Guanajuato: Day Four

Monday was our last full day in Guanajuato so we decided to spend it by leaving Guanajuato - we took a 10-hour tour to the towns of Dolores Hidalgo and San Miguel de Allende, with some other places thrown in, for less than $20 each.

We thought the tour was mostly San Miguel, with a little sightseeing along the way, but we were totally wrong - really it was the other way around, a bunch of other sites with a little San Miguel thrown in. Our first stop of the day was a cemetery outside of Dolores Hidalgo where the (apparently) famous singer Jose Alfredo Jimenez is buried. The monument to him is actually really cool-looking; they built a huge sombrero with a rainbow-tiled artsy wave that sort of reminded me of Gaudi. But after that, we didn't care that much, mostly because we'd never of Jimenez or his songs before. At the cemetery stop, our guide also took the time to approach us, the only gringas on the bus. He essentially said that he hoped we would enjoy the day and spoke enough Spanish to understand him, since he didn't really speak English. But so far, all was well, as I'd understood most of his narration up to that point.

Then we got back in the bus and headed into Dolores proper. My Rough Guide praises it, saying, "it's an elegant little town," and recommends it for a one-night stopover, so I was pretty interested in checking it out - as the birthplace of Mexican independence, I felt like we'd really miss something if we didn't go see it. We started with the Museo de la Independencia Nacional, which was kind of a sad little place. The Rough Guide says, "vibrant, graphic murals depict significant scenes from Mexican history" but in fact, there were no murals, just paintings and a few artifacts. With all the people, it became hard to hear our guide and really, it was WAY more detail than I ever wanted to know, so I started to tune him out. The most interesting painting we saw was this one, below right, depicting the fight at the Alhondiga that I mentioned in Day Two.

After the museum, we walked to Father Hidalgo's church, Our Lady of Sorrows Parish Church, which stands prominently across from the Plaza Principal. After our guide explained the baroque details of the facade, we had about 15 minutes to wander around on our own. It seems like Mexico is really gearing up for the bicentennial celebrations in September - at dawn on September 16, 1810, Hidalgo rang the bell at his church, issuing the famous "Grito de la Independencia" that started the rebellion - and right outside the church, there's a countdown clock, much like the ones that counted down to Y2K in 1999. We couldn't go very far inside the church since there was a wedding taking place, but there's nothing in particular to see, anyway; the original bell is either in Mexico City (according to the guide) or was melted down (according to the Rough Guide).



After the church, Emily and I walked around the Plaza Principal. It was a beautiful sunny day, the purple jacarandas were brilliantly in bloom, and we just sort of checked out the locals doing their thing. Dolores is definitely a different sort of town from Guanajuato or San Miguel, as we would see; it seemed to be a lot simpler and actually reminded me more of Texas and New Mexico than the other cities. It was also a lot dustier - when I think of it now, the predominant color in my head is beige. Everything was just a blah beige (so thank god for the jacarandas).



After our little stroll through the plaza, we met up with our group at an ice cream stand at one of the corners. Dolores is apparently quite famous for its bizarre flavors and the vendors will pretty much let you sample anything. Between us, Emily and I tried tequila, beer, cheese, shrimp and octopus, corn, pinon, in addition to "regular" ice cream flavors like lime, vanilla butter, and Bimbo chocolate cake-ish. I eventually settled on Beso de Angel, a strawberry ice cream that had peaches, raisins, nuts, and perhaps other things mixed in.

After the ice cream, we walked back to the bus for a trip to an artesanias shop. Like all tours like this (including those on cruise ships), we had reached the part of the day where our guides tried to augment their salaries through commissions on our purchases. We were supposed to just have about 20 minutes in the shop - which sat on the outskirts of town, so there was no escape - but some people in our group were apparently enthusiastic for the seemingly ordinary wares (which looked like they could have been made in China) that we spent at least 45 minutes there. Ugg. After that, it was a late lunch - it was nearing 3pm at this point - at a spot seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The food was okay but it was buffet-only for 90 pesos - which was quite a lot, considering, again, that we were in the middle of nowhere! Suffice it to say, we were getting a little cranky at this point and just wanted to get to the star attraction, San Miguel.

But we still had another stop first: the Santuario de Atotonilco, a church about 15 minutes or so outside of San Miguel. The little town of Atotonilco pretty much revolves around this building, important in Independence history because Hidalgo stopped by here on his way to fight in Guanajuato and took the church's banner as his flag. (Plus, Ignacio Allende, one of his buddies and the man who gave his name to San Miguel, was married here.) According to Mexican wikipedia, Padre Felipe Neri had just arrived in Atotonilco from Dolores and decided to take a little nap under a mesquite tree. He dreamed of Christ with a cross on his shoulder and decided to build a church on the now-holy spot; the first stone was laid in 1740. The sanctuary's walls were covered in murals by a local named Miguel Antonio Martínez de Pocasangre over a period of 30 years. But, even though the santuario was blessed by the appearance of three rainbows at the same time (according to wiki), it eventually fell into disrepair and is currently undergoing a lengthy restoration; at one point, it was on UNESCO's 100 most endangered monuments list. The Santuario de Atotonilco was certainly interesting - no doubt our guide told us all this information and more, but I had tuned him out hours before; it just took too much brain power to try and translate all the detail, especially when he was half a room away and turned away from me. Emily and I were seriously ready to just move on (though I did get a kick out of the souvenir self-flagellation whips on sale outside).

So, finally, FINALLY, we reached San Miguel. We were supposed to have a few hours of free time there but by the time we got there, it had been winnowed down to about 55 minutes. Our guide brought us main plaza, home to the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel church, and after the briefest of explanations, let us go free. I slipped into the church for a few minutes but mostly Emily and I just spent our time wandering. We ducked into a few of the shops - which were all exquisitely decorated, like something out of a magazine - and then ended up a few streets away at a little creperia, where we had coffee drinks and empanadas.

San Miguel was certainly cute but I have to say, I just don't understand what all the fuss is about. (Granted, I'd also say the exact same thing about Santa Fe.) I have no idea what you'd do there on a vacation besides eat and shop so in that, Guanajuato has it beat, hands down. In Guanajuato, you can eat, shop, and go to a bunch of (significant) museums. (Interestingly, when we discussed this at breakfast on our last morning, everyone else at the table liked San Miguel better - but they were also all significantly older, so maybe it's an age thing?). I don't know, or perhaps San Miguel just didn't get a fair shot, at the short end of a very long and cranky day.

After that, we headed back to Guanajuato, and after we dropped people off at various hotels, we ourselves got dropped off back in town, probably around 8pm or so. It was so nice to be back in Guanajuato. It was like returning home; I felt instantly perked up. Before heading back to the B&B for a few rounds of Phase 1o, Emily and I decided to grab dinner at La Capellina, an Italian restaurant with a patio set up on the street. And it was lovely - we had margharita pizza with a side of our favorite new chimichurri sauce, a great dinner for our last night.