Most of our experiences in visiting Mexico over the last 30 years has been beaches. That is probably the case with most Gringos. We gringos stay for a week in Cancun, Mazatlan, Ixtapa, Cabo or Puerta Vallarta and don’t see much of the real Mexico except for going to a taco stand on the “other” side of a beach tourist town. But we have heard so much about Expats in the high desert towns of Central Mexico that we had to check it out.
The top 2 pics are from our Airbnb that we spent 4 nights in Guanajuato. Great location and downtown and awesome views of the hills on both sides of us. It was near quite a few bars that had some really late nights on the weekends but that didn’t stop the roosters for waking up really early. Luckily, we can sleep through noise just fine and we didn’t have to get up for work in the morning anyway. Guanajuato is a University town with 20000 students but it is also a tourist town with a lot of Mexican tourists visiting for a weekend away. Not too many gringos which I was surprised by. The town is in between some major hills but they have tunneled several roads underneath so many of the streets in town are pedestrian friendly.
The town was always pretty lively though and felt hectic at times. It is an old silver town that greatly contributed to the economy many years ago. That has created some beautiful old architecture and a real feel of being a European style hill town. Lots of fancy churches, theaters, and public squares that made us feel like we were in some of the hill towns we have been in Spain or Italy. We saw a lot of amazing art in many different galleries including Diego Rivera’s birthplace and really enjoyed the Don Quixote museum. An exiled Spaniard that came to Guanajuato after the Spanish revolution in the 1940’s was obsessed with the Cervantes book and bought enough Don Quixote art to fill up a large museum.
There is a funicular to the top of the hill which gives an amazing view of the whole town and valley.
Guanajuato was where some of the first shots were fired in the war of independence starting around 1810. There is a statue at the top of the funicular recognizing the martyr that torched a building filled with some of the first captured Spanish soldiers. He was eventually caught and killed but the incident helped fuel the movement that eventually led to independence.
We also had to check out the Museo de los Momias. (Museum of the Mummies). The dry climate of the high desert has naturally preserved some bodies from the late 1800’s. People that couldn’t pay for burial ended up in getting naturally mummified in some back room. Eventually they decided these bodies were creepy and freaky enough that people would pay money to check them out. So we paid $5 each and were creeped and freaked out by the mummies. Some with clothes, some with just shoes, some with hair, some babies… Most looked like they were screaming.
After 4 nights in Guanajuato we grabbed a bus for San Miguel De Allende where we have an Airbnb for 7 nights. This place is famous for its large community of American and Canadian expats that spend the entire winter down here. Or just move down here. Thousands of Gringos fill up this town which also profited years ago from the silver mines nearby. More beautiful churches, architecture and a lot of art. Everything here and in Guanajuato always was clean. People sweeping always… The weather stays beautiful here all year round in contrast to most of the Mexico beach resorts that get unbearably hot in the summer.
We have really enjoyed wandering around the alleys of this town and visiting more art galleries and good cheap restaurants. It seems a little less hectic than Guanajuato even though we saw a lot of tourists as well as the large community of expats.
Again, we have a hard time believing that we are staying in a Mexican town for a week. It really feels like Europe. We did check out the history museum in the former Allende house. Ignacio Allende was another guy the helped start the Mexican revolution in 1810 and was eventually rewarded with his name being added to the town. Of course the Spanish soldiers captured and killed him after he was involved in leading some of the first skirmishes in 1811 so he probably wasn’t happy about that.
Several years ago we read an article and then a book about a Seattle couple that decided that they didn’t need a house for their retirement years. Michael and Debbie Campbell liked to travel and decided they would become “Senior Nomads” and just live in Airbnb’s. We have followed their blog for years. They usually spend some of their winter months in San Miguel so we looked them up and had coffee with them. Very helpful for the experts to pass on their knowledge to us rookies. Also interesting for us to understand the expat community here and other places and see if it is something we might be interested in. We still don’t know if we want to be fulltime nomads but sometimes it does tempt us. Especially with the difficulties we have had buying our Seattle home.
San Miguel is another town built on a hill. Yesterday we decided to conquer it. We hiked to a nature reserve at the top of the town and watched some new birds and found some settlement ruins. It was a little hot and we definitely felt the thin air of elevation so we decided to head back before the heat of the day. We got some views of the town on the way down but didn’t take the best pics. We will go to the photo viewpoint another day.
Next stop- Mexico City!