September 2019
From where I am sitting, in the kitchen of the house where we are staying, this is the view I get. We’ve decided to spend a month here, and people ask, “why that place?” I will just show another view we get from our back terrace.
Killer views. Would that be enough to keep us happy for a month? Maybe. But wait, wait, there’s more: great food at ridiculously reasonable prices, music every where, and those alleyways meandering through the town hiding little galleries, museums, cafes, shops and so on. People in this town accept your lack of Spanish with a smile and try to help out if at all possible. In short, we feel very comfortable and, yes, happy here.
There is no way a map can properly depict the historical center of Guanajuato (population: 190,000 – including surrounding areas), the capital city of Guanajuato State in central Mexico. This map is the best I’ve seen, and it took me several days to figure out what is happening on this map. The thick, bright color lines are the tunnels that move the traffic underneath the city. These are treated just as any streets, and there often are sidewalks for people to walk on and parking spaces for the cars.
Except for the small area where numbers 1, 2, 19 are located on the map, there is no flat surface in town. I am not kidding. Most streets are narrow one way streets, and they go up. By looking at the map, you have no idea how steep they are.
There are lots of stairs all over the city. Most of the little alleyways do not show up on the maps, and many turn into stairs.
Where we live:
Our 4 bedroom/3 bathroom house, found through HomeExchange.com, is a few steps up a small road from Plaza Baratillo(#8) where we found all the following: a fruit and vegetable store, a freshly squeezed juice stand, a couple of coffee shops, an ice cream shop, a lady selling rolls and pastries for 5 pesos each, a makeshift flower stand, and various vendors offering fresh Mexican street food.
The first time we were in Guanajuato in 2012, we rented a beautiful 3 bedroom house up on Panoramica not too far from El Pipila(#40). Great views! But we were too far away from restaurants, sites, and all the rest. Since then, we know better.
From our house, the University of Guanajuato(#6) is practically next door, and the two major theaters in town are within a 2 minute walk. Jardin de Union, the center of the historic center, is a 2 minute walk.
We can reach tons of restaurants and shops, including many of our favorite ones, in 5 minutes. Yet, it is relatively quiet except for the church bells that manage to ring out without bothering our ears too much. And the Callejoneadas singers who walk by the house at night time, to us, is kind of fun.
Do we need to say more? Why such a big house for the two of us? So that we could have friends visit us.
What we eat:
We first thought, “we gotta find a super market!” We did find one right south of the historic center, but, we never had to go back there again.
Breakfast: fresh juice(under $1), pastries(25 cents), freshly cooked various Mexican street food(50 cents to $1)
Lunch & Dinner: restaurants cost the two of us for a meal any where from $5 to $40 in town. Including desserts and drinks(agua frescas, sodas, margarita, beer or wine) Granted we tend to be small eaters, but we do eat so well for so little money that we feel almost guilty.
Most restaurants we’ve tried serve decent to excellent food. Service is pleasant. But slow. Yes, slow! We constantly have to remind ourselves to be patient in order to enjoy eating out. Many restaurants are closed on Mondays.
Favorite restaurants:
quick & cheap simple meals: El Paisa 1 & 2(best horchata or agua fresca, tacos, quesadillas; $5-10/meal for two, no alcohol)
simple sit down: Los Huacales (excellent soup, everything we tried was super; $10/meal, for two no alcohol), La Vela(fish tacos, empanadas, tostadas, beer; $10/meal for two, their operating hours tend to be “flexible”)
full scale restaurants: All the restaurants under this category provide top notch food & drinks, wonderful desserts, and great service in tastefully decorated rooms. Los Campos($20-30/meal for two, may want to go early or stop in before dinner to reserve seats due to its small size), Costal in Casa Cuatro($20-35/meal for two, just opened when we visited), Casa Valadez($20-40/meal for two). A $30 meal for two at any of these places would cost at least 3-4 times as much in the U.S.
Los Campos is closed on Mondays. Nothing on the menu is over $10, including wonderful steak and torch-grilled pork
Costal is more modern and very artsy. It is in the Casa Cuatro cultural space. I love their thick Azteca soup pictured above. Open for lunch & open on Mondays
Casa Valadez in the center of all the action in town: Teatro Juarez, Jardin de Union. They have live piano/violin music at times. Open on Mondays and for lunch.
bars: Clave Azul(we order $5 margaritas, and Mexican tapas, including a delicious soup, will keep coming to the table at no extra charge), La Ronda: Wings-Beer-Pool(45 peso margaritas; cheapest in town so far)
Clave Azul is the epitome of eclectic. Located up the alley from Plaza San Fernando(#9), there is a constant stream of musicians dropping in. Or they will play old American tunes on their old, old radio. We notice the second glass of margarita gets a lot stronger than the first one.
We walked into this place on our first Monday in town mainly because it was open. Wings and the burger were fine, but do you really want to have that in Guanajuato, Mexico? Then we discovered their margaritas cost only 45 pesos($2.25)!
What if we don’t want Mexican food: there are good Italian restaurants, and a typical restaurant in town offers a few pasta dishes and salads on the menu on top of the Mexican fares. Then there are sushi, Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese. Of course hamburgers and pizza are every where. Some hotel restaurants offer sandwiches. Any chain fast food in the historic center? KFC, Subway. Maybe… a Starbuck’s? Unfortunately, yes. But we’ve only tried Italian(good) and a Japanese deli that was pretty good.
What we do:
Just walk around, poke our heads in if we see a cafe, bar, restaurant, gallery, etc., because virtually each and every place has unique/eclectic interior design that shouts personality. I am not talking about just well known establishments. We also Stop to look at store displays and bargain bins.
Then there are concerts. Some are free, others 30-100 pesos($1.50 – 5). We’ve been to an ancient instrument ensemble and a classical guitar concert at the Jesuit church next to the university at #21(actually, the school was founded by Jesuits, but, now is a public institution & no longer affiliated with the Catholic Church,) a symphony and a dance concert at Teatro Juarez(#2), a Mexican band and a percussion experimental music concert at Teatro Principal(#12). Tourist information booths have monthly event calendars that list concerts and other cultural happenings. The University of Guanajuato activities calendar can be picked up at their book store.
One of the first things a visitor will notice in town are many young men and women dressed in velvety stylish old European musicians’ attire walking around town selling tickets to the nightly musical walking tour, Collejoneadas. We did it once while friends were visiting. It is fun to follow them around and listen to their music: they are good singers. Yes, there’s storytelling, but, all in Spanish. So we hired a student at the university as a translator. It began as a college group, but now the demand is so great that they employee professional musicians along with the students. We paid $6.00 per person for the whole experience. One of the routes these guys pass every night is under one of our balconies.
There’s music every where. Mariachis, street performers, or live music at bars and restaurants.
Museums: there are enough of them. Some are free, and the others are almost free. The most expensive one is under $2. None of them is big, so it is fun to pop in and see what they have. All of them show artistic sensibility regardless of the content. Diego Rivera’s childhood home is now a museum(#29), and it has some of his interesting early works before he became known worldwide as a muralist. The house where another prominent artist couple, Olga Costa and Jose Chavez Morado, lived and worked is a wonderful museum(#32). Their house reveals the owners’ creativity and sense of humor that resonates with me.
Of course there’s the Don Quixote Museum. Officially, Museo Iconografico Quijote(#24), a wide variety and range of art works with a Don Quixote theme is housed in an airy, beautiful building. After walking through the collection, I have developed new appreciation for the character of Don Quixote and what he stands for.
Every October 200,000 people from around the world descend upon Guanajuato for the International Cervantes Festival. One may wonder, “what’s the connection between Don Quixote and a town in central Mexico?” This is explained in the museum but only in Spanish. There was a young man in Spain who lost his parents during Spanish Civil War. He exchanged his last possession, a pack of cigarettes, with a book. This book was, you guessed it. Then he immigrated to Mexico … If you want to hear the rest, click this link.
Parks, Plazas, Squares, Haciendas: There are ones on the map, then there many of them hiding in alleys and behind buildings and churches. Ex-Hacienda San Gabriel de Barrera is an example of how the rich people lived in olden days, and this one is not hiding.
No. We have not been to the Mummy Museum. No plans to go, either. However, we’ve been to the mineral museum and the natural history museum.
We took the city bus(33 cents U.S.) to go up to Valenciana, an old mining town right north of Guanajuato. A church built by the owner of the mine stands proudly. We had been to the mine, thus, we did not go this time.
And, they do play baseball here. Their game schedule is posted on the small blackboard across the street from Hidalgo Market. Yes, totally low tech & rather endearing.
Where & what we shop:
We bought colorful Mexican blankets and some small gift items at Hidalgo Market(#6), and we ate at the food court at the market, Mercado Gavira. The outdoor Sunday market in Embajadoras(#14) seemed to have great food offerings, but we got there too early the one time we managed to go there. I did get to taste a steamed taco, and it was good. Pat’s favorite leather hat shop is in the shopping arcade at the top end of the funicular, and there is a branch of it on the street that runs in front of the university. And there’s an old lady who claims her husband is a ceramic artist. She sells only his stuff, and her shop is on the street that runs in front of Teatro Juarez. Then there’s Ana who sells slices of cheese cake made by her mom. She is the best and the friendliest English speaker in town. Her family had lived in the U.S.
My favorite shops are on the street between Plaza Baratillo(#8) and Teatro Principal(#12). I like their selection of goods. Prices tend to be about the same everywhere in town, thus, I just buy it when I see something I like. You can haggle and get a dollar or two off, but I usually do not bother.
Most shopkeepers greet you but do not push you, thus, shopping is rather relaxing in this town.
puple means our favorite, blue means tried & liked, yellow means next time
Out of town:
We’ve been to San Miguel de Allende(1.5 hours) twice, Dolores Hidalgo(about1 hour) and Leon(50-75 minutes, depending on which bus to take) once each during our stay here.
Further away, we could have gone to Mineral de Pozos, Celaya, or Comonfort. Maybe next time.
Getting here:
We took Mexico’s #2 airline, Volaris, from LAX to BJX(3.5 hours, $450 R/T for 2 people with one checked luggage), Volaris has frequent sales so should check the price several times before booking
Another way to get to Guanajuato is using the luxury buses ETN or Primera Plus from Mexico City(4 hours direct or 5.5 hours via San Miguel de Allende, $34-42) These are extremely comfortable buses. Primera is super comfortable, and ETN is better than first class flights (slightly more expensive & run not as often, through San Miguel). Central Bus Station is at the southeast corner in Zona Sur on the tourist map above, but it actually is pretty much south of the historic center. The 15 minute cab ride into the center costs 60-80 pesos. Just a minute after leaving the sort-of-modern bus terminal, it may look like you are getting kidnapped to a remote mountain area. Don’t worry. You need to pass through a mountain range to get to the center. Remember? This used to be a big mining center.
Getting around:
Walk. Bring a good pair of walking shoes. From Embajadoras Park/Market(#14) on the east to Alhondiga de Granaditas Museum(#28) on the west is about a 25-30 minute walk.
Bus. Each bus(micro vans or mini buses) has a written sign on the windshield showing the places it goes to. It is a bit tricky to figure out which bus to take, but fare being only 7 pesos, we can afford to get on and off as needed. Either the driver or a collection boy collect the fare on the bus.
Cabs are cheap. 40-50 pesos($2-2.50) within the center & 10-20 pesos more to go a bit further.
Uber: we’ve used it to go to the airport, and it is cheaper(about 350-450 pesos versus 550 pesos by taxi) We also used it to go to Dolores Hidalgo.
Communication:
We have wifi at our house, and it is readily available at cafes and restaurants. It tends to be rather slow for images and music, but it works fine for emails.
We brought an unlocked cell phone, bought a SIM card(75 pesos) & topped it with 150 peso credit to have unlimited calls and text within Mexico plus 2 GB of data for a month. There’s a TELCEL store in Plaza La Paz in front of the cathedral. $11 gets a month of local cell phone use, and we think that’s pretty good.
Budget:
So how much is this one month local thing in Guanajuato costing us? Our flights cost $450, and we are not paying for the housing(homeexchange.com). The rest of all of it, including a mild shopping, is expected to be about $1,500. Not bad to have a month of fun, comfortable life filled with gourmet meals for $2,000.
Small Wide World 
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