Next Stop: Gone to Guanajuato, Mexico

That’s a nice view to wake up to, eh?

It’s time once again! Well, it was time once again. We’re already in Guanajuato, Mexico. Yee-haw!

After spending three months in Cancun – getting work done, hanging out with dear friends, and taking a lot of day trips – we jumped on a plane owned by an airline we’d never previously heard of (hi, Volaris!), and headed to central Mexico. Why? Why not!

Before we made this decision, we actually had no direct intention to land in Guanajuato. We basically saw some nice pictures of towns in the region and figured that it’d make a good next stop. That’s kind of how we do things.

We started looking for apartments, emailing owners, looking at flights, and punching ourselves in the head over the stereotypical owner-who-doesn’t-respond. Finally, we made a nice connection with an owner in the city of Guanajuato and booked our flat.

The town is also in the state of Guanajuato, which makes internet searches less fun than you’d think they would be.

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So yeah, we jumped on that plane and headed out to Guanajuato, which sits about an hour east of León, a little farther west of Querétaro, and fairly close to the super-popular town of San Miguel de Allende.

While Guanajuato is the capital of the state, it’s not the biggest city. At around 70,000, it’s a decent-sized town that’s a bit busier than your normal decent-sized town, due to it being the capital and all that.

There’s a sizable expat population here, but we actually don’t see a whole lot of other gringos unless we head to the center.

The town itself is built in a narrow valley and is drooled upon due to pictures of its colorful houses that dot the surrounding mountainsides.

The elevation here is well over 6,000 feet (2000 meters), and combined with the ups and downs of walking around town – not to mention the stairs in our house – I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get winded every once in a while. Because I’m so fit and all. :)

Speaking of mountains and valleys, there’s an entire network of tunnels that run under and through the mountains, serving as arteries that allow cars to actually get from Point A to Point B without all jamming up the winding, one-lane, old-school layout of downtown Guanajuato.

You cannot and will not go by taxi or bus without going through at least one tunnel. Probably two or three.

Here’s one of the many terrible pictures we have taken in said tunnels.

Guanajuato is also a UNESCO World Heritage site, due to its founding in the 1500s and history of silver mining. The architecture is insanely stunning, which is a complete 180 from what surrounded us in Cancun.

Actually, the only things that Guanajuato and Cancun seem to have in common are the fact that they’re both in Mexico. The landscape, architecture, history, population, and basic way of life are nearly black and white.

Not to say this is good or bad. It’s just different. Although I’d be lying once again if I said we didn’t prefer the history and architecture of this town over the literally created-for-toursim history and architecture of Cancun.

Alas, there’s no beach here. There’s hardly any water. It’s crazy arid – we’re told we’ll be lucky to get a sprinkle of rain before June – and the lake and river near us are fairly low due to a recent drought.

The weather is also entirely different. In Cancun, it was hot all the time. Hot during the day and hot at night. We constantly ran the A/C, which meant a certifiably painful electric bill when we moved out.

Here, there isn’t even A/C. Or heat. It’s just…you get what you get. It gets up to the 80s F (26 C) here during the day, but drops to the 40s F (7 C) at night. This is due to the super-dry air and our elevation.

By the time it gets hot outside, the temperature starts to drop again. I wear a hoody every day, which makes me a bit sad. But hey, it’s not winter.

We’re still adapting to our surroundings – mostly our ridiculously large house that’s probably haunted by chupacabras – but we’re loving it so far.

Life is different here, and we’re juggling the need to get real work done with the desire to sit in cafés all day, the latter of which didn’t even exist in Cancun.

There are plenty of interesting day trips to take, and we look forward to getting out to see what this region has to offer.

The food is great, the people are nice, and the history is astonishing. We can see why both expats and Mexicans come here to live, and why people seem to have a hard time leaving.

Our Spanish has also been improving greatly as well, and it’s nice to be able to have conversations with locals, get things done without struggling, and apologize when we mix up words like idiots.

Having a dog immediately singles us out as well, no matter where we are. People tend to think we live where we are – which we do, so yeah – and approach us more often than if we were a couple of gringos just walking around aimlessly.

Also, we tend to speak to each other in Spanish when we’re in public, which totally baffles people. It’s hilarious.

Ang was asked for the time by a local the first day we went to the center, something that’s always a good feeling no matter where we live. One thing that’s a bit awkward (maybe?), is that we get stared at a lot more here than in Cancun or other places.

Part of that is because I’m so white I’m almost clear, but the main reason for that seems to be that Ang is of Korean descent. She’s like a walking beacon of Asian glory around here.

The staring is nearly uncomfortable, and not as happy-go-lucky as it was in places like Montenegro where people weren’t afraid to walk up to her, wave their finger in front of their eyes, and ask, “Japanska?” while barely containing their joy at meeting an Asian.

This was even more noticeable when we went to the small town of Dolores Hidalgo the other day, where we almost felt like freaks. Seriously, dude in the orange hoody at the park. At least come talk to us, or take a picture.

Anyway, it’s not a problem. Just makes for funny situations or whatever, I suppose.

All in all, we’re happy to be in a new city with new faces, new streets to explore, and new things to learn. We’ll be writing about our time here as we always do, so look out for new posts down the road. ¡Disfruta!