Guanajuato, Mexico (October 2019)

Kristin had to leave Thailand on Oct 18 because her visa expires. It was a bit too early for me to begin my ministry schedule in the U.S. So we decided to make a side trip for a week to Mexico. More specifically Guanajuato and Queretaro for three nights each.

A long journey of 40 hours from CNX to TPE, TPE to LAX, 8 hour layover, LAX to MEX. MEX to BJX. As soon as we arrived at LAX, we had to leave via Aero Mexico flight.

I arranged for a pick up with Gettransfer.com, but a lady driver, with whom I spoke twice, never showed up, thus killing almost one hour. I ended up calling Uber, but he was pulled over by the police and he had to pay a bribe of 500 Mexican Pesos, which was more than I paid. Well...

We climbed up almost to the top of a hill. There was a nice view with a skyshooting cliff in the background. Wherever we turned, we could find colorful houses. To live comfortably in Guanajuato, strong legs are required. Climbing is good for your health, but perhaps not so good for your knees.

Anyway, we were able to withdraw cash from an ATM at M$ 17.9 per 1 USD. We took a bus to go down to the Central Market. It rained a bit but we managed to stay dry. Mercado Hidalgo is a famous landmark for Guanajuato and we dropped in to take a look.

Walking around the town, we realized that the largest celebration of this town was under way: the 47th Anniversary of Cervantino. This festival was designed to commemorate the life of Cervantes, the author of Don Quiote, a fiction figure of knight with weird behaviors. People from Canada and Germany were delivering various performances for three weeks.

With my phone battery remaining at 2%, we were able to call an Uber taxi and got home safely. After the long travel, our bodies were crushed into the bed after taking shower. We slept in the afternoon and evening, and continued sleeping until early morning.

The following day was Sunday. I could not find any English speaking church where we could worship unless we travel 45 minutes to San Miquel de Allende. Well... We chose to worship by ourselves. We listened to Rev. Dongho Kim's sermon about "With the heart of Jesus Christ" based on Philippines 2:5.

After that we walked to the Centro Historico, visiting Iglesia San Francisco, hiked up to the Monument al Pipila where you could see the entire city of Guanajuato. Pipila is a hero in battling against the Spaniards for the Mexico's independence. It was an unplanned steep and tiring uphill hike, but was worth the trip since the view was amazingly panoramic!

.

Then, we walked down to see the Teatro Juarez,

Templo de San Diego,

Jardin de la Union...

And a Basilica...

We visited a Basilica where Catholic believers were gathering to worship. We dined at a restaurant by the Jardin.

After that, we took a bus to return to the lodging. It started raining cats and dogs while we were in the bus. Even after we got off the bus, we had to walk up the hill quite a bit in the rain to reach the house where we stayed.

We visited a cafe, Santo Cafe, based on the Airbnb host's recommendation, but we did not enjoy the place as much as he did because we did not eat the meals.

As we explored the downtown, we entered into a small building and found a live TV show under way. We found cute stuff inside the plaza.

The toilet leaked a lot this evening so I had to mob the floor to clean the water. Yikes.

The third day or on Monday, we again walked down to the downtown and visited the Callejon de Beso. A legend story was that two young man and woman fell in love with each other, but their parents did not bless them. Particularly the father of the young lady was openly against the young man. The young man climbed up to the second floor of the house located across from the house of the young lady. The gap was so narrow that they were able to kiss. One night, her father saw them in action and killed the young man. People were visiting the narrow alley and enacted the legend story.

Later on, we explored the reservoir area and garden after we took the bus to the area where we stayed.

The dinner was at Mexico Lindo y Sabroso, a fine Mexican restaurant. We ate tortilla soup, beef fajita and enchilada, all of which were delicious! We thoroughly enjoyed the food.

The hills... were quite challenging to our knees. Crowded streets in the downtown area... Also, all the buses were running underground in the downtown area. Once you get familiar with all the routes, you may find the get-around easy but it was somewhat challenging to look for where we are supposed to go.

Guanajuato was far too crowded due to the famous Cervantino Festival. And, the hills and tunnels were a lot more challenging than I expected. - Jeffrey