On our way out of Guanajuato...

Yay! My last post for Guanajuato. So on our way out we stopped at the geographic center of Mexico. I'll give them props for putting a big Christ statue at the nations center. It's a nice message and it's a beautiful area. The hand laid winding stone road may not be the funnest ride but the scenery was nice. They were having Misa (mass) when we were there but we skipped out on being sprinkled. My favorite part of Catholic mass is when they give peace to each other but we skipped that as well. Apparently you had to wait in line for this Mass and we were a little confused, so we just wandered around (plus there was a nun).

Random Guanajuato Parade

Ok, I'm behind on Guanajuato so I'm going to finish up the trip. So why we were by the kissing street a parade strolled on by. It had what every Mexican parade should have: a devil with a cracking whip, large headed masked Mexicans also with whips, fake old masked Mexicans, a skinny eyebrowed cholita with thick braids, Don Quixote, a plump skinny eyebrowed cholita with a bun (you gotta change things up now and then), various pageant reinas (queens), a little girl reina riding on top of a car (see Jannelle and Ashlee, if you come to Mexico you can ride on cars here though we might have to put a robe and crown on you, pudding is optional), a warrior statue of el nino jesus (hey-suus), a band made out of bugles and drums (the cow bell guy was sick that day), a random assortment of self made disney/pixar/WB characters, and finally three 10 feet high replicas of a badly dressed Mexican, a moled gypsy, and a rather questionable and racist image of a black person (apparently it doesn't count in Mexico). The winner of the parade was the 4 year old drummer boy. He knew he had it hands down. His face said it all: "I got this, don't worry, I'll take you where you need to go, sigame!"

BesaMe!

So after the last 'mummy' post we get the cute post. So as you've seen from the earlier pictures of Guanajuato the city is built on canyon walls which makes most of the streets are different levels. In between these are walkways and such. Now one is famous as it is called the Alleyway of the Kiss (Callejon del Beso). OK so I'll tell the story first then say my peace... So this little alleyway has two house next to each other where the balconies are almost touching. Apparently, the story is a poor young silver miner and a wealthy daughter would meet at these balconies and secretly kiss as they had fallen in love. This happen until the Father caught them in the act. So the whole difference of class and wealth hit the fan causing the father to be angery. He told the daughter that if she saw or kissed the young man again he would kill her. Thinking it was her father, she didn't believe him and met the young man the next night where the father up and shot her; and now we all go kiss at this particular street, fun huh!?!?! Sooooooooo... Where do I start. (First off you have to see after the the mummies, Mexican culture is fascinated with tragedy and death.) What father in his right mind threatens the daughter and not the suitor. You get the shot gun and shoot the guy right? Secondly, if her family was so wealthy why can a poor silver miner afford a house next door? Now the kicker, if you kiss while standing on the third step of the alleyway, and kiss with true love, then you'll have 15 years good luck, but if you just kiss without love in your heart its 7 years bad luck. So is this the birthplace of those annoying emails? Why didn't they make it 'If you kiss 15 people here in the next half hour Disneyland will send you a visa and free plane ticket'? Well anywho... here's our 15 years of good luck kiss... (actually we aren't going to put the actual kiss one on, not to pretty...)

So called mummies...

Ok, so one question any Mexican will ask after you've visited Guanajuato is, 'Did you go see the mummies?' My first time I was excited. I wanted to see well preserved bodies wrapped in cloth, jars containing the organs, and so forth... instead I, like everyone else, got something different. Why is it when something tastes bad we offer it to someone else to verify the grossness? Or if it smells bad our first response is 'Smell this'. Well Guanajuato mummies are just that, you take people because its there. So what's your definition of a mummy? For me its making dead people not so dead. You put some work into it. Heck, our society should start doing plastic surgery on those that have passed on; that should be our societal mark when we get dug up. I want to shimmer and look twenty at my funeral after my 102th birthday. A magic 8 ball told me that age or was it the string & needle thing at baby showers. Anywho... So here's the case, the Chad honest truth... So people who were buried in or around Guanajuato over the past century started to get dug up. Why? Cause no one was paying the bill for their grave spot. Apparently you could get evicted after death. These people of lesser means were buried more humbly and now consequently are famous. When they dug them up they found they were well preserved. Yep that's it, nothing more. Instead of skeletons they still had skin, hair, teeth, and fingernails. So I ask myself, did someone sprinkle knorr food preservative or perchance dip them in wax? Nope. The high concentration of minerals in the soil made them just like a sealed can of jam. Yep, when they took them out of the ground a popping sound was heard from the jar's lid. Anywho... (that's my second anywho, obviously I have opinions about this) After they got dug up what was the first thing someone thought up? How about, A: lets take these to the university and do a study B: lets respect their deaths and find them a respectful resting place C: Let's call Brandon Frasier and see if he'll make a movie or D: Let's call them mummies and make people pay to see them. If you guessed D you get a free tuition to an annex course on how to properly roll your corn tortilla. Trust me, it might look easy but it takes lots of practice. Well here's the photos as I ask, "Is this milk bad? Taste it."

Guanajuato... aka you-wanna-what-o

So by some miracle it worked out this past weekend that I got a whole two and half days off from the hospital. Annie also had Monday off (though it was the 12th and Columbus Day –we actually live right next to a statue of him- we had it off thanks to the Virgin Mary. The 12th is when she is brought out and given a yearly tour of the city; apparently she can’t stand the driving so she only does it once a year). So seeing this minor miracle happened, Annie and I packed up and headed to Guanajuato. So I’m going to have to divide it up over the next few days but today we’ll start with the city. The city itself has a lot of charm. Once a year in October (it started 2 days after we left) they have an international festival called Cervintino (named after the author of Don Quixote). It’s actually a real big deal. I went once – whoooollleee lot o’ people. We thankfully missed the crowds. Ok so some history… Guanajuato at one time was Mexico’s capital, it played a pivotal role in the 1810 revolution (that will be another blog), it has Mexico’s oldest performing theater, and it’s the most messed up wonderfully compilation of streets you will ever have to drive. Besides the whole, my car side mirrors are scrapping the buildings width of streets, Guanajuato took it up a notch in comparison to its colonial/European-esque counterparts. You see, Guanajuato at one time was Mexico/Spains largest silver producer. So being the fantastical urban post-tequila binge drinking planners we love and know, they decided to use old mine shafts and riverbeds as streets. Yep, one minute you’re on a narrow cobblestone street and the next you go subterranean only to enter a 4 mile tunnel that drops you out on another side of a mountain. This is the birth place of Spanish curse words, because if you make a wrong turn there just isn’t much more to say. These tunnels are everywhere; there are tunnels inside of tunnels. Thankfully I have a large concentration of lead in my nose that acts as a compass and I just know where to go. Oh yeah, as you will see, this is why your Mexican neighbor’s house is painted pink. It’s in their genetics. Why have white or dark colored houses when they can be purple, lime green, or sky blue? So here’s the pictures…
The City:





The Catholic Cathedral: (there's a two things that I'm afraid of, spiders and nuns)




Here's Annie and I pictures:




The city is pocket marked with plazas that make great settings for little restaurants, cafes, and shops. This is also the main theater, the oldest in mexico, where all the productions happen.





Here's some random pictures. They have art exhibits in various plazas and since life is art we participated...





On a side note, I know I need to learn how to do the handy picture collage. Hint Hint Liz...