We’ve been here a month, a full and complex month. I won’t miss the graffiti everywhere, the street dogs ( though not as bad here as in some other Mexican places we’ve been to), and the long, steep climb back up to our campground from downtown.

So many sweet memories will go with me:

The people we met, and their friendliness:

• the fellow in our favorite coffee shop, the Conquistador by the Santa Fe tunnel…
• the shy girl in the panaderia (bakery) who was thrilled with her photo…
• the American woman who gave me a great rundown on Guanajuato when we first arrived…
• the Mexican massage therapist who un-knotted my legs after the hills wore them out….
• the campground manager whose rapid Spanish became easier to follow…
• the older German couple who had literally never touched a computer before I helped them get a yahoo account…
• the busy professor who had us over for tea…
• the architect who invited Kelly to address his architecture class at the university…
• the American-Mexican couple who are building a bed and breakfast here…
• the young couple from whom we bought our produce, and their interest in what food cost “over there”…
• the pharmacist whom I’ve blogged about, who went out of her way to be helpful…

I could easily double this list.

Another sweet people memory is something that happened several times, always when I was alone and walking through the busy city streets. I would get into a delicious sense of flow, as all sorts of people walked past me, old and young, male and female, adult and child, Mexican and foreign, and I felt myself part of this amazing river of humanity. I’m sure you can have an experience like this in many places, but I particularly enjoyed it here in Guanajuato, with its narrow sidewalks and the pedestrian nature of much life in this city of winding streets and walking streets.

And there are memories of the city itself, the jardin with the its deep shade and mariachis, the many little plazas and parks, the views from one hill to the next…

Bye for now, Guanajuato!

Leaving Guanajuato for Now is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

A motorcycle roared up the hill past us, and I followed the sound as it faded off into the distance, going around the curves of the Panoramic highway. Not an unpleasant sound.

The dog-frenzy had diminished by now, so I could hear three or four other clusters of dog sounds from the hill across the arroyo from us. (This photo is a night view from our home.)

A few cars went by, then a truck. A car with a bad muffler stopped very close to us on the road, and it stayed there quite a while… well, maybe a minute or two. Then it turned and came down into our campground. A number of local people park their cars in here.

A different dog choir was carrying on now. I think it included the rooftop Rottweiler up the hill from us, with his deep voice. I was glad I had seen his owner, a woman my age, speaking lovingly to him one day when she left the house.

I heard the soft sound of a woman in conversation in the street a few yards from our camper. I couldn’t tell if it was one talkative woman with a quiet man, or two women.

I heard the dear sounds of my husband sleeping next to me. Then there was a soft snore. It woke me, and I realized it had been my own snore! I smiled, turned over, and settled into the deepening quiet, as sleep took me away from the barking and the engines.

This was an easy weekend night. In the two weekends that we’ve already spent here, I’ve noticed more traffic, more loud music, the occasional loud voice. But last night there was none of that. I did wake a couple of times when the local cats had one of their usual fights.

Our first night or two here, right on the edge of the city, neither of us slept well due to these sounds. Kelly commented that it was around 4 AM each morning that the dogs finally slept (for the most part) and that the roosters took over.

The sounds tell us that we are in a different place, a different culture. I love the musicality of Spanish. It’s pleasant that airplanes don’t seem to fly over this particular spot. And sometimes, when I’ve had one of those rare days where Mexico is all a bit too much, the sounds push me further into that feeling.

But last night was pleasant. This morning I woke to the familiar sounds of Kelly making tea. When I went outside to do my stretches, just before sunrise, I savored the many-rooster chorus coming from all around us. Now that’s a Mexican city sound I love.

HERE’S A COMMENT ON THIS FROM MY OLD BLOG:

SAM SAID:My friend and I stayed in Mexico for a month last year. At first we called the perritos at night “The Symphony of Dogs”. By the end we had bags under our eyes and instead referred to them as “The Hounds of Hell”.

Quiet Friday Night in Guanajuato is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

We are really loving it here… so much that we will be here for a month or more–we just paid for a month’s campsite. This little trailer park (we are the only people here at present) is right in the city, within walking distance of downtown. We’ve set up Cando so that we won’t be driving it at all while we’re here.

With one laptop (connected to the internet via our satellite dish) and two people, we take turns. Right now, Kelly has gone out for a long exploration of Guanajuato’s architecture which will no doubt take him past the place that has lattes that I discovered on one of my solitary outings. It’s near the health food store I also found. I’ve got the computer to myself for several hours, tra la. After over a month of a lot of togetherness, the ease of each of us wandering around alone is very nice. Yesterday we went off together for a nice meal.

And this is a lovely setting, with hummingbirds coming by and a view over the city. Our basic practical needs can mostly be met within a couple of blocks of here — bottled water, fruits, vegetables, meat, fresh bread, and other groceries. There’s a guy who comes around in the mornings, calling out something in a musical tone. I went out and asked him what he was selling, and he said “gas.” That’s propane (or butane in many parts of Mexico, not sure which it is here), and we showed him our tanks. When one runs out, he’ll take it off to refill it. Great, that was the last of the practical items I was wondering about. We have electricity, water, and sewer here at the trailer park.

There are a lot of barking dogs at night, their barks echoing across the canyon from the hill opposite us. Both Kelly and I have been kept awake by them at times, but we are adjusting. By around 4AM, the dogs’ chorus gives way to the roosters. We hear roosters at any time but they are most marked before dawn and in the early morning, before city traffic picks up. And people’s radios. Generally, it all blends into a sweet Mexican background.

This is our third time here. In 1979, we took a Ford van all over Mexico and Guatemala, and Guanajuato was one of our favorite stops. In 1991, we came on a business trip. We flew to Guadalajara and then took buses here. Our purpose in coming was to make a video, Student Life in Mexico. While we were in Guanajuato, we met some Mexican university students and ended up shooting Mexican Pizza, an intermediate-level Spanish language program.  (I tell the story of how it came to be on that page.)

Our first day here this week, we wandered around downtown and enjoyed spotting some of the places that are in the video. Guanajuato is much the same… actually even nicer than it was before. They already had a tunnel system that keeps a lot of traffic out of the streets, and they have added to that. With the sophistication of a university town with some 20,000 students, there are countless coffee shops and economical little restaurants to explore.

I couldn’t be happier to be in Guanajuato!

In Guanajuato and Loving It is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

If you are flying in, the international airport at Leon is only about 17 miles away, with taxis your best bet for getting to and from Guanajuato. (Intrepid penny-pinchers without too much luggage can ask about buses between the road by airport and the city.) You can fly from anywhere in Mexico, as well as from U.S. cities such as Houston, Dallas, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

If you are driving, that geographic center aspect comes in handy. If you are anywhere in the central highlands of Mexico, Guanajuato won’t be too far away.

The Mexican bus system is incredible, with buses of all classes frequently going between cities. You can pop over from San Miguel de Allende in about an hour and a half– be aware that the shorter route goes “via la presa” (via the dam) rather than through Dolores Hidalgo. Nonstop buses from Mexico City take about 5 hours, while buses from Guadalajara are about 4 hours. The first class and — even better, the deluxe — buses are well worth the amount more that you pay for them.

Around Guanajuato Itself

With a map that resembles the human brain, Guanajuato is a city you can get lost in.

But it isn’t hard to find yourself again. You’ll turn a corner and recognize a place you’ve been before — even though you didn’t realize you were anywhere near it!

Speaking of maps, you can get a free one at the Tourist Information Center on the side of Plaza de la Paz, or at one of the many tourist information kiosks around the city. It’s fine for just the downtown area. But we found a much better map for 20 pesos (under $2 US), which is available at many of the newsstand and stationery stores around the city. Just ask for a “mapa de Guanajuato.”

This is a city for walkers. Much of the downtown area is pedestrian-only, as are many of the little walkways that go uphill.

If you get tired of walking, there are many taxis and a number of bus routes. It’s a good town to leave your car parked in, though. It’s quite confusing to drive in. I’ve heard the tale of a motorhome getting stuck in one of the tunnels.

Travel to Guanajuato is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

I first poked around on the internet (searching Guanajuato and “real estate” at google) and found some delightful old haciendas and tastefully decorated mansions, but 2 billion pesos is out of our price range, even with a good rate for the dollar. There were also houses and lots in and around the city at lower prices online, but a good rule of thumb is that the properties that get onto websites are targeted at relatively well-to-do people who aren’t in the area.

Local residents of a Mexican city wanting to buy a house, or other real estate, start talking to people they know.

So I did that too. I found out that Guanajuato real estate, much like back home, has gone way up over the past decades. Gone are the days of finding a livable house in a nice location here for under a thousand dollars, and perhaps even for under ten thousand dollars. I met  a local family here that had had their two-story home built for around seven thousand dollars, but that was some unspecified number of years ago.

I would guess that Guanajuato real estate might run a bit higher than in some other nice cities of Mexico, because this is such a lovely place and so popular with tourists,  Mexican as well as foreign. But that is just a guess.

Get the Chopper to Go Shopping

There’s a handy weekly publication coming out on Saturdays, available at newsstands around the city, which is an excellent place to start researching Guanajuato rentals, homes for sale, and land for sale. It’s called Chopper, which is pronounced “chow (to rhyme with show) PAIR.” The issue I bought recently cost 6 pesos (about 50 cents) and was full of articles on a variety of subjects. The classified ads were near the end. Chopper is in Spanish, but with a dictionary and a little help from a local friend, I was able to figure out what the ads meant.

Almost all the ads had telephone numbers to call, and some of the ads gave actual addresses. So phoning could be a challenge unless your Spanish is quite good. You could probably hire  someone  to help you at one of the language schools.

I happened to buy a late January issue, so it was probably more loaded with rentals than usual, as the University was resuming after a long holiday break. It appeared that many students pay about $50 US per month for their housing, with many of the ads specifying rooms or shared rooms for males or for females.

Moving up a cut from that, there did seem to be quite a range of rentals available, though most don’t give their price. Here’s an example of one that did:

Casa en Lomas, dos recamaras, sala-comedor, cocina, patio de servicio, DOS banos, jardin, cochera para DOS autos techada, renta $7,000. Tel. XXX-XX-XX.

My translation of this would read: House in Lomas, 2 bedrooms, living room-dining room combination, kitchen, service patio [place to scrub and hang up clothes], two bathrooms, garden, roofed parking for two cars, for rent, 7,000 pesos per month [about $630 at the time], phone.

The houses for sale began with one at about $8,000 US. I didn’t go look at any, and I suspect anything that low is likely to be funky, or perhaps unfinished. (Obra negra literally translates as “black work”… a friend explained it means uncompleted.) There were a few in the $20,000 US range as well. I noticed some nice-sounding ones in the $50,000 US to $80,000 US range. An American resident I spoke with had bought a house here several years ago, and she commented that when she had looked at a recent Chopper, she had been shocked to see how much prices had gone up.

As for land, when prices were given, it was either a total amount or per square meter. One square meter equals 10.8 square feet… a meter is about 39 inches. The cheapest I noticed was a place that advertised lots for your country house at the entry to a particular ranch. They were offering 1,000 square meter lots for 40,000 pesos, about $3,600 US. I have no idea what add-on fees there would be, what it would cost to get utilities or even if you could, let alone where that ranch is. But I did think it was interesting, to get a sense of the lowest prices.

I comment about the lowest prices I noticed, not that the places would be anything desirable necessarily, but they might be. Mexican policy for foreigners who apply for a FM-3 visa to live in the country on income from outside Mexico is evidently that if you own a home, they will require you to show half the amount of income you otherwise would. It’s a variable amount (even varies from one Mexican consulate to another in the U.S.) but is somewhere around $1,000 US per month for one person, $1,500 per month for a married couple. So a low-cost purchase could be cost-effective in that way.

Rentals I Saw

I did look at a couple of rentals. I looked at a very cute apartment (attached house, really) for rent for 5,000 pesos a month, about $455 US, plus electricity. It was four levels, with three bedrooms, two baths, a nice though small living/room kitchen, and stupendous views from the top-level bedroom. It was empty and could have been rented for something more with some furniture. It came with parking. This place was in a hilly neighborhood some 15 minutes walk to downtown. Later, someone asked me for photos of it, and I got a chance to take some. They are on this page about a Mexican unfurnished apartment.

I also saw an apartment in a convenient location, just off the downtown area, a few blocks from the market. One large room, one small bathroom, and quite a large kitchen cost about $90 a month, with electricity running an extra $25 or $30 a month. The place was heated with electricity, and at some 6700 feet in elevation it can get cold here. This place was located on a cute little callejon (walking street) — you’d get your exercise hauling your groceries up the hill! — and while I was there, I noticed that you could hear the pedestrians going by and talking. It didn’t have a lot in the way of windows. I was told that for about $150 a month, there was a much larger and nicer apartment on the the next floor, and repairs were underway on it.

Some Canadians we met told us that they had stopped in Dolores Hidalgo, a city about the same size as Guanajuato and about an hour away. They had noticed a development of new houses going in and were curious. A friendly security guard showed them around. He said that the houses sold for (or maybe began at) 240,000 pesos, under $22,000. They were 3-bedroom, 2-bath, with nice kitchens and an upstairs balcony you could use year round. I didn’t get directions to the development but the Canadians said that they were down a major road a ways from a huge statue. You could get into the center of town via bus or combi (van). This couple had been traveling for months in Mexico and said that they had seen many other developments like this going in all over the country. I didn’t think to ask them about the size of yards, probably small or maybe just patios.

There’s a lot to learn about Guanajuato real estate! This is at least a start.

Guanajuato Real Estate is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

The cover photo for our Mexican Pizza video

I’m writing this while in Guanajuato. My husband Kelly and I were last here 14 years ago, when we shot two educational videos, Student Life in Mexico and Mexican Pizza: Lively Conversations in Spanish. (The links take you to another site where we sell them, in VHS video only.)

This second video came about because we had met a delightful group of students at the university, through visiting an English class. Kelly spontaneously came up with the idea of videoing them as they strolled along some of the walking streets and had a meal together in a quiet plaza.

We had a lot of fun shooting the video, and we’ve sold it steadily to the U.S. educational market, as well as to people who want to practice understanding Spanish. It’s not for beginners — the students talk at a normal pace, which is pretty fast!

Guanajuato is a city of many hills, rather like San Francisco though much smaller. This hill is a residential area, within walking distance of downtown.

To go downtown, the fastest way is to take a five-minute walk through a tunnel called “Tunel Santa Fe.” It’s a little fumey from the cars that also use the tunnel, but we do go this way quite often, as we are staying in this area. Once we climbed over the hill that the tunnel goes through, but that is definitely the hard way.

The prettiest way is to go around the hill on some streets that offer a lot to see… a huge school, a police station with the most cheerful bunch of policemen and women that I’ve ever seen, lots of people selling produce and food on the wide sidewalks, and more.

Here’s an art show going on along the edge of the most famous plaza, the triangular Jardin de la Union. No cars go through here — there are many pedestrian streets in Guanajuato, more than when we were last here.

That’s very pleasant, as strolling the narrow streets that you do share with cars does call for some alertness!

The Teatro Juarez, on one side of the Jardin, is the venue for concerts, plays, and performances from all over the world. When we were shooting Mexican Pizza, the script called for the students to go to a cafe right near this ornate theater, but when we got there, a large group of people were speaking Russian. That wouldn’t have been quite the thing for the video, so the students took us somewhere us. That evening, Kelly and I went to the Russian ballet in the Teatro Juarez.

There are several cafes and restaurants along the side of the Jardin, and here a Mexican musical group is serenading this couple… no doubt the man requested it. There are also mariachi groups in the Jardin, but they wear the full mariachi regalia. This group was singing the Mexican equivalent of a country and western tune.

The steps of the University of Guanajuato are a popular place for people to sit and relax, meet friends, nibble a snack, or do a little studying. We took this picture during the Christmas holiday break, when many of the over twenty thousand students had left Guanajuato to go home for a few weeks.

No, this isn’t Rome, though it has a deliciously antique feeling to it. It’s just a little patio in a former hacienda which is now a trailer park. That’s our 21-foot motorhome, with a tarp rigged up for shade. We stayed here a month this time, and still didn’t explore everything Guanajuato has to offer!

Here’s a delightful photo slide show of a street scene near the market, taken by my husband.

A Guanajuato Photo Essay is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

Guanajuato Is Its People is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

An overview of Guanajuato, Mexico Raul Touzon/National Geographic Image Collection Buy this Giclee Print at AllPosters.com

Enough wealth stayed in Guanajuato to make this one of the most beautiful small cities in Mexico. It’s often called the most European of Mexican cities. Ornate cathedrals and theaters, and palatial mansions, still exist today. The city was declared a World Heritage site by the United Nations, and this has led to some strict limits on what can be built in the historic central area.

Its residents have a lot of pride in Guanajuato. One day, as we were walking down a steep street, a dump truck came laboring up the one-lane road ahead of us, with two or three cars behind it. Oblivious to the traffic behind him, the driver ground his truck to a halt and called out to us in English, “Hello, my friends! How are you? You like my city?” We answered that indeed we did, and traffic resumed.

There are neither neon lights nor traffic lights in Guanajuato, and the traffic is handled in an unusual way. Since the area under the city had been mined extensively over the centuries, old tunnels existed and they have been turned into underground streets. Newer tunnels have been added in recent years, and more are planned, so much of the cross-town traffic doesn’t have to go through downtown. This has allowed many of the downtown streets to become pedestrian-only.

In addition, many of the routes up and down the steep hillsides are narrow walkways, complete with steps. Many steps. This is a city for people who like to walk.

The population is around 75,000. It’s sometimes reported as close to twice that much, a number which includes the surrounding region. Some 20,000 students at the prestigious University of Guanajuato add to the character of this unique city. At 6,700 feet, it enjoys a nice climate year-round.

Guanajuato draws tourists from Mexico, Europe, the United States, Canada, and other countries. Quite a few foreigners live here but it’s not an expat center like nearby San Miguel de Allende, only an hour or so away. One day in the downtown area, I walked past a couple of foreign young men, and one of them was saying with a British accent, “It’s a tourist town here.” I laughed to myself, knowing that mainly the tourists stay right in the area we were in.

Things to do include

• Visiting museums: There’s the birthplace of artist Diego Rivera with some of his art, the Don Quixote museum, the museum of the city of Guanajuato, the historic Alhondiga, the gruesome but popular Museum of the Mummies, and more. There are also several fine old churches.
• Exploring the city: on foot, taking the tram up to the statue of the freedom fighter Pipila, or driving the Panoramic Highway which circles around the city high above it. The pretty suburb Marfil can be visited, too.
• Shopping in the ornate Mercado in some of the many chic or funky shops.
• Enjoying good food in all price ranges. Since there are many students here, there are many inexpensive yet tasty cafes. Our favorite budget restaurant is the art-filled Truco 7, where we recently had a delicious four-course afternoon lunch for 70 pesos (about $6.50 US)… that was the total before tip for both of us. The photo shows a few of the hundreds of paintings and photos on the walls. At the higher end of the scale, try the restaurants and outdoor cafes around the Jardin de la Union, Guanajuato’s main plaza.
• People-watching… there’s a never-ending and fascinating variety of activity. Click for a slide show of people walking along a sidewalk in Guanajuato. It’s 15 photos my husband made from one spot.
• Stroll around downtown behind black-robed singing students on Friday nights. You can buy a ticket at one of the tourist kiosks, which entitles you to a funny-shaped bottle of wine when you start out near the Jardin, but you can also just join in. It’s all very jolly. We saw one of these groups one evening when we had something else to do, and it was very enticing. Almost everyone in that group was Mexican and pretty young. It would be a fun way to meet people. Guanajuato also offers quite a variety of musical events, from orchestral to jazz to whatever, and quite a lot of theater.
• For two to three weeks in October, attend Guanajuato’s annual Cervantino, or International Cervantes Festival, in honor of that great Spanish writer but consisting of every kind of performance you can imagine: plays, opera, dance, readings, and more by performers from all over the world. (Make reservations months in advance for this.)

There is truly a lot to do and see around Guanajuato. Its lively and interesting ambiance are one of the reasons it’s one of our very favorite places in Mexico.

About Guanajuato is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

Other popular times when Mexicans travel throughout the country are the Christmas and Easter holidays. At all of these times, hotel rates are often higher. Here’s a general discussion about Mexican hotels.

The better hotels in Guanajuato offer you lovely and often historic rooms. You may opt for a place on or near the central Jardin de la Union, though in choosing your room, do consider that music and revelry can go on to the wee hours, especially on the weekends.

The top of the line in Guanajuato hotels includes

• The 19th century Quinta Las Alicias in the Presa (Dam) district
• The colonial mansion turned Bed and Breakfast called Casa de Espiritus Alegres in the nice suburb of Marfil
• The Parador San Javier
• … and others.

Whether you select one of them, or one of the numerous midrange and budget places, you should have a good selection to choose from. Some of the hotels are located uphill from the Jardin and offer good views over the city.

We once stayed in the Hosteria del Frayle, just off the Jardin. It was quite lovely, and I remember lying in bed gazing up at the beautiful brick ceiling.

This photo is not of the Frayle, but shows a similar ceiling, also in the city. Whatever your choice among the Guanajuato hotels, may you enjoy it… and this unique and charming city!

When we lived in Guanajuato for a month, we made friends with Rick and Carmen Zuniga. At the time, they were building a bed and breakfast, and now it is quite a wonderful place! Casa Zuniga is above downtown, with stunning views, and conveniently close to the funicular to go up and down if you wish!

Guanajuato Hotels is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico