Guanajuato

One day I was visiting Guanajuato, the capital of the state of Guanajuato, together with Jan, Sina and Yannik. Guanajuato is one of the legendary silver cities of Mexico, which founded part of the Spanish wealth in the early modern period. At the beginning of the 19th century, with 65,000 inhabitants, it was the third largest city in the western hemisphere after Havana and Mexico City. The cityscape is characterized by a great deal of architecture from colonial times as well as narrow and winding streets.

Much of the road traffic of Guanajuato is underground, with old river beds and mine shafts used as tunnels. One of the first things we did was taking the funicular up the hill of San Miguel from where you get a panoramic view over the city. The Mirador del Pípila is a square located on the hill where there is a colossal sculpture of pink stone in honor of the independence hero Juan José de los Reyes Martínez, better known as El Pípila. Back downtown we were walking for a while through the narrow streets and passing by the most famous one, the Callejón del Beso (The Alley of the Kiss). It is so narrow that people kiss from the opposite balconies. We furthermore passed the Teatro Juarez and the Puente del Campanero (Bellman's Bridge) which is served by a restaurant. Before returning to Irapuato in the evening we stopped at the dam Presa de la Olla.