Day 3: Free driving and walking tours of Guanajuato and the area
The
city of Guanajuato is in the state of Guanajuato at an elevation of
6,600 ft and is classified as a World Heritage Site. The city is
located in a narrow valley with mines up in the hills surrounding the
town. The mines are known for silver and gold. Many of the walkways
within the city are alleyways with lots of stairs.
The
population of the city today is approximately 160,000 plus 45,000
students attending the university. The streets in the evening were alive with many of the
student population.
The structures that were homes of the rich and the churches were built with pink and green colored limestone.
The
Spanish arrived in the area in the 1540s. They used the indigenous
people as slaves plus imported 250,000 Africans to work in the mines.
Our
driving tour started about 9:30 pm in front of the Basilica church. There were numerous tour buses of unusual characteristics:
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| One of the many tour vehicles |
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| Our tour bus for the day |
We
were driven by the historic buildings in town and then up toward the north
side of the town to La Valencia suburb.
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On the way to La Valencia, we passed by the only castle in Mexico which is a hotel built around 1950
Castillo Santa Cecilia
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At our first stop of the day we visited the
Museum of Inquisition which had a display of the equipment used to
torture the slaves and anyone who refused to convert to the Catholic
church. The spread of the Inquisition in Europe came to Mexico as well. It was a very dark era that was an example of man's inhumanity. If you were deemed to be evil or a witch, you were destined for a gruesome painful death..
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| conquistador's outfit |
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| this rack rotated through a water trough |
At our next stop we visited the Templo de
Valencia. The founder of the mine promised that he would build a church to God if he found silver and gold. He struck it rich and founded the world's richest mine which at one point produced 2/3 of all the silver in the world. He built the church and even used gold and silver dust in the mortar. The base of one of the statues inside is pure silver and weight over 800 pounds.
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| Templo de
Valencia |
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| note the gilt on the altar |
Next stop the San Ramon mine. The Boca Mina de San Ramón is one of the city’s early mines, with
the deposit found by some travelers in the early 16th century. In 1548,
its mother lode was found. Today, the mine is a tourist attraction in
which visitors can descend into the earth through the old shafts. The
complex also has a patio area, a gallery of minerals and a bar called El
Petardo, which once was the gunpowder storage room
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| Mike the Miner |
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| So cute... |
The Mummy Museum contained mummies of adults,
babies and a fetus unearthed from shaft tombs in the 19th and 20th
centuries. One of the unusual customs was to have a portrait taken of the
dead baby with its parents all dressed up for the final
family photo. The babies where called "angelitas". I have to admit it wasn't the best example of culture in Guanajuato.
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| A statue in the centre of a traffic circle on our travels back into town: |
We
ended the tour at the 28 meter tall El Pipila statue on the San Miguel
hill overlooking the city of Guanajuato.El Pipila (Juan Jose Martinez) was an independence hero who wore a stone slab on his back to protect himself while burning the door to the Alhóndiga (granary) where the
Spanish troops holed up in the in September 1810.
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| A Quinceanera party for the young girl in pink (the "coming out" party at 15 yrs of age) |
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| Our Hotel Posada Sante Fe is the white building with the green awning.All the greenery is not grass...it is the tops of manicured trees in the Jardin de Union (Union Garden) |
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| Two beautiful tourists have their photo taken with the city in the background |
We were back to the hotel about
3 pm. The driving tour had been in Spanish only but luckily we had a
young couple on the bus with us that translated some key information for
us.
At 8 pm, we walked to the Granery (Alhondiga de
Granditas) to join the evening walking music tour (Callejoneada) which was scheduled to start
at 9 pm. We each received a cowboy hat on a key chain to pin to our
jackets to identify us as participants on the tour. Plus we received an
unusual shaped drinking vessel (porron) filled with pineapple juice.
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| porron |
The
evening walk was lead by a group of 10 troubadours.
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| crowded in the Kissing Alley |
They played their music and sang as they lead us around
the town including a stop at the "Kissing Alley" where our spouses
presented us with a bouquet of flowers. We returned to our hotel from
the walking tour about midnight.
