First things first, two weeks ago I went with my Mexican culture professor to San Miguel de Allende. In actuality, we didn't see any bits of the town (aside from the view on the highway on the mountainside) because we spent the afternoon at a place called La Gruta. La Gruta is a beautiful hotel/spa that houses some of Mexico's wonderful hot springs. At first, I wasn't quite sure about going because I had seen pictures and though it is a beautiful place, it looks like a hotel -- they have converted the natural hot springs into pools and I thought it was a bit too...commercial for my taste. I quickly changed my mind when I actually got into the water, which is all natural (minerals and all) and it was just like stepping into a bath. The really cool thing about the Gruta is the fact that as the various pools got closer to the source of the hot water, the pools themselves got hotter. Finally, Maria Elena (our lovely professor) took us to the actually Gruta, which is a little cave that you have to swim to through a tunnel where the water is hot like a hot tub, but all natural and in a cave where the only light comes from these small holes in the ceiling that allows the sunlight to pore through. It was incredible and I really do want to go back or, at the very least, try another hot springs in another city.
All right, on to the next adventure. This past weekend, my best friend Christine came to visit me from the United States. Although she only stayed for a three days and four nights, we made the best of our time together. I walked her to death in Queretaro and showed her all the monuments and took all the pictures I've been meaning to take. I promise, soon I will give you a virtual tour of Queretaro through my camera lens, but that will have to wait just a little longer. On Friday, we decided to visit Guanajuato with a group of fellow WMU students and it was just a blast. The minute we got off the bus, Janell already ran into a tour guide who sold us a tour for 100 pesos (5 hour tour! What a deal) and we hopped into a big SUV to start our adventure.
I won't go into all of the details of everything we saw, but I will say that Guanajuato is one of the most interesting cities I have ever visited in my life. Most of the main streets are actually tunnels underneath the mountains because the city itself is built in the cracks and crevices of the mountains in order to protect the houses from the flooding rivers. Some of these tunnels, amazingly, are hundreds of years old and driving through them, walking down into the tunnels, is pretty incredible.
In our five our tour of Guanajuato, we packed in a lot of activities. One of the first things we did was visit a beautiful church in the hills called the Templo de San Cayetano. It was built by don Antonio de Obregon y Alcocer, one of the richest men in Mexico because of his gold/silver mine (La Valenciana), as a "thank you" to his patron Saint (I believe it was San Antonio). The church itself is gorgeous, mostly because all of the altars are 24 karat gold.
After this lovely homage to God, we went to the Inquisition Torture Museum! I have to say, this museum was just as fascinating as it was disturbing and disgusting. I can't actually believe that these types of devices were used on fellow human beings, especially in the name of Christianity.
The next stop on our tour of Guanajuato was the mine that I mentioned earlier, La Valenciana, that used to be one of the richest silver/gold mines in Guanajuato. Today, it isn't used for much other than a tourist spot in which you can climb down into the mine as the guide explains its uses and its history. We got a real taste of what its like to be in a mine, 24 meters underground, when all the lights suddenly went out and we were in pitch black darkness (only for 30 seconds, but still, it seemed like a long 30 seconds).
Finally, the reason I actually wanted to go to Guanajuato in the first place: The Mummy Museum. Of course, Guanajuato has many wonderful attractions and the city itself is breathtaking. But I wanted to indulge in the Mexican obsession with death by visiting the famous Guanajuato mummies. These mummies are naturally made as a result of the climate here and all of them come from the local cemetery. Interestingly, the bodies in this cemetery can only stay there for 6 years because of a lack of space and so the families have a choice of moving the bodies or, in the case that there is no family, the now mummified bodies are moved to the museum. They have a lot of interesting mummies in their exhibit -- the smallest in the world (a fetus from a deceased pregnant woman), a man who passed away in 1977, and of course, the first body discovered 1865. I know it sounds kind of creepy, but really, it's quite fascinating because the mummies have retained their hair, their skin, their fingernails, etc.
After our encounter with the mummies, we headed back to the hostel and to a taqueria next door where we met some lovely Australians named James, Alex, and Tatjana. We spent the entire evening with them wandering around Gunajuato, watching the street performers, and dancing salsa at one of the local clubs.
That, in a very large nutshell, was my trip to Guanajuato. Thanks for reading :)
Kaitie
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