Road trip Guanajuato

We left the town of Tlaquepaque in the early afternoon and arrived at the outskirts of Guanajuato around 4:00 pm. Its not a very large city, with a population of around 154,000 in the municipality, but it is tightly packed into a narrow and steep-sided valley. The original town was built on the banks of the Guanajuato river way back in the 1500s.  During the rainy season the river often overflowed its banks and flooded the town. By 1905 the place had been flooded 68 times. The federal government then stepped in and rebuilt the city on ruins of the old town, and in the process created a system of tunnels beneath the streets of the new city. Some of these were based on the course of the river and some were dug out of hard rock. Since the town was originally the site of some of the richest silver mines in the world, there were plenty of miners around to do the work. The result is a truly unique city with most of its thoroughfares underground. It makes a lot of sense and for a few moments I tried to imagine what LA would be like if its freeways were all underground.

Aside from its network of tunnels, Guanajuato is famous for its confusion of narrow streets and "callejones", which are really just alleys too narrow for motor vehicles. We were unprepared for this and immediately got lost searching for our hotel. Eventually a local climbed onto the back of our car and, shouting orders from the rear bumper, guided us through a couple of tunnels and bunch of twisty little streets to the staircase that led up to the Hotel Chocolate, which was perched on a steep hillside at the top of a row of tiny hotels and restaurants. It was sweaty work lugging our baggage up what amounted to about nine flights of stairs to the hotel lobby, then to our rooms which were three flights further up. But the view was spectacular and we enjoyed our brief time there.

Hotel Chocolate. The views from this quirky hotel were splendid.

View of the Jardin Union (Union Garden)  from the Hotel Chocolate. This is ground zero for the incredible festivities that go on every night. With lots of loud music and throngs of people out until around 4:30 every morning, its a tough place to get a good nights rest.

We could only stay one night at the Hotel Chocolate so we moved down to the Hotel San Diego, which was across the street from the Jardin Union. We could see all the festivities from our third story balcony and of course it seemed like the band was playing right outside our window.

The narrow streets and classic architecture of the city give it a distinctly European flair that was an enjoyable change from the more modern and Mariachi flavored Guadalajara. Because of the confusing streets and tunnels, and the fact that the car was parked miles from our hotel, we hired a guide to give us a tour of the city. This turned out to be a great way to see the place. With the four of us, the guide and a driver in a van, we visited many interesting places and quickly got acquainted with the lay of the land. After the tour we were able to explore central G-town without getting lost.

The church bells in town toll every fifteen minutes 24-7-365.

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A pair of mermaids guard the entrance to a home next to the Hotel Chocolate.

Guanajuato Cityscape. The building with the beautiful facade on the left is the University of Guanajuato. 

Main mercado in G-town.

Parrots waiting to be sold at the mercado.

The city of Guanajuato has adopted the classic novelist, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. His most famous work is Don Quixote and the city has built a museum in honor of the author and the book. It was interesting to learn about the author, but is was far more fascinating to wander the galleries and see modern artists interpret the the main character of the book, Don Quixote.

A whimsical interpretation of Cervantes Don Quixote.  

A bust of the Man of La Mancha

Pipili became the citys most famous hero when he strapped a large stone on his back as a shield against Spanish bullets and set fire to their fortress way back when Mexico was fighting for independence from Spain. He is everywhere in Guanajuato.

Pipili, the hero of Gunajuato stands guard on a ridge overlooking the city

Guanajuato is by far the most interesting and beautiful city we have visited in Mexico. We would have liked to stay longer and learn more about this fascinating town, but after three days it was time to move on to Morelia.

Road Trip Patzcuaro and Chapala

We left Morelia around mid-morning on March 24th, headed toward Patzcuaro.  Wed heard that the lake of the same name is a beautiful place, dotted with islands and that the town is something of a hangout for American and Canadian expats. We had also read about the recent trouble there but locals in Morelia told us that all of that is in the past, and the town has been peaceful since February.

We arrived in Patzcuaro around noon and discovered that the town isnt really built on the lakeshore and isnt quite as picturesque as we had expected. The place was crawling with Policia Federales, Policia Estado, Policia Transito and Policia Municipal though. No shortage of guns here.

After about 20 minutes in town we decided to head north along the eastern shore of Lake Patzcuaro in search of beautiful vistas and perhaps a margarita as well. We found the vistas but no margaritas. So we continued on to Lake Chapala another couple of hours up the road.

Isla de Jinitzio rises from the lake. It is topped by a 140 foot statue of Jose Maria Morelos, who was a hero in Mexicos fight for independence from Spain. You can climb a spiral staircase up the inside of the statue and look out over the lake from windows in the raised fist of the statue.

Patzcuaro is said to be an upscale town, but here on the eastern shore of the lake there were few signs of wealth. This fisherman told me that things were bad now because the lake is low and the fishings not good. 

Tools of the Patzcuaro fishermans trade

We stopped at a small settlement where there was a pier for panga-sized island ferrys and a few fishing boats. This was about halfway between the towns of Patzcuaro and Tzintzuntzan (pronounced zin-zoon-ZON, I like the name). Aside from these places, the countryside was farmland on the right and the coffee colored lake on the left. With that we left Lake Patzcuaro and headed northwest toward Laguna de Chapala.

Lake Chapala is Mexicos largest freshwater lake. It is about 50 miles long in the east-west direction and 8 miles wide in the north-south direction, and lies at an elevation of 5,000 feet above sea level. We headed toward the north shore of the lake with plans to stay in the town of Chapala and visit the neighboring town of Ajijic the next day.

We took the back way into town and were rewarded with several miles of rough cobblestone and dirt roads before we got into town but it was worth it to see the working farms up close as we bounced past. Chapala, with a population of about 45,000 is a good sized town and sports a beautiful lakefront malecon. We took rooms at the beautiful Hotel San Francisco, just across the street from the waters edge. After getting our bags stowed in our rooms we went out to the the hotel bar which is situated in a beautiful garden and ordered a pitcher of margaritas (Ed and I are still searching for the perfect one), but believe it or not, the hostess informed us that the hotel was out of tequila! So off we went downtown searching for a meal and a drink. We found what appeared to be a good restaurant and ordered dinner and a pitcher. The meal turned out to be mediocre at best, and were still looking for a decent margarita.

White pelicans on Lake Chapala

This area has long been a haven for American and Canadian expats, with at least 15,000 of them living here. The weather is said to be among the best in the world and we were certainly blessed with beautiful, mild weather while we were there. One of Chapalas claims to fame is that the famous playwright Tennessee Williams set up shop here for a while in the late 1940s and banged out one of his most famous plays, "The Poker Night" from the shores of this beautiful lake. Never heard of "The Poker Night"? Neither have I, but somewhere along the way it was renamed "A Streetcar Named Desire".

Ajijic (pronounced ahi-HEEK), just a couple of miles down the road from Chapala, is the center of the expat community. The place is crawling with gringos, American stores, restaurants and other trappings of the US and Canada. The homes here are mostly beautiful places surrounded by high walls topped with electric fences or shards of glass embedded in the tops of them. I do not find electric fences attractive even if they are attached to beautiful handmade stone walls. We stopped at a waterfront hotel and were warmly greeted by the staff even though we had no intention of staying there. The place was beautiful and I was tempted to try one of their margaritas, but the sun wasnt nearly over the yardarm yet so instead we got back in the car and headed out on the last leg of our journey back to La Cruz.

Beautiful pool at a waterfront hotel in Ajijic. The place was nearly empty.

We arrived back in La Cruz around 7:00pm and found Finisterra just as we left her. The next day we started getting ready for a quick passage to Mantanchen Bay and then to one of my favorite cities, Mazatlan.

Road Trip The butterflies of Morelia

After three days in the fascinating city of Guanajuato it was time to reluctantly say goodbye and get back on the road. Our first stop was San Miguel de Allende. This town is renowned for its arts and culture, and is home to two prestigious schools, the Instituto Allende and the Instituto de Bellas Artes. These schools, founded in the 1940s by artists and writers, attracted American WWII veterans who could attend classes on the GI Bill. Many of them stayed in town or later retired there, and soon the town had a large and vibrant American community. But San Miguel also has a rich history dating back to the days when Mexico was fighting for independence from Spain and it is known as the first city to throw off Spanish rule.

Unfortunately we had time only for a quick tour of downtown and an hour or so for lunch. We wandered around the central plaza and admired the architecture of the buildings and the diversity of the tourists that crowded the area. The church is one of the most beautiful weve encountered and I couldnt help being impressed by it.

It is not difficult to see how this architecture could inspire 18th century Mexican peasants. 

These church bells are incredibly loud and can be heard for miles around. Notice the bell on the left, its actually tolling while this fellow calmly surveys the crowd below.  He reminded me of Quasimodo from Victor Hugos "Hunchback of Notre Dame".

Street musicians. This bongo player didnt miss a beat while acknowledging a passerby. 

After a couple of hours in San Miguel it was time to continue on to Morelia. Rolling down the highway we passed through rich farmland and crossed into the state of Michoacan, home of the notorious Knights Templar drug cartel. Here the conflicts between the cartels, the locals and the government are real, and we saw more than a few heavily armed soldiers and police manning checkpoints and driving around in big trucks. I know very little about this complicated situation but one aspect of it is that in some towns in the region, local citizens have taken up arms against the "Templars" that have terrorized and extorted money from them. Anyway we were careful about where we were at all times and were tucked into our hotel well before dark whenever possible.

We really didnt do much in Morelia. We had come to see the Monarch butterflies, but it turns out that they dont actually hang out in Morelia, but in the mountains about 80 tortuous miles east of the city. So we got up early and drove out through mountains and high valleys toward the town of Angangueo. From there it was another ten or fifteen miles up a steep mountain road that ended at a small settlement that marked the entrance to the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary, which was at roughly 10,000 feet elevation. We parked in a deserted parking lot and hiked up to the entrance of the sanctuary. The entry fee was about 35 pesos per person, which included a guide. As we hiked up the trail, which consisted of a nice footpath and in some areas staircases, he told us about the butterflies and their migrations.

The countryside is a beautiful forest of spruce and pine and it was a nice walk up to an elevation of about 11,000 feet. The guide told us that the path to the top included 700 stairs. We knew we had arrived late in the season so we expected to see a few butterflies and then head back down the road. Sure enough on the way up we encountered a few and thought they were beautiful. We told the guide they were nice and said he didnt have to walk all the way to the top with us. But he encouraged us to go on. I was a little concerned for our companions, Ed and Connie, they are both a bit older and not accustomed to hiking. But they were game and we continued on up to a small pass where we encountered some horsemen who offered their horses to us, which we declined.

The country around Angangueo is beautiful and rugged.

First butterfly

As we headed down the trail on the other side of the pass, the forest canopy closed in and the guide dropped his voice to a whisper. We walked on in silence, deeper into the forest. Then we arrived in the heart of the sanctuary and found ourselves surrounded by millions of Monarchs. They flew all around us, landing on us, posing on flowers and clustering by the thousands on branches above us. It was at once magical and awe inspiring to stand in silence and hear the sound of thousands of butterfly wings. We spent an hour or so with them, then it was time to go.

Butterflies in flight

Eds ride down the mountain

We hiked back up the trail to the pass where the horsemen had patiently waited. Ed and Connie decided theyd had enough walking and accepted the offer of a couple of horses while Lisa and I accompanied the guide back down the trail. Soon we were back in the car and headed for our hotel in Morelia, we arrived in the early evening tired but still enchanted by the butterflies. It was a perfectly beautiful experience. The next day we got an early start toward the troubled city of Patzcuaro, where local vigilantes had recently taken their town back from the Templars.