Come for the Guacamole, Stay for the View
(Photo by Julie Kim, copyright 2009)
Before Julie and I left for a quick trip to Central Mexico, our friend Rosa implored us, “You have to go to Guanajuato!” — describing how she broke out in tears upon seeing the rainbow of houses draped upon the mountainside. So we added an overnight stop to Guanajuato, the last on our five-day mini-tour. I can say without hesitation that the city has not disappointed. The panoramic view is phenomenal (“far and away, the most beautiful” in the whole country, one travel writer has put it), and it’s all accessible to Julie and me simply by opening the double doors to our small third-floor balcony. (The “Suite José Marti” at El Mesón de los Poetas downtown is well worth the 80 bucks or so a night.)
Guanajuato was a colonial mining center, which may help to explain the complicated series of underground traffic tunnels and the tangle of impossibly narrow streets. There are carved wooden doors, Spanish archways, courtyards, aging monuments to mining legends and revolutionary heroes. The main square is alive with mariachi musicians, assorted tourists, children playing, men hawking panchos, church bells clanging wildly, dogs curled up on the ground in the afternoon shade.
We could get lost here — I mean really lost. But still, it’s exciting to explore the hidden alleys with their stairs and slopes leading higher and higher up the hill, looping around old buildings (crumbling, but a controlled sort of crumbling) pocked with graffiti. We keep following the path as raindrops begin to patter on our shoulders, and the path twists again, veering just out of sight around more houses. I look at Julie — “Should we keep going?” “Yeah,” she replies with a smile and a tinge of adventure in her voice, “just a little farther up.”
Next Trip: Central Mexico
It’s time to brush up on my Spanish again.
During Memorial Day weekend, Julie and I will be Mexico-bound. We’ll be: (1) attending our friends’ wedding; but mostly (2) cavorting in nearby San Miguel de Allende, a historic (1542!) town in the middle of the country that has a large ex-pat community.
San Miguel de Allende is known for its gorgeous colonial architecture and hot springs. It was a popular destination for 1960s counter-culturers like Ken Kesey and Neal Cassady. Turn on, tune in, drop out…
UPDATE 5/11: The wedding, and our trip to Mexico, has been postponed due to the swine flu outbreak. It could be rescheduled as early as next month. In the meantime, we’re also finalizing plans for yet another wedding (that of Julie’s sister) in the U.S. Virgin Islands in July.
UPDATE 5/20: OK… So the wedding, and our trip to Mexico, is back on. We’ll be south of the border June 25-29. We have added one day in the picturesque city of Guanajuato. Looking forward to seeing the colorful homes climbing up the side of the mountains.
Mexican Sushi
I went to a border town in Mexico for a little day trip with Sarah while we were in Texas visiting my brother, Wade, and his better half, Victoria. I had the distinct pleasure of eating Mexican sushi. Ill-advised? Not necessarily, as it turns out. I didn’t get sick, but the sushi is a little different from the sushi in the States. Rolls come “hot” or “cold.” We got a little of both. The hot rolls are dipped, whole, into a vat of sizzling grease and deep-fried to a golden brown. A unique taste altogether, as far as sushi goes.
