Guanajuato, Guanajuato at sunset
While living in Mexico in 2003, in one year we visited the beach 17 times. We were weekend beach bums! I started to feel like we were missing out on the rest of what Mexico had to offer so we planned some trips inland as well. One of our favorite such trips was to León, Guanajuato with our friends Mauricio and Caty.
León is the fifth largest city in Mexico with about 1.2 million people and it is the shoe making capital of the country as well. While León was interesting, the real gem of the area is the smaller, historic, capital town, Guanajuato, Guanajuato with around 70,000 people and a very unique underground maze of roads. It is a World Heritage Site. Most of my very favorite photographs and paintings of Mexico are of Guanajuato, Guanajuato.
Caty, Mauricio, Me
Besides the town itself, looking back on our trip to Guanajuato, seven years later, we remember the incredible hospitality of our hosts along with some of the unique features of the area.
First, on our way to the town, we passed a very large statue of Jesus, sort of like the one you see in pictures of Rio. Andy and I got a kick out of turning to look at it and saying, “Jesus.”
Cristo Rey del Cubilete
I also remember that Mauricio’s mom had bought her house through a cooperative where you basically start paying a mortgage payment along with 120 or so other people. Then each month, they pool the money and a house is purchased. They drew who would occupy the new house each month and she was lucky to draw her house after less than two years. I found this to be such an interesting alternative to a traditional mortgage and probably came about because of the Mexican financial crisis in 1994.
Another notable feature of Guanajuato was a local sandwich called the “‘guacamaya” which translates to “parrot.” I like to think of it as a tasty (believe it or not) pork rind sandwich. As described in this blog, to make a guacamaya they take a bread roll called a “bolillo” and split it open with a knife. Then they remove much of the non-crust portion of the bolillo which is called the “migajón”. In place of the migajón they put little broken pieces of cuero duro along with salsa mexicana made with tomato, onion, and chile serrano.
One of the best parts of the trip was being shown around by Mauricio and Caty. Nothing beats exploring a new city with people who live there and even better with people who grew up there!
If you are interested in seeing the more quaint side of Mexico, we highly recommend Guanajuato!
Related posts:
- Viva Mexico Original Post January 21, 2003 Subject: Viva Mexico! Hola, I am sending out our first update from Mexico. We have...
- Ooooh, Mexico! While the second day was interrupted with a negative experience, the second to the last day was as well. My...
- Greetings from Mexico PLUS a web site with pictures Update from Mexico...
- Much Needed R&R This will be our first beach vacation with a toddler to keep our eye on. I am sure when we...
Comments on this entry are closed.