Guanajuato or San Miguel de Allende? Two extraordinary Mexican cities in terms of beauty and uniqueness that, however, are very different.
There are those who prefer Guanajuato and there are those who stay with San Miguel de Allende. In fact, It all depends on the color with which you look at it.
Both have been declared cultural heritage of humanity unesco for its architecture and cultural baggage and; however, it would be said that they are opposite.
At first glance, the distinction that can be observed is that Guanajuato either Hill of the Frogs slips down the hill forming intricate alleys while San Miguel de Allende is situated on the plain , drawn like a chessboard.
The colorful houses erected on the hill that is Guanajuato.
The following is that, as Juanito, our guide, wise and entertaining, would tell us, San Miguel guards the palaces, mansions and also they colors of the Viceroyalty, ranging between mustard yellow, red ocher and piñon white; while Guanajuato boasts a hubbub of colors that, under its blue sky and illuminated by a radiant sun, makes its houses, frequently renovated due to abundant floods, an authentic chromatic explosion.
While in Guanajuato the facades usually have chips, San Miguel is pristine . The people of Guanajuato eat in the street, buy tortillas from the street cook and share time and joy . San Miguel de Allende has restaurants that leave your mouth open.
Aerial view of San Miguel de Allende.
In Guanajuato, capital of the homonymous province, the foundations of Mexico are woven . In 1522 the Spaniards arrived and three centuries later the exploit the mining industry . in 1810 Miguel Hidalgo he led the seizure of the Alhóndiga de Granaditas, where, at the beginning of the revolution , prominent Spaniards sheltered.
If the wealth of Guanajuato is in its mines, that of San Miguel de Allende is in the wells who irrigate their land. In fact, the city, founded by Fray Juan de San Miguel, was a place of passage and refuge in the transfer of minerals, especially gold and silver , and its vineyards produce excellent wine.
GUANAJUATO: STROLLING AMONG LEGENDS
Guanajuato is characterized by its alleys, each one of a different color, all narrow and sinuous and with some unusual names that respond to bloody legends.
In the case of Calle del Infierno, where a man with a few drinks too many courted that beautiful woman who dragged him to hell... or Calle del Calvario: through which they had to transport the belongings and being so high it could not be called otherwise. . The Kiss evokes a Romeo and Juliet passion that ended just as badly.
The Alley of the Kiss of Guanajuato.
Juanita says that Guanajuato is an old-fashioned city: It doesn't have traffic lights and cars politely let go, now you go by, now I go by. There are no neons and fires are put out with buckets of water and hoses, as firefighters cannot get through.
In one of those tiny streets is the old Corral de Comedias and in others the scenes of the film of Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau Long live Maria!
WHEN THE TUNA SERENATES YOU…
Leaving Edelmira Hotel Boutique, a stately mansion, smells of coffee and churros . Two steps away is union garden, framed by boxwood-like cut ficuses and in whose cozy cafes waiters dressed in black and white serve breakfast. The music is not lacking a spontaneous tuno intones Carnations.
Among the flora of the square appear the muses of Juarez Theater, built on the remains of the Emporio Hotel that brought down the floods. Next to it is the church of San Diego de Alcala, guarded by an impressive sculpture of La Giganta.
A mariachi band.
This work by José Luis Cuevas has become Dulcinea in the Walk of the Cervantes Sculptures that dot the city. There are devotion in Guanajuato for The Quijote.
twinned with Alcala de Henares since 2011, the International Cervantino Festival of Guanajuato The Cervantino, which is celebrated in October, is awaited by the population and is considered one of the most important of its kind.
Visited by more than thirty countries and represented by more than a thousand actors ; music, poetry and art fill the city and theaters like the Juárez and the Principal, churches like the Temple of San Diego or museums like the Iconographic of the Quixote.
The university makes Guanajuato a young city. At dusk, students fill streets and bars . Others dress in tunos and, leaving the Jardín de la Unión, stroll through ballads and bandurrias, attracting visitors through its steep streets.
Garden of the Union of Guanajuato.
They sing, recite and reveal the reason for the mysterious alley names: Go out if you can, El potrero, El Salto del Mono, Boca Negra and many more that they name the 1,200 that make up the town.
They organize games, advise the bride and groom to buy flowers for their fiancees and make the audience have an entertaining and educational time.
Restaurants and bars occupy the penthouses from where to observe a beautiful view while the Corona or Pacifico beer comes to the table. Or a margarita of good tequila or mezcal to accompany the Arrachera molcajete pot, the marinated chamorro waves enchiladas of rich miner, among other delicacies of The Tasca of Peace.
see the Basilica of Our Lady of Guanajuato in the witching hour it is a beautiful spectacle. Immediately it dawns again and the humming of the women who sell buns and sweets is heard.
Tacos.
GUANAJATO UP, GUANAJATO DOWN
The new day is dedicated to visiting the Diego Rivera House Museum , a native of Guanajuato, take a look at the statue of Jorge Negrete next to what was his home and go down to the hidden Guanajuato , the one that hides underground where a series of tunnels go through it.
The underground network occupies no less than eight kilometers of passageways baptized with curious nicknames such as El Pípila, the national hero Juan José de los Reyes Martínez whose statue contemplates the 360º panoramic view from a hill.
The Cuajin was the first drainage channel. Built in 1823, it gave way to the impressive underground structure to which low people in search of shade in summer , the buses have their stop and the vendors go through it announcing their genres.
A car going through the tunnels of Guanajuato.
From the underground you reach the top on the funicular in a matter of minutes, for from the Mirador de El Pípila observe the city in full: its symphony of colors, its baroque buildings and its famous alleys.
A stop along the way to eat at Casa Valadez, a classic and famous restaurant with windows that overlook the Jardín de la Unión, very pleasant decoration and exquisite food, of which it is worth highlighting the Aztec soup , the coconut shrimp, the house flank steak or the pork rind tacos.
MINING TOWN
You cannot leave Guanajuato without visiting the church of San Cayetano, reason for the promise of the Spaniard Antonio de Obregón y Alcocer, who he swore to build it if he found a mine.
He fulfilled his wish when he found one of the largest deposits, La Valenciana, from where it is said most of the gold and silver left for Spain and San Cayetano had his church with an altarpiece dressed in gold leaf.
During the visit to Boca Mina San Ramón, the hardness of a job in which 12,000 Guanajuato residents are still employed is observed. It is more than advisable enter the shop of mine, where they sell minerals like quartz. The shop assistant explains in a funny way and on the run the benefits of authentic quartz. If it makes the clocks tick, how can it not make the human being vibrate...! she says.
We say goodbye to Guanajuato paying a visit to the Mummies Museum, a curious place that houses 110 naturally mummified bodies due to the geological conditions of the Municipal Pantheon of Santa Paula.
SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE: A DISPLAY OF BEAUTY
the entrance in San Miguel de Allende casts a spell to everyone who sees for the first time the Garden of Allende , its main square, starring the churrigueresque structure , oneiric, of the Parish of San Miguel Arcángel.
Built with the typical pink quarry of the city, while in Guanajuato it is built with green quarry, once admired, a walk through the square, adorned by lush vegetation and those trees outlined in boxwood that characterize the area.
Aerial view of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guanajuato.
Arcades that lead to craft shops, ice cream stalls, terraces that smell sweet, and a mixture of people in which many foreigners are seen.
And it is that 30% of the population from San Miguel de Allende It is made up of Canadians, Argentines, French and Spanish who have taken up residence in the beautiful city.
They say that San Miguel de Allende hides quartz in its land and that its energetic properties They surely help people to fall in love with the city just by seeing it and that many decide to move their residence there.
WINDOWS BUT NO BALCONIES
The city is practically intact. just as the Spanish left it when they settled on this route through New Spain. At that time, the balconies that came later, when Guanajuato was destroyed by the waters, placed them on their windows were not in style.
Colorful street in San Miguel de Allende.
mansions with beautiful patios , luxury shops, international restaurants, draw the facades from the city. Some are yellow, others red and others beige. But outside of those tones none more are allowed.
When walking through its streets, much calmer than those of Guanajuato , make you want to look out of windows and patios. Inside doors the surprise is guaranteed.
Either there is a boutique hotel decorated with tapestries, catrinas and precious ceramics, or a restaurant or even gourmet beach bars that offer cocoa, mango or barley water.
Shops and more shops: from furniture, textiles, jewelry with insured money, first class leather, and art Galeries . Products that suggest a high standard of living for the people who live in the magnificent houses behind the bougainvillea-covered walls.
Sunset over the church of San Antonio in San Miguel de Allende.
THE RED MOON OF A SPRING NIGHT
Green taxis and quads - they call them four-wheelers there - cross the secluded streets, calmly, allowing themselves to pass without arguments.
The quads have become an experience in the visit to San Miguel de Allende, a different way to get to know the ins and outs of the city, enjoy its gardens, reach the red municipal laundries and its neighboring chapel of Santa Cruz del Chorro.
And finish at Los Milagros Terraza restaurant savoring their fish molcajete or the tampiqueña. Delicacies that accompany the Jamaica's water or craft beer while enjoying a great view of San Miguel de Allende in its entirety.
Night falls and it is not just any night. the red moon It gently illuminates the city, turning off the light of its tones until the lanterns turn them on again.
From the attic of Carajillo Miguel (signature kitchen) they live unforgettable moments , one of those that will always be in the trunk of memories, when on the illuminated church of San Francisco that eclipsed moon rises that makes the one who looks at it mute.
We toast to her and focus on enjoying the feast of duck or suckling pig tacos, some pork rind croquettes and some of their seductive cocktails like the carajillo Turín or the piña colada, before returning to the Hotel Morada and sleeping like children in the silence of its centuries-old patios.