15th Sept. 2016
We’ve learned from previous experience (esp. Havana) that you only get to appreciate a city over time as you get to understand the layout and how it all fits together. So it is proving with Guanajuato. Our hotel is a mile or so out of town and our plan is to walk in to the centre even though there seem to be buses that go up and down the hill.
As well as just enjoying the sights, we (well, I) want to accomplish 3 specific things – drop off our laundry; find a tourist information office to ask about when and where to be for the Independence Day celebrations; and to find Chris & Graham’s (our Tassie friends) favourite café. My mistake was to prioritise the specifics over the general – and I should have known better.
The first task was going to be easy, or so we thought! We had spotted the Lavandaria Sol last night and the sign on the door said that it opened at 10am. At 1o past, we were standing outside a locked door re-reading the opening times sign. Fortunately, while we were debating what to do a woman came along and opened up. We had quickly learned on our previous travels to avoid hotel laundries and laundrettes that charge per item, so we were very happy when she plonked our laundry bag on the scales and announced that it was going to cost us MXN$65 (£2.80) and would be ready at 7:30 this evening. Sorted!
Our other goals proved to be harder. As we got into town, we quickly realised that Guanajuato was not a conventional Spanish town with a central Plaza Mayor and a surrounding, regular grid of streets. Instead, lying in a narrow valley, it is a town in 3 dimensions with a funicular going up the valley on one side and underground streets and tunnels. There seem to be very few straight lines and the map provided by the hotel seems to have been created by a 6 year-old who has never visited the place.
My frustration is compounded when we stop at a café only to find that the coffee in Mexico isn’t always good (as it pretty uniformly has been to date). Even worse, is our effort to find the tourist information office. The problem is two-fold – a) the map & street layout; and b) a profusion of faux information offices plugging specific hotels & restaurants. Lonely Planet says that there are only two (small) official offices. We find one of these, but it is closed, and can’t find the other.
Amid much muttering from one of us, we head off to find Café Tal. At least this is on our phone maps and so GPS gets us close. Then it is a matter of following the Sherlock Holmes dictum of eliminating the impossible before we realise that this unmarked door in front of us, into an impossibly tiny coffee shop really is Café Tal. It absolutely was worth it though. My cappuccino was spot on – just great. Janet, following LP’s guidance went for a Beso Negro (black kiss) – think of a bar of your very favourite chocolate melted down and served to you in a cup. And it was still cheaper than the muck coffee that we had had earlier.
After that, things get much better as we fall back on our trusted technique of just wandering. Since the city is built in a valley, we’ve been conscious of the close-packed, brightly coloured buildings rising up the hillside since we arrived. The funicular gives us a chance to get up the valley right to the base of the giant statue in memory of Pipila. Here we got our first hint of today’s history lesson – Pipila played a key part in capturing Guanajuato from the Spanish at the start of the Mexican War Of Independence.
Having admired the statue and the views of the city laid out below us, we decide to save the £1 return fare and walk back down along a narrow path lined in parts with brightly graffitied walls. We’re (I’m) now more in a mood to appreciate the ornate buildings such as the Teatro Juarez, the Basilica and the Jardin that is smaller and busier than its equivalent in San Miguel. After lunch (soup, of course!) in a Mexican / Indian / hippie restaurant, we make our way slowly back through town, stopping outside the university (controversial 50’s building), in the market, at churches and the pretty buildings as fancy takes us.
Having failed to find a tourist information office in town, we get on the Internet and quickly realise how ignorant but lucky we are. Whilst we know that Independence Day is tomorrow (16th Sept) we didn’t know that the celebrations really kick off tonight with a restatement of the Grito de Dolores – the Cry of (the town of) Dolores. This was the rallying cry that kicked off the Mexican War of Independence.
Further, not only is Dolores close to Guanajuato, but the siege of Guanajuato taking the town from the Spanish was one of the earliest actions of the war. Papila (of the statue – see above) used a stone shield to get to the door of the Alhóndiga (granary) and set it alight forcing out the Spanish who were trying to hold it. This explains the stage being set up outside the Alhóndiga – it is where the re-enactment will happen tonight.
Now that we know what it is all about there is no option but to go back down into town this evening to see it all happen. As we set off from the hotel around 10, there is already a stream of people heading down the hill and into town. As we get closer to the Alhóndiga, the street cafés that were setting up earlier in the day were now in full swing . We were able to make our way, up a path that ran alongside the plaza (which was rammed) and so were able to see over the crowd and to the stage where a band was in full swing.
After the band finished, there were a couple of warm up acts bantering with the crowd – we understood little of what was said other than the occasional Viva Mexico! The local big-wigs then trooped out and stood in front of the Alhóndiga overlooking the plaza (and to our left). 
The heart of the ceremony started when a runner brought in a torch, Olympics-style and ran up to the Alhóndiga and lit a cauldron from the torch. Then came what we can only assume was the recitation of the Grito – there was a lot of viva this and viva that, with the crowd responding with Viva! each time.
Finally, there was a firework display which was done in a typical Mexican fashion – a good idea, but a bit sporadic and not particularly joined up. Still, the crowd was happy enough and we felt that we had done our bit as well as having learned a lot more about Mexican history (and had some reminders about travel).