Guanajuato, Mexico Offers Culture and Character Maribeth Mellin - SFGate
go to original March 13, 2014

Turismo en Guanajuato (gtoexperience)

I'm normally content roaming around completely lost in strange cities. But Guanajuato (pronounced wan-a-waa-toe), with its tongue-twisting name, subterranean roads and maze of skinny steep streets tested my equanimity. The layout may have worked perfectly when the city was founded in 1559, but its designers had no idea what the next four centuries would bring.

Many of today's 116,000 residents live in a jumble of blue, yellow and pink houses along spider-web alleys so narrow some balconies meet in a beso (kiss). Pedestrians hug walls and teeter on curbs along skinny sidewalks. The underground tunnels and turnoffs are so confusing a taxi driver got hopelessly lost taking me to my hotel upon arrival. We were saved when a local jumped into the passenger seat and explained our route. When I looked out on the city the sundeck at Alma del Sol, a four-room B&B in a restored home, I understood the driver's confusion. Streets appeared and disappeared with no apparent order amid looming church domes and jam-packed structures.

Squished in the Sierra Madre northwest of Mexico City, Guanajuato was once the wealthiest city in Mexico. Spanish conquistadors arrived soon after taking Mexico City, drawn by endless veins of silver in the hills surrounding a narrow, serpentine valley. European governors and mining execs built elaborate mansions and palaces out of native rose and green cantera. Bishops and priests commissioned elaborate churches with hand-carved stone edifices and gilded altars. Working families added adobe, brick and stone homes near deep, dark mines.

Fortunately, the juxtaposition of old and new gives Guanajuato a singular character and charm. As in nearby San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato retains its colonial-era beauty, albeit on a less manicured scale. While San Miguel is far more famous as a must-see tourism destination and expat enclave, Guanajuato attracts students, budding artists and musicians and travelers seeking living history.

Read the rest at SFGate

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!