We really enjoyed our first two weeks of our monthlong stay in Guanajuato. Though it isn’t a spectacular destination, it has been comfortable enough and extremely interesting. We’ve had a few memorable fun experiences already and have a few more planned for our remaining time here. 

Arrival from Zihuatanejo

A few months before our trip from Zihua, Aeromexico changed their flight schedule, which lengthened our layover in the Mexico City airport and pushed our arrival time back from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. But our travel day was relatively easy, with our Zihua host arranging a free ride for us to the airport from the son of the manager who took care of us, Judith (pronounced hoo-dit). Her son Jonathan was in town visiting family and spoke excellent English. During the 15-minute drive, he convinced us that the city where he lives in Michoacan, Morelia, has to be on our list for our next Mexico trip. We’d already been leaning toward Michoacan so it was an easy commitment for us to make.

Our flights from Zihua to CDMX and CDMX to Leon (the closest airport to Guanajuato) were very short and on time. Despite that, it was a long day. Once we’d picked up our luggage, we decided an Uber would be easiest to get to Guanajuato. I’d done some research and the app indicated it would pick up just outside the arrivals door. However, it turned out that Uber can’t come into the airport proper and we had to walk 10 minutes with our luggage to meet the driver. I also think it might have been a little more expensive than a taxi at $30 plus tip. Lesson learned – next time I’ll at least look into doing a taxi before defaulting to Uber. I think we would have arrived sooner.

With our Uber wait, it was 8:30 p.m. by the time we reached our Airbnb on the Plazuelita Lucio Marmolejo. Our host met us and showed us around the apartment, which is huge. The building has been owned by her family since it was built many years ago (at least 70, she said) and the lower floor apartment is just used occasionally by a cousin and his family. So far we haven’t seen him. 

After the host left, we went out for a quick late dinner of pizza by the slice, a great value at just 35 pesos each ($2), including a free cup of coke. 

Our Airbnb

Though the apartment is spacious and charming with its vaulted brick ceilings, it was also very cold when we first arrived. Guanajuato has been in a bit of a cold spell for most of our first two weeks and this building, like most in the historic part of the city, doesn’t have heat. It just isn’t necessary for much of the year. We were warm enough overnight under a fluffy blanket and quilt, but getting up in the morning was really chilly, only about 16 degrees celsius (61 Fahrenheit). So we purchased a small space heater from the Soriana supermarket nearby when we did our grocery run. The heater has helped a lot, as have the sweats we purchased on sale from the Del Sol department store. Both a great, cheap investment in our comfort. We don’t need the space heater overnight, but it was helpful to run in the morning to heat up the bedroom where I work before Chad moves it to his dining table workspace for the morning. He usually doesn’t need it in the afternoon, at which time I use it from time to time in the bedroom. It has worked pretty well.

The last few days have been much warmer in Guanajuato with daily highs in the upper 70s Fahrenheit and overnight lows in the low 50s. The apartment has been staying around 20 degrees celsius (68 Fahrenheit), which is comfortable enough. We didn’t need the heater at all yesterday but Chad is using it this morning.

The best part of our Airbnb is the large terrace which has a view of some of Guanajuato’s colorful homes and from another angle the Alhondiga, an important landmark in Mexican history that is now a museum we’ll visit in the second half of our stay.

Beautiful Guanajuato

Guanajuato is a colonial silver mining town dating back to the 16th century, though there were indigenous people mining here long before that, primarily the Chichimeca. The name, however, comes from the Purépecha language (from the Taranas I wrote about in my last post) and means Frog Hill. In the early 19th century, the city played an important role in Mexican independence. It has long been a popular tourist destination among Mexicans (it’s only about 5 hours from Mexico City) and was given Unesco World Heritage status in 1988.

Guanajuato is known for its colonial architecture, especially colorful building the line the hills surrounding the city. The historic center is full of narrow, winding streets. It took Chad and I quite a while to orient ourselves. In fact, we’re still a little lost sometimes. But we’ve really enjoyed exploring the streets, plazas, and parks. 

A few days into our stay, I received the latest issue of an email newsletter I subscribe to, Cheapest Destinations, and was reminded that the author, Tim Leffel, lives here and usually includes an invitation to meet up with readers as they pass through. I sent him an email and, since he had a couple of out-of-town tours scheduled, it turned out that the best time to meet would be that same day. Luckily, Chad and I already planned to be out and we met Tim at a cantina called La Clandestina after our visit to the Diego Rivera House Museum (described below). 

In addition to his newsletters, travel writing, and tour, Tim also wrote the book A Better Life for Half the Price, which significantly influenced our early research into our travel lifestyle and the first destinations we chose. Here’s one of my early blog posts that talks about how we used Tim’s book. We have very fond memories of poring over it on our porch as we started planning. In fact, looking back at my Amazon history, we ordered Tim’s book on the very day Chad and I decided to travel full-time, March 11, 2017! It was a privilege for Chad and I to buy him a few “thank you” beers for his work helping so much in those early days. And, as a resident of Guanajuato for the past several years, he was able to give us quite a few helpful tips and restaurant recommendations. I’m really glad we chose to meet up with him.

Fun Museums

Before our drinks with Tim, our first museum visit in town was to the historic home of artist Diego Rivera. It was great for both in showing off the colonial architecture and late 19th century style he grew up in and showcasing some of the evolution of his art through the years. In the ground floor there was a temporary exhibit about his wife, Frida Kahlo, during her mid-20th century hospitalizations. It was all very interesting and worthwhile. A low ticket price too, at 31 pesos each (less than the pizza slice!). The museum didn’t allow photos of Rivera’s art but here a couple of the home. 

Our second museum trip, about a week later, was to the Don Quixote Iconography Museum. We lucked into choosing a Tuesday afternoon for our visit, which is the day they give free entry. We’re both fans of Don Quixote as a concept and really enjoyed our day trip in Spain to Cervantes’ hometown of Alcalá de Henares. Guanajuato calls itself the Cervantes capital of the Americas and features a huge festival in October during which scenes from Don Quixote and other Cervantes works are performed.

The museum was really fun, with tons of art pieces depicting Don Quixote, Sancho Panza, the windmill “giants,” and other elements of the book. It was also interesting that a children’s choir was having their practice at the same time, so we got to enjoy their cute little voices as they learned a new song. Here are some of our favorite pieces from the museum.

After the museum, we walked down the the Plaza Allende, which has the Teatro Cervantes and a large Don Quixote and Sancho Panza statue. We also wandered over to Parque Embajadero, then enjoyed craft beers on the roof of The Beer Room, followed by a delicious dinner at Francisca Enoteca & Cocina, a restaurant Tim recommended.

Cerro La Bufa Hike

Our first full Saturday we set out in the morning to hike up El Cerro de La Bufa, one of the mountains around Guanajuato. Though this hike was already on my radar, Tim affirmed that it is worthwhile and told us how to find the entrance near the electrical substation. I also found this helpful blog with detailed instructions. We took a taxi up to the substation for 80 pesos (100 with the tip) and started making our way up.

The hike was really fun and took just under two hours, though we took some sidetracks and did our own exploring based on Chad’s trails app. The scramble up the rocks to the main view area wasn’t too bad. All along the hike, the views over the city were quite beautiful and it was fun to be out in nature. Since it was Saturday morning, there were a few other groups out, but the trails weren’t at all crowded. Instead of retracing our steps back down the steep rocks, Chad found a longer but less steep alternative route back to the path just after the cave. After the hike, we got an Uber to take us back to town and went out for a tasty late breakfast of chilaquiles and enchiladas at Maria Cocina Urbana.

Private Guanajuato Tour

This year, we again followed our Christmas gift-giving strategy of doing six joint activity gifts throughout the year with parameters selected through random drawing. The first of the year was Mexico, tour, and culture/education, so we booked a private walking tour here in Guanajuato to learn more about the city and culture. I’m not sure it was quite worth the price tag ($100 + tip) but we had a great time and learned a lot from our guide, Ramses. 

Some of the most interesting facts were about Guanajuato’s tourism history. For example, the colorful homes are part of an initiative from the government in which they actually paint people’s houses for them to keep them all looking nice and create the colorful vistas. Ramses told us that his aqua house has been painted twice. We thought this was an outstanding idea, since this has become such an iconic feature of Guanajuato. The Don Quixote connection dates back just to the 1950s after the university’s theater professor started staging Cervantes plays in various plazas in Guanajuato. This eventually became the annual festival in 1972, which takes place each October. And Guanajuato is also known for the nightly shows by Estudiantinas, groups of musicians who do nightly music shows in 17th century costumes. This was an idea brought back from a university trip to Spain in the 1960s (if I remember correctly what Ramses said). Ramses told us he performs in one of these groups, so we may check it out during the second half of our stay.

Here are some photo highlights of the tour:

Valentine’s Day

Guanajuato also gave us a wonderful Valentine’s Day. After working until mid-morning, we took a taxi out to an area called Presa de la Olla, where there’s a manmade lake and several parks. We enjoyed walking around and a picnic in Parque Florencio Antillón, which was very lush and pretty. Then we made our way on foot back to town, stopping along the way for an espresso drink from Cafe Madeline in Presa 97, a cool historic building that is now an shopping and art space, then picked up some aged manchego from an artisanal cheese shop recommended by Tim, and ended up at the Plaza de la Union, the most romantic square, for an early afternoon cocktail – a strawberry mojito for me and a posion tulun for Chad, which had mezcal, lime, maracuya, and ginger. 

It was really fun walking through the city on Valentine’s Day, which seems to be huge in Mexico. There are dozens of booths set up selling candy, balloons, stuffed animals, and other gifts, and Valentine’s decorations everywhere. The whole day felt very festive.

After a rest and shower, we made a cheese plate to enjoy on our terrace and then went out for dinner at an upscale restaurant called Mestizo where I’d made reservations a week ago. We had a mixed experience at the restaurant but enjoyed our interesting salads and two indigenous inspired fish dishes: robalo with pipián sauce (indigenous recipe with ground pumpkin seeds, herbs, and spice) and salmon in xoconostle (a type of cactus fruit) marmalade. 

Other Memorable Meals

In our two weeks here, Chad has continued his exploration of Mexican cuisine and cocktails here in Guanajuato. He made veggie enchiladas from scratch with tortillas from the tortillaria downstairs and his own salsa verde recipe. He’s also developed a delicious tequila old-fashioned using repasado, agave, and orange bitters. And for the Olympics opening ceremony, we finally tried the carajillo cocktail, a mix of espresso (made with decaf ground espresso brewed in Chad’s aeropress) and Liquor 43, the Spanish liqueur we tried in Zihua. 

Meals out have also been fun. We’re still doing a cheap night out, fancy night out, and lunch/brunch. Our first dinner out was at Restaurante Corazón Mexicano, where we tried the local specialty, enchiladas mineras with chicken (hearty miner fare) and chicken with an indigenous mole recipe. Both were very tasty. Afterwards we went to one of the many local candy shops to buy something cajete flavored. Cajeta is a Guanajuato specialty that is goat milk caramel.

Other nights out included street foods like esquites (street corn in a cup with crema and spices) and a fantastic stuffed quesadilla from the food cart across the street from our plazuelita. Another time we went out to Francisca’s where I tried a local Guanajuate rosé and Chad tried an añejo (aged) tequila. We’ve found another excellent gelateria here called Estación. On our last cheap night out, we went to T-tela Cochinita Pibil to try the Mexican pulled pork in tacos, a quesadilla, and flautas. The last photos are of our brunch after our private tour – mushroom omelet for me and a quesadilla with jamaica (hibiscus) for Chad, which we didn’t really care for.

We have plenty of fun plans for the second half of our stay, including visiting a couple more museums, attending a couple of live music events, and a DIY daytrip to Dolores Hidalgo, a pueblo magico that is also very important to Mexican independence. Plus more hikes and walks and many more restaurants to try while here in Guanajuato. We’re looking forward to the rest of our time here.