Day trip to Guanajuato

Yesterday, we had the day-off from going to communities for our health project, so we decided to aprovechar (take advantage of) this opportunity and make a trip to Guanajuato.  Just over an hour away, this beautiful city is the namesake of the state we live in here in Mexico.  There's a university located there, and the difference from San Miguel was obvious as it was bustling with people our age-- San Miguel is a popular retirement location.

We began our day by having coffee in el jardin, the downtown center, and watching the last ten minutes of the Italy-Slovenia soccer game.  Luckily for us, 4 goals were scored in the last ten minutes and Italy lost (in case anyone was wondering).  Jazzed up on some caffeine, we walked through the town, enjoying the beautiful and very colorful buildings.  The center of the city is sort of in a valley and the rest of the city is built up on hills surrounding it.  It made for some great pictures.  We ended up hiking up one of the hills in the city to get to the Museo de las Momias (Mummy Museum), one of the main attractions in Guanajuato.  The view from the top was definitely breathtaking (especially since we were a little out of breath from the hike), but like everywhere in Mexico, not far from some of the most beautiful homes in Guanajuato were some of the poorest.

The Museo de las Momias has over 100 mummies acquired between 1865 and 1958 when there was a law requiring families of the deceased to pay a tax to keep the bodies in the cementary.  For those that couldn't pay, the bodies were removed from the burial site and stored in a building that began attracting tourists.  Eventually, the place was turned into a museum.  Yes, it's a pretty creepy story, but it was a really interesting experience.

After the museum, we walked back into town to the market, which was pretty similar to the one in San Miguel, except bigger with more to choose from (including food).  I ended up buying a hand-carved wood chess set for myself, and it's already been a good source of entertainment for everyone here.  We took the chess set and returned to the center to play a few games before heading home.