pm.

I met Jake on the plaza and we went out for lunch.  We decided we should try a local steak, and what better place than an Argentine steakhouse!  The place turned out to be a chain called La Garufuna, but it was very good.  We split a steak and a large salad and took home enough steak for last night's dinner.  

Ignacio Allende's birthday!

Today is the birthday of Ignacio Allende, born Jan. 21, 1769 in San Miguel.  He was a captain in the Spanish Army but was one of the leaders of the Mexican revolution.  Depending on what town you are in in Mexico, different people are THE leader of the revolution and of course here in San Miguel de Allende, Allende is THE leader.  Last week we visited his home next to the Parish church.  The first floor has a summary of local history starting with the arrival of the Spanish and upstairs are rooms arranged as they might have been when Allende's family lived there.

Ignacio Allende in the parade

Ignacio Allende sculpture on his house

The Revolution's history is somewhat confusing, but it appears that when Spain under the Bourbon dynasty reorganized its control over its American colonies it resulted in less power for the local wealthy population and an increase in taxes.  These disenfranchised locals decided to at least temporarily side with the deposed King Ferdinand VII and start a revolution. With an army of 30,000 peasants the leaders marched towards Mexico City.  Despite overtaking numerous towns in bloody victories, for some reason the leader of the army, Miguel Hidalgo, went against Allende's advice and retreated (I'm sure the town of Dolores Hidalgo would have some other interpretation though).  Allende and others were captured and executed in Chihuahua in 1811, shot in the back as traitors, as they were attempting to reach the young United States for assistance.  Ultimately though Mexico did gain independence from Spain in 1836.

The festivities started last night with a small torch lit parade of people dressed as peasants fighting for Allende in the Revolution led by Allende on horseback.  A school marching band named for the Allende's regiment led the parade with snare drums and bugles.  After a couple turns around the plaza Allende and the peasants posed on the steps of the church for photos.  (Allende tried to get his horse to climb the steps, but the horse was having none of that - bad enough all those peasants with flaming torches around!).  Once the revolutionary army dispersed a local band called Tuna Provincial played on a stage set up in front of the church.  They were all men dressed in Elizabethan looking outfits and they played stringed instruments of all sizes.  Songs were mostly romantic Spanish and Mexican songs like Besame Mucho.  They did have an incredible soloist who could have sung opera.

Peasants in the evening parade

School named for Allende's regiment

Wednesday began with official speeches which we did not attend.  We got to the parade route a little before 11 am and found a spot across from the reviewing stand set up on the plaza. There were people lining the route, more people than we've seen in San Miguel so far!  The parade started off with the local law enforcement officers from traffic enforcement to scary looking anti-terror squads.  That was followed by an endless school groups most with drums and bugles.  We have heard the school below our house practicing several times a day for this event.  The school kids were followed by the federal troops.

You may be able to see the muzzled attack dog by the middle officer

A young Allende

School kids marching

Marching chefs maybe from the University?

Federal army troops

The only protestors I saw were holding a banner about the Ayotzinapa 43 students from Guerrero

The cavalry

Fancy pattern on the horse's rump

People getting their picture taken in front of the a portrait of Allende

In the evening there was a highly unusual for this time of year rain storm, but it did not seem to dampen the turnout for the concert and fireworks.  The concert was a huge collection of mariachis from the province with some incredible singers including Alicia Lopez (hear a recording of one of her concerts here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdiKN9pBYfI).

The Mariachi concert

But I think there's only so much mariachi music I can take.  As the concert ended though the fireworks began.  First they appeared  from just behind the church.

The first fireworks - in the foreground is the tower for more fireworks

We were sitting on the low wall between the plaza and the church 20 feet from a tower that was laced with fireworks.  A guy holding a knife and smoking a cigarette would light a fuse that led to one of the wheels on the tower, light the fuse using his cigarette, and the flames would spurt up the tower and the wheel would spin around making a high pitched whine as sparks flew from it in great showers.  After one wheel was done he'd stamp out some sparks and light another.  At the very end a star on the very top spins around and takes off up into the air.  It came down right between us and the tower.

The first round of fireworks from the tower

A little hard to make out in the smoke but it is a portrait of Allende with 246 above and Aniversario below

The last fireworks went off right in front of the church.  I've never felt so close to a fireworks show before and it was amazing the be right under the umbrellas of sparks that lit up the night sky.

Food and Fireworks

Sunday morning begins with fireworks!  Yup, in the pre-dawn darkness of 6am, large booming noises woke me up and up to the rooftop I went.  Every 5 minutes or so a half dozen of those flash-bang fireworks would light up the sky up the hill behind one of the churches in town.  The 5 minute interval pretty much guarantees that I at least will not be able to get to sleep.  Jake did manage to sleep through it of course.  Is this to make sure that they get good church attendance on Sunday morning?

As a consequence of lack of sleep maybe we went out for breakfast to Cafe La Parroquia.  They have a large lovely courtyard, a little too chilly for a winter morning, but also a smaller indoor area that was moderately warmer.  We had huevos rancheros topped with red sauce and huevos Oaxquenos topped with mole.  The mole was a little sweet for our taste but the huevos rancheros were pretty good. The coffee was good too.

Wedding car with fried pigskin vendor in foreground.  The bride and groom looked so young.  She was wearing an elaborate white gown with a gold lace overlay on the skirt and the groom was accompanied by 5 young guys in shiny grey suits.  There didn't seem to be any bridesmaids but maybe they were in the church.

Later in the morning we attempted to go to a charrera (like a rodeo) that had been advertised around town, but both the tourist office and the bus driver thought it was at a sporting grounds a little outside of town, and there was nothing going on there.  We think maybe it was further out of town at a private ranch after reviewing the information we could find about it again.  The bus ride was interesting as they usually are in Latin America.  This one went through 2 small towns just outside of San Miguel.  The second town was all dirt roads and the bus pitched and rocked going a few miles/hour.  Even these towns seemed relatively prosperous, lots of new building going on anyway and no real slums to be seen.  The bus itself had a thick grey cloth patterned in diamonds over the top half of the front window making it difficult to see out the front as a passenger.  Both mirrors were outlined in fake grey fur.  And of course the obligatory cross hung between the mirrors with a second one behind the driver's seat.

We walked down to visit our favorite fruit and vegetable vendor at the market before lunch and picked up a bunch of fruits for a fruit salad.  We had that with some good whole grain bread we had gotten at the Saturday morning organic market.  The organic market has a wide selection of handmade products from soaps to solar vegetable dryers to woven scarves.  There are also a couple of food vendors selling tacos and tamales.  The market appeared to be mostly frequented by the expat community. It is held in the courtyard of a building in the San Antonio neighborhood.  Just down the street is a weekend artisans market with some more interesting crafts that what you see in the daily craft market in town.

In the afternoon we attempted to find the monthly flea market which we thought was near the scenic overlook above town, but once again failed to find it as there appeared to be no 145 Salida a Queretaro.  But it was a nice walk and afterwards we sat in the plaza and watched some folkloric dances while chatting with a retiree from Salem, OR who has a house here.   He was holding a cup of iced coffee from Starbucks and said his wife was there with a bunch of other women who get together each week to knit hats for poor kids.

Photo from the Toy Museum in town

Aztec dancer

It takes a bold man to wear these costumes

Since we had eaten such a healthy lunch, we went out for dinner to Bugambilia near the theatre.  It had the reputation for best "chiles en nogada", a dish that we love from Los Potrillos in Santa Fe and had been wanting to try here. It is most often served in San Miguel in September though, so it is harder to find the rest of the year.  The chiles were delicious although a little different from the ones we'd had in Santa Fe.  The filling had finer pieces of meat and dried fruits and a sweeter red sauce.  The pepper had also been brined first which I don't remember from Santa Fe.  The waiter gave us a nice description of how the peppers are prepared  (Since there was only one table of customers besides us he had plenty of time to explain).  The peppers are roasted and peeled then soaked in a brine with herbs like thyme, marjoram, bay leaf and black pepper for about three days. They are then rinsed off and placed in a lighter brine until ready for use.   The filling has several varieties of dried fruits including raisins, dried peaches and apricots as well as almonds or walnuts.  The meat and fruits are cooked slowly and stirred vigorously to produce a fairly smooth filling.  The chiles are presented on the plate with a wide ribbon of cream sauce that has finely chopped walnuts mixed in and pomegranate seeds sprinkled on top.  The red, white, and green colors represent the colors of the Mexican flag.  I can also recommend the margarita at Bugambilias.