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 Travel & Outdoors | January 2008 
The Authentic Mexican
 Don Townshend - The Sun-Herald
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| | The city lies at the sump of a ravine. (Don Townshend) | | |
It's 10pm on a mild autumn night and I'm following a gang of minstrels dressed in flowing medieval-style black velvet capes and breeches into the dark, serpentine alleys of colonial Guanajuato. I don't usually pursue guys wearing fancy dress costumes into dimly lit passageways. But this is different. I'm on a "callejoneada" - a street tour led by a group of student musicians called "estudiantinas". OK, so maybe a couple look like professors. So what? They can all sing and strum in beautiful harmony.
Our excursion began in the grand Jardin de la Union, the lively plaza in the heart of this university city that lies sprawled in the sump of a deep ravine. As we climbed up into a maze of alleys, the minstrels began to serenade us, their fine voices echoing off the huddled houses clinging to the hillside.
Ambling through the twisting thoroughfares, the "estudiantinas" occasionally stop outside bars or in little plazas to impart local lore, swig from a porron (wine pitcher), spin risque jokes and regale us with romantic songs.
Guanajuato's (gwan-ah-wah-toe) traditional "callejoneadas" take about 90 minutes before terminating in pretty Plazuela de Los Angeles close to the legendary Callejon del Beso (Alley of the Kiss).
Here, amid claustrophobic alleys, two neighbouring balconies stand so closely together that their residents can easily lean forward and kiss each other. And, according to local lore, once upon a time two love-struck teens spent much of their evenings doing precisely that.
Alas, the girl's father was so displeased by his daughter's infatuation that he killed her in order to keep the family honour intact. Broken-hearted, the young man then did himself in so he could rejoin his love.
Today, lovers from around the world embrace beneath the callejon's grim, twin balconies to affirm their love with an enduring kiss. Nearby, a souvenir shop offers a plethora of "kiss" souvenirs while a few entrepreneurial ninos will offer to snap your kiss for posterity (with your camera) or guide you around the intriguing alleys for a peso or two.
Romance is everywhere in this town of about 120,000 people. It flourishes in the spectacular downtown university and spills vibrantly out into Guanajuato's narrow one-way streets and picturesque little plazas. Youth predominates, ebullient, ubiquitous, striding the colonial streets in numbers and glorying in the city's intimacy.
On weekends, romantic urbanites drive up from Mexico City while honeymooners pop into town throughout the year. You'll see them in the patio of Hotel Luna in the Jardin de la Union, glowing over champers or tequila and clicking their fingers as the mariachis entertain.
Even more romantics throng in Guanajuato in October each year when local and international arts lovers attend the long-established Festival Internacional Cervantino. This 20-day festival is dedicated to 16th-century Spanish scribe Miguel de Cervantes (Don Quixote). It features art, music, dance and opera performances of every ilk. An accompanying street festival ensures top-class live music and street theatre throughout the city's streetscapes and plazas. It's a great time to visit.
Guanajuato (the hilly place of frogs) was not always a city of refinement. In fact, it owes its existence to the harsh world of mining. Back in the mid-1500s when the conquering Spanish discovered large congregations of frogs frolicking around rich veins of silver, they immediately issued the natives with shovels and joyously introduced them to virtual slavery.
The La Valenciana Mine was soon producing an estimated 20percent of the world's silver. It maintained this status for centuries. Although a handful of mines are still operating, income is much reduced. So too are the frogs. Curious, I asked a local where they'd all gone. "Ah", he said. "When the silver finish, frogs also go. Now only few frogs in underground tunnels."
I took a stroll through one of the subterranean tunnels to check this out. Not a frog in sight. But the labyrinth of man-made road tunnels beneath the city is critical to its life. Without them traffic would seize up, for the couple of narrow streets squeezing through downtown are profoundly traffic-hostile. On the other hand, World Heritage-listed Guanajuato's foot-friendly layout makes walking a joy.
It's truly a delight to meander the length of downtown Guanajuato, from Teatro Cervantes at one end to the busy Mercado Hidalgo market at the other. No traffic lights and no neons. En route are a dozen or so charming plazas where it's much too easy to become derailed by tequila sunrises, mariachis-on-the-make or just simple benches where you can get an eyeful of local life. In fact, during the Cervantino festival you can spend hours lingering in the plazas listening to bands or watching theatrical performances.
Plazuela de San Fernando is surrounded by smart bars and restaurants. It's a great favourite with students, young travellers and families. Behind it, tenaciously scaling the slopes, brightly hued flat-topped houses seem to fuse together like a tapestry.
But my vote for best plaza is the triangular-shaped, gorgeously manicured Jardin de la Union with its lush green, neatly trimmed laurel trees. It's an elegant space, with a music bowl in the centre and abundant benches generally occupied by lovers, groups of musicians, awed tourists and old men in white hats squinting into newspapers. Hotels, bars and restaurants hem its perimeter. The jardin's focus is the majestic late-1880s Teatro Juarez, an imposing neo-classical building adorned with Doric columns, statues and red velvet and gold furnishings.
Beside the Teatro stands the colourful baroque church of San Diego, its patio the night-time meeting place for the popular "callejoneadas". Behind, a funicular ascends the flanks of the ravine to the imposing monument of El Pipila - a local hero who died setting fire to a grain silo in 1810. This brave act sparked rebellion against the Spanish and led to the Mexican nationalists' first victory against Spain in the War of Independence. From here, about 2000metres above sea level, there are dramatic vistas of the city.
But back to the jardin, tightly wedged among the buildings below. Between here and the nearby airy Plaza de la Paz, you pass some of the city's finest colonial buildings: from palatial edifices once owned by silver barons to the cinnamon-hued, eye-catching 17th-century Basilica of Our Lady of Guanajuato. Among its interior treasures is a 1000-plus-year-old wooden statue of the virgin, the city's patron.
Of more contemporary interest and just a block or two away is the three-story house and birthplace of famed Mexican artist/muralist Diego Rivera. The museum contains a number of the great man's works.
Undoubtedly, of all Guanajuato's assets, most bizarre is the ghoulish Museo de las Momias (Museum of Mummies). In a city replete with so much vivacity you might think such a display of the dead seems counterproductive, but it is extremely popular.
The grisly corpses on show were once interred in the cemetery where the topography and mineral content of the soil apparently caused mummification. In fact, mummies went on display as long ago as the late 1800s. Hollow-eyed, mouths agape as if in terror, some are nude and some wear clothes as desiccated as their flimsy folds of flesh. Among them is a clothed French doctor, a pregnant woman and a tiny foetus.
A visit to these grotesque spooks is enough to drive most people to drink. Including me.
Outside, I grabbed a cab straight back to Hotel Luna's courtyard bar in Jardin de la Union. A few tequila sunrises later and death seemed very, very far away.
TRIP NOTES
Getting there: Numerous buses run daily from Mexico City's modern Norte bus station to Guanajuato. Luxury buses cost $36 one-way for the five-hour trip. See http://www.etn.com.mx.
Staying there: Romantics adore the four-star Hotel Luna and three-star Hotel San Diego in intimate Jardin de la Union. Doubles with jardin views and balcony cost from about $110 in each hotel. See http://www.hotelluna.com.mx and http://www.hotelsandiego.com. An excellent nearby option is the three-star Hotel Meson del Rosario. Doubles from $52 low season. Email: hotelmesondelrosario@hotmail.com.
Further information: For festivals and tourist information see http://www.festivalcervantino.gob.mx; http://www.guanajuatocapital.com and http://www.visitmexico.com.
Minstrel tours operate year round at about 8.30pm. Buy tickets ($9) off the "estudiantinas" in the Jardin de la Union.
The university and private colleges offer Spanish language courses for foreigners. See http://www.escuelamexicana.com or www.academiafalcon.com. |
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