Exploring the coolest town of Guanajuato MEXICO!

Guanajuato was a pleasant surprise to see in the morning!!!  How gorgeous are the colors here!!

Little did we know that this town is all about color.  Unlike any place I've been before.....

I'm not sure where to start with this town, there is so much to show.  We went for breakfast, and it was a no brainer that we should stay longer than one night.   This is a very enchanting place!!!

There's this cool little coffee bar, which he haven't seen in any other towns yet.  Kevin likes his "cafe con leche".  Both he and James are still a bit new to Spanish.. I'm not that good at it, but I help them order as much as I can...

What you lookin' at Buster Brown?? ;-)

There won't be any motorcycle riding photos in this post. We spend the whole day out just exploring this very cool town.  There is plenty of fun riding in Guanajuato though! Check out James video version of this post riding our motorcycles in the links below.

https://vimeo.com/38021088

I'll start with the street art.. what? Not going to carry on about street food??  Nope, the art.  It's SO impressive.

It's spread around many streets and I might as well take you on a walk with us!

Kids and adults are doing their thing..  it seems to be a pretty much free for all.  I am most impressed with the community spirit and dedication to each piece. 

This is one of my favorites....

 

They have sculptured art here as well.  I'm sure this is a very important person for Mexico.  But if they wanted me to know how important, they shouldn't have done this!

 A good walk around deserves a good ice cream, yes???

James is so kind, he tries to share ice cream with Don Quixote.. who seems to have his mind elsewhere regardless of James attempts to give.  Who is Don Quixote?  http://www.quixote-quest.org/resources/Feedback/WhoIsDonQuixote_102700.html

OK.. more street art.. Hope this doesn't bore you.  Maybe better seen in person?  I just love it and I don't consider myself 'artsy".

This is totally what I feel like sometimes.. 

 

Finished product.. good job.... awesome job!!

 It's a Kevin photo of James and I taking a photo.. ;-) 

You will see us ride over these art works on our bikes in James video https://vimeo.com/38021088  We couldn't help it!  Motorcycles need sidewalks too!! (??)  Gee whiz, I just had a look at the video again, and do I still feel guilty about riding over their hard work!

OK, now for some street art of the living kind.

I'm thinking 'Sherri Jo' on walking sticks and dancing is in my future.. looks like fun! But I'm a bit concerned this guy is going to give that lady the karate chop.

This was a woman outside a church, doting over her gorgeous baby.  Maybe going in for a Christening as they were all dressed in their Sunday best.

The poor woman below is outside a different church. Two different worlds, same smile for their baby.

 

Hmmmm... Lost??  No.... Maybe??

We manage to find our way up the hill.  We found out about this little tram, we don't want to miss anything on our totally dedicated Guanajuato day!!

Our noses direct us around up here.. Who needs a map!!???

Is this the most beautiful Mexican food you've ever seen???

I really wish all cities and towns were this colorful.. Truly, it seems the color of the buildings bleeds into the lifestyle thoroughly.  I've been so much throughout the world in the last couple of years and never have I been this impressed with colorful bright happy culture.  This is on my list of to places I would like to live now.

Back down the hill.. and somebody suggests it's time for a beer... who would do that??

The boys suggest I have a look inside this bar.  I don't get it.. they are laughing.  They said it's got a urinal right inside the door.  Serious!!??

SERIOUS.... ;-/

James is still trying to make friends with Don Quixote since he didn't have any luck accepting the ice cream.  I'm not sure this attempt is any more effective, but love his persistence! ;-))

That'll do for our day around my still favorite Guanajuato Mexico.  I could show a zillion more photos.. but would be good to get back on the road toward Mexico City.  I can not tell you how many times in the countries following Mexico that Kevin and I talked about Guanajuato being our favorite town on the journey so far in the Americas.

James has made the greatest video of us riding our motorcycles around these crazy Guanajuato streets including the ride through the tunnels !!  This is one of my ALL TIME favorite videos he has made.

https://vimeo.com/38021088
Riding our motorcycles through Guanajuato Mexico

Hope you enjoy and THANKS so much, James!!!!

Mascota to Guanajuato MEXICO

From Mascota Mexico we find a road that follows the bottom of a big lake (Laguna de Chapata) toward Guanajuato.  This road will keep us off the main highway. Big note:  Not only are highways boring, but they have super expensive tolls throughout the entire country.  It's darn near necessary to stay off the highways for that reason alone.  I'm loving the flags in the little Mexico towns and you won't get that on the main highway anyway.  Either the town or a neighborhood represents the color of the street flags.. They are used a lot!

This was THE funniest!!!  (the photo below) We all pull up to a stop light.  Kevin was there first, and we followed.  James has something to say to Kevin and he was so excited (?) that he pulled in too close to Kevin.  THEN, a bus pulls in too close to James and touches his left pannier.  He lost balance onto Kevin and they both fell over together like dominoes!  Patrick and I were behind and laughing so hard.  I tried to get my camera out for a photo, but the light turned green and cars start beeping like crazy immediately.  So we ride off to the side.  I try desperately to get the camera out quickly.  By the time I got my photo, the bikes were up again.  James and Kevin had a good laugh about it too.. I was a bit worried at first! (I heard the F word a few times) They were more interested in finding out if either Patrick and I got the photo in time. ;-)

Mexican Superman at the car wash!!  Too cute. -))  I think this is worth stopping for...

 Quesadillasssss!!!! Sorry, I'd show you a photo with them, but they are GONE.... ;-))))

We didn't really stop for Superman as much as I could use a bike wash!  It was the street food that got us. And a tortilla making machine!  This was worth a photo, because most places we have been and seen, they make tortillas by hand.

We pulled over a bit early today because young Patrick has another Suzuki problem. Not the carburetor, this time it's the spring.  It has gotten so bad, he doesn't think he can continue on to Guanajuato today.  It's think tank time.  He tried getting a wifi connection to figure out an option.  On the map, the closest city is Guadalajara.  A huge city I wasn't really keen to go into. I'm sure it's cool, but I'll be in what used to be the largest city in the world, Mexico City shortly.. and that will be enough for me personally.  Patrick sees this guy with a 4 wheeler, and asks him if there is a local mechanic.  He confirmed his only hope for spring work would be Guadalajara.

Kevin and James are not keen for the big city either. So Patrick plans to take off and go there alone.  Not a total loss though, we made plans to wait and meet up with him a little further down the road.

Patrick heads back west to catch the loop around the top of lake, while we continue along the bottom.

I wonder what those two are talking about?

Late in the day, we pull into this town to find a place to stay.  This time, we lost Kevin.  James and I turned, he didn't.  Do we wait?  Of course!! We waited and waited.. we saw him go past the corner.. he didn't see us, we saw him go past again the other direction, he didn't see us.  Third time, he found us!

We didn't like the town much and decided to move on, darkness or not.

We all share the road here... ;-)

Oh man, bigger road, bigger traffic... but we decided to continue toward Guanajuato as quick as possible at this time of the day.

The road got a bit scary.  We continued to look for a place to stop before dark, but we just didn't find anything on the road we were on.  So we rode in the dark.. I know.. danger danger danger!! ;-/   (I was thinking of Steve Irwin).  We got on the bigger highway and decided to make Guanajuato.  The highway was super crazy.  I told the guys, who both have 1200cc's, that my 690 won't be able to go as fast as them on the highway and not to lose me in this mess.

They tried their best, but I can tell you that traffic was beyond mad and crazy.  Downright scary.. they will run you over and kill you.   I also did my best to keep up, but I lost them.

I carried on watching and hoping I would see their rear lights, while at the same time into full concentration of every car that is flying past me or pulling into my lane with no regard that I am even there! But there were so many red lights going so fast it was all a blur.

I passed the first of 2 or 3 exits for Guanajuato.  There were no bikes on the side of the road on the first exit, so I hope I will see them at the second exit.

I was in the right lane motoring on and out of the corner of my eye in the distance I saw 2 headlights off the first exit after I was over the bridge and well past it.  I pulled on to the shoulder praying that nobody would hit me.  I saw them in the dark, way down there.  I beeped my barely there horn.. I couldn't even hear it, so I don't expect them to.  I flashed my bright lights a million times.. They were not moving, nor flashing back at me.

So I decided to totally break the law as I do... I went to the "on" ramp further down the same highway.  I turned in and drove against traffic to get down to where they are.  There was a concrete median, so I had to go against traffic further away from them up the actual road, found a place to turn around, and then rode against traffic on the shoulder of the road where James and Kevin were parked.

I was sooo angry, I can't tell you.. That was bloody dangerous, and why in the heck did they not wait at the base of the ramp.. instead stopping where I couldn't see them.  urgh!!!!!!!  Men!!!  They said they thought I was behind them when they took the exit.. and knowing that it was all headlights, they really had the same problem I had trying to see their tail lights.  Fair enough really, they are forgiven..

The big lesson is that we should have all chosen a meeting point and punched it into our gps's.. all of us have one.  I think we didn't because we have been traveling the back roads and small towns, and none of us had any idea that Guanajuato was going to be so big with mental traffic.

So we looked into Kevin's Lonely Planet and punched in our gps a meeting point if it happens again.

Once we got into the actual town of Guanajuato, we find ourselves immediately in a tunnel where the gps isn't going to work anyway!! Let's hope I don't lose them in here.

Out of the tunnels, which were very cool actually, we are stopped by a guy trying to sell us accommodation.  It seems they pay young people a commission to bring people to their hostels.  He couldn't help us though, there was nothing with parking for the bikes and we are not willing to leave them on the sidewalk overnight.

We are all a bit grumpy, hungry and tired at this point.. Look at that face! ;-((

We decide to pull over and I ran around asking for more information on places with parking.  The info we got, meant we needed to get out of the center and it's confusing streets.

Back into the tunnels! Where the gps doesn't work!  We got smart though, we hired a taxi to escort us to a place with parking.  And he did well!  We would have never got there before sunrise with all the one ways up and and down hill to find it.

Phew....!  Off the bike, finally! And hungry as all heck!!  We wandered down the steep hill toward the center plaza (Kevin's favorite way to start a town off! ;-)  We see lots of expensive restaurants.. We don't look or feel the part for expensive tonight. I spot the street corn. I love Mexican street corn!  I haven't had it yet in all this time since I crossed the border!!  This used to be a favorite of mine on my spring breaks.

An ear of corn was not sufficient meal for us.. so we did the el cheapo yet very good joint added with some beer.

After some food and some drink, we are back to our old selves again... Tequila Tequila!!!!

Don't mind the finger, it's been a long day.  Hasta Manana....!!!  ;-)))