Participants Blogs
La Aventura Panamericana - Day Ten Blog
By
Nov 20, 2006, 14:58

DAY TEN - THURSDAY 16TH NOVEMBER
REST DAY GUANAJUATO

Opportunity for a lie in. Then took a taxi into the Historic centre of the city. An interesting taxi ride through all the underground tunnels that were built between 1883 and 1908 to deal with previous flooding.

Guanajuato, whose name is derived from a Purepecha Indian word means ?Hill of the Frogs?. The streets are long and loopy, alleys lurch crookedly uphill decorated with geranium filled flower baskets and washing hung out to dry and dozens of plazas surrounded by rainbow painted houses.

The taxi dropped us off outside the old market built by Brunel. Wonderful old building - the shops were only just opening so a lot of the market stalls were still shut. From the market we walked to the Regional Museum Alhondiga de Granaditas built as a grain warehouse and now a superb museum of Guanajuato?s history.

From there we visited several churches, the main square and took a ride on the funicular to the Monument to Pipila from which there is a wonderful
view of the city.

By this time lunch was calling which was most enjoyable and we probably saw most of our group passing as we ate - amazing how many people we knew in this city!

My lasting memory of this amazing city will be the wonderful colours of all the buildings from bright purple, orange, yellow, pink a real eclectic mix.

In the evening we were taken by coach to a restaurant in the central plaza opposite the Teatro Juarez - it was a fun evening, it was the official illumination ceremony for the Christmas lights, bands were playing and strolling musicians in medieval costume were entertaining the thousands of students who study at the University.

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