Mary, John, Ramona, Lynna overlooking Guanajuato City
It’s been a busy two weeks and I missed blogging last Sunday, so I’ll try to catch up!
John got home on the 5th in the wee hours of the morning – it took him almost 24 hours to get from Suriname back to Guadalajara. He hit the ground running – back in the office the next day and gave a presentation to the principal officers from across Mexico who were here for a conference. No rest for the weary.
Mary and Lynna arrived from Little Rock on Friday the 7th. We loaded up the car on Saturday morning and drove to San Miguel de Allende, a beautiful little town about four hours away. We stayed there for a night at a lovely little hotel, then drove to Guanajuato City the next afternoon.
We loved Guanajuato, and stayed there for two nights. The city was a zoo when we arrived on Sunday afternoon. They were having their annual Cervantes festival, so lots of people were in town. And festival or not, the city is hard to access. For one thing, it’s practically vertical and built into the hillside. Cars are prohibited in much of the space above ground, so you use a maze of tunnels to get around under the city. The hotel had to send a bellboy on foot to find us, then he directed us to parking and walked us to the hotel. It’s really incredible!
We hired a guide on Monday and went to the mummy museum, to the mirador overlooking the city, to an old silver mine, and to an old hacienda that’s basically been turned into a park. The mummy museum was really interesting – the mummies were inadvertently preserved due to the conditions in the crypt. The bodies were disinterred when the families didn’t pay for them to be perpetually interred.
We visited the Diego Rivera museum (the house where he was born) before we left town on Tuesday.
Mary and Lynna explored downtown GDL on Wednesday, and John took them to Tequila on Thursday. Friday, I took them to Tonala and Tlaquepaque for some shopping and sightseeing. Yesterday morning, we had breakfast at our favorite Oaxacan restaurant, then we sadly took them to the airport in the afternoon.
Now I’m afraid it’s back to the real world for us! John has gotten some good feedback on jobs in DC, and I hope to get traction this week. We’ll know more by the end of the month – the suspense is maddening!
Here are a few photos from our travels – click to see all of my photos. Prayer, Guanajuato
Dog in window, Guanajuato
Late night scene in San Miguel
Mary and a mummy
Mummy Museum
Mariachis waiting for work, Guanajuato