Recently, our nephew Jesse and his wife Jennie visited us from Minnesota, giving us an occasion to see a few sites in Guanajuato that we had not yet visited. We also learned some new details about the history of the city and tried a few restaurants that we hadn’t been to.
We did a walking food and history tour of the city. We had not eaten at any of the places previously. My favorites were a gorditas stand near the Embajadoras market and a fine chocolatier, Xocola-t Boutique.
One of the interesting things about the city that I was aware of, but learned some new details, was on the topic of the tunnels under the city. There are many tunnels under the city, now acting as roads diverting traffic away from the surface streets. We learned that the primary tunnel was originally a river that flowed through the city. As would be the case in any city, it was popular to build houses on the riverfront. This was true for aesthetic reasons, but also for waste-removal purposes. Over time, as the city grew, some people started building houses over the river. Also, there are many sections of the downtown area that were built over the river as the city grew. Because the river was used for waste-removal, as the city grew the river started filling in with sediment. Also, the river often flooded during the rainy season. For those two reasons, eventually it became necessary to raise the level of the streets and houses. There are still remnants of the old windows in the original first floors of the houses, and in some cases second floors. Eventually a dam was built to contain the flooding but flooding continued. At some point, when engineering technology allowed it, the river was diverted under the city, where it remains today. The former riverbed was eventually turned into a road. As the city and traffic grew, many more tunnels were added as roads under the city. Many think that the tunnels were former mining shafts or that all of the tunnels’ purpose was to diver water (the latter was what I had thought), but all but the tunnel following the old riverbed are modern constructions whose only function has been as a road.
The culinary highlight of their visit for me was the restaurant Patio de Piedra, which happens to be in our neighborhood. We had not been there are we were not even sure it was open, because we had never walked by during their opening hours. Kevin and I enjoyed a delicious pasta dish, several people shared a great pizza as an appetizer, and Jesse and Jennie both enjoyed their entrees. It was also reasonably priced. We will be back in the future!
We took the funicular up to the statue of “Pipila,” the hero of the first major battle of the Mexican war of Independence from Spain. The battle took place in Guanajuato. The legend tells that when the Spaniards in Guanajuato knew that 20,000 “soldiers” (many were civilians using their tools as weapons) had marched into Guanajuato, they took refuge in a warehouse called the Alhondiga. Pipila put a large stone on his back to protect himself from attacks by Spanish and burned down the door of the building. The Mexican soldiers then entered the building and killed everyone inside. This was the first victory by the Mexican army. The view from the statue is amazing and well worth the short and inexpensive trip up.
Continuing the history theme, on the same day we visited the history museum in the Alhondiga building, which still stands. The museum was an overview of the history of Mexico and the Guanajuato area, starting with prehispanic times. All of the displays were described in Spanish, but I could translate some and Jesse and Jennie used the translation functions on their phones to translate other portions. I knew some of the history but was able to fill in some gaps in my knowledge.
Overall it was a great visit and also enjoyable to try some new things in our adopted city.
I’ve recommended this article with my friends, it’s worthy of sharing.
Thank you!