A few weeks ago, I dragged the family down to Coyoacán, hoping that I would be able to take some pictures of groovy architecture. Alas, I was disappointed, and when I expressed this to my fellows of the expat community, they told me in unison that I needed to visit Guanajuato. Guanajuato (city) is like the Sacramento of Guanajuato (state) -- it's the capital, but it is only the 5th largest city in the state. 
Our Lady of Guanajuato Basilica
Our hotel was right off of the Jardín de la Unión which is surrounded by open air cafes. This fellow was there every day, all day, starting at breakfast and continuing well after dark. He was charming and fun. In the evenings, the garden benches would fill with mariachi troupes hoping to be hired to play for the diners. One evening, we engaged a group, had them play a few songs, and the price turned out to be (always negotiate first) 300 pesos (about $27US). This fellow was grateful for the 10 pesos I paid him, and he played in much more photogenic light -- a much better deal.
Juárez Theatre
For the first time ever, I bought my camera an entry ticket so I could photograph inside this exquisite theatre. Having paid the (exorbitant sum of) $3 for this privilege, I took it upon myself to set up my tripod inside for some long exposures in the very dark building. I was like a giddy parent -- my baby is all grown up and no longer can get in for free.
So as I said, the city was built on top of a river --as in, right over the top of it. Due to continuous flooding, the buildings were built ever higher, until finally the people had had enough and they dammed the river and re-routed it. This left vaulted masonry caverns that crossed under the city, so as a result, the former riverbed became the main thoroughfares. This is charming, quaint, and exciting until you're trying to find your hotel by car, and your hotel is in the historic center far from any above-ground roads (or actually, very close to them in the vertical direction), and your GPS is completely up-to-date on these subterranean roads except that your GPS doesn't work underground.
Even the public bathrooms are underground.
In the 1800's, the city of Guanajuato instituted a burial tax. For families that failed to pay it, their loved ones were evicted from the crypts. When they opened up said crypts, about 1 in 100 of the bodies were mummified instead of decomposed. The mummies were very exciting to the people, so they stacked them up in a building near the cemetery for people to come and visit. This tax and digging folks up continued until the 1950's, and they continued to find mummies. The Mummy Museum is a huge source of revenue for Guanajuato, especially because you can get right up close to them (behind glass) and take photos of them without buying a special camera ticket. This was the thing that my girls want to see more than anything in the whole world.
Our guide spun the tale that it isn't the soil/air that causes the mummification because (he says) Guanajuatenses (natives) who die and are buried abroad tend towards mummification as well. So, as he said, "If you had coffee, hot chocolate, or juice this morning, you have been baptized. Welcome to the club." All the more reason to be cremated.
I didn't want my blog post to be too graphic, but if you're brave, you can click here and see a lady whose eyelids and mouth came open while she mummified. Those things on her cheeks are her dessicated eyeballs. Again: all the more reason to be cremated. Or at least make certain they stitch your mouth and eyes closed.
Our last night there, Zorra couldn't sleep from thinking about the mummies maybe coming alive, and I couldn't sleep because it was about 90 degrees, we had no AC and had to keep the window open, and just outside said window (but not easily seen from our room) was some sort of horrendous ruckus going on. So Zorra and I snuck out to see what was going on at the basilica. Turns out the last Sunday in May is for the celebrating and blessing of the local miners. There are 16 operational mines in the area, and Guanajuato used to have one of the world's largest silver mines. As we watched, a drum and bugle corp associated with each mine would precede some type of industrial mining vehicle, from a pick-up truck to a front loader (which carried its holy load high in the bucket). Upon this vehicle would be a statue of the Virgin of Guanajuato (Mary with a blue veil, holding baby Jesus -- unlike our icon which is indigenous Mary in green with gold spikes surrounding her and hold nada) surrounded by flowers. The vehicle would park in front of the basilica steps, and the drummers and buglers would form an aisle up the steps (and they are all wearing hard hats with helmet-mounted lights and ear protection). While a few people unhooked Mary from off the truck, other people distributed the cut flowers that were decorating her, and people would fight to get the flowers to add to home altars. (Zorra collected a pretty awesome armful.) Then, when Mary was free, she was carried in to much fanfare -- bugles, drums, and the church bells -- some of which were pulled, some were beaten on by hands and hard hats. (You can see why I wasn't getting any sleep). Behind Mary came the miners and their families to be blessed inside and the statue was also blessed and left overnight to be carried back to the mine shrine before work began the next day. Zorra and I stayed for only an hour, and it continued well past midnight -- going on for so long that when it was finally over, I sat up, unable to sleep because it was too quiet. It was really cool.
Finally, on the morning of our departure, we popped round to a shop to buy some ceramics that we had been eyeing but didn't want to have to take care of all weekend. We made our purchases and were able to observe a very Mexican superstition. Often in Mexico, early in the morning at the veggie market, I might buy something -- like a bag of radishes -- and then the lady will take my money, kiss it, and cross herself. Mexicans are very superstitious about the first sale of the day, and if it goes well, it will bless them through all of their other sales. As a result, a shopkeeper will often will bend over backwards and take a loss to make certain that the first sale goes well. So at this one shop, we made a sizable purchase and made no move to haggle (not good manners in a shop), but the shopkeeper herself rounded the bill down, let the girls pick out gifts, and then added more items to our pile as more gifts. We were effusively thankful and said she didn't need to do all of this, but it was she that was grateful for giving her such a propitious first sale. (She was also the one that explained the finer points of the miner's procession.)
It was a wonderful visit. Driving into Mexico City, seeing the smog and the fierce traffic, we wished we could have stayed forever (but in some place with air conditioning).
