Above and Below Guanajuato

It’s been days since my last post. I just haven’t been able to come up with a theme. I think a lot of you try to do that as well, look for a theme to tie together your photos if one isn’t immediately apparent. We spent nearly two full days exploring Guanajuato, and those are the photos I’m trying to share with you now. I took photos of hundreds of things and I can’t pin down topics.

I had the idea of “Above and Below,” for one theme. I’ve thought of a couple of others too. I’ll do my best. I guess it’s a good problem to have: so many amazing experiences and sights that I’m having a hard time narrowing it down. My hope is that you enjoy skimming the pictures. It has now been two months since we were there, and I’m still gasping at some of these photos. It really was an outstanding trip.

Pedro at the balcony in our mountainside Airbnb, looking out across his hometown of Guanajuato, Mexico.

This is what it looks like from the outside. It’s the red and white building. It is four stories high and the all-white section is the top. We are on the third floor.

Guanajuato is in the mountains and surrounded by mountains and that means if you are in the right place, there are gorgeous sights above you. But it is also a congested city with living and working spaces taking up most of the land, so many streets need to be narrow enough only to admit people walking.

This mountainous city must be creative with its transportation infrastructure.

Stairs leading up to the houses above the plaza.

Stair streets are common in Guanajuato. This street of stairs branches off from a street with cars, to reach the homes at the top of the hill.

But steep and narrow streets are not enough to address infrastructure needs and streets for vehicles are required. Guanajuato went underground. This makes so much sense in a historic mining community, such as it is. Originally, tunnels were built beneath the city to divert the Guanajuato River. Today, there is an extensive network of tunnels used to divert traffic out of the city center. Pedro talked a lot about this before we went, and we watched several YouTube videos taken by people who filmed their journeys underground. On our recent trip, we never got the time to spend exploring the underground. We did take the bus one day, which used the tunnels to move around, and I was glad to get that chance to experience them. In general, my photos of the underground are limited. But I find the whole idea quite interesting, and the evidence above ground is pretty ubiquitous. What a fascinating city.

It’s not a tunnel to a subway (which don’t exist in Guanajuato), but to the pedestrian access for the underground streets.

Downtown Guanajuato, where an underground street emerges above ground.

Psyche! Not really underground. But this is pretty neat, huh?

And in such a fascinating mountain town, you would expect mountains, yes? Our Airbnb was on the side of one, so we did not get a really good view of what it looked like where we lived until the day we walked to the Presa de la Olla, a historic dam inside city limits. I shared a photo of me at the dam two months ago, when we had just returned to the states.

Its a long walk through a few of the outlying neighborhoods, and past things that Pedro recalled from his life growing up here. He took us to see the old dam partly because it is neat to see a body of water, but also because the walk there is through a wonderful part of town with distinctive architecture and beautiful neighborhoods.

I thought of this walk for the “above” perspective, because we were finally far enough away from the mountain we lived on to be able to see it, and the beautiful mountains behind it. I mentioned to one of Pedro’s nephews how impressed I was, and he insisted that we go hiking. We did not have time on this trip, nor did we think for one minute we could convince the teenagers to go with us. But now I hold a little plan for our NEXT trip to Guanajuato, when we are for certain going to add a mountain hike to our itinerary. ❤

Let’s begin that walk, so you can see the mountains with me.

One of my first glimpses of the mountains.

I spent some time admiring the architecture in this part of town.

Admiring architecture as well as the mountains behind.

I am pleased when cities choose to preserve beautiful old buildings.

Eventually we came to a shady and green park that is a median between streets. There is a path down the middle, with places to sit and enjoy the shade, and the birds and lizards that live there. This is Parque Florencio Antillón, built in 1875 at the foot of the Olla Dam, named after the governor who built the dam.

Benches are built to encourage people to take their time, enjoy the park, and to rest.

This church, Templo de La Asuncion, is beside the park.

At the end of the park is the Olla Dam, and that’s where the photo of me was taken that I’ve posted already. I like the photo because it shows me being a photographer.

You can’t see the water, but it’s just on the other side of that red wall. You can see the old Atalaya, the watchtower, behind me. {photo by Pedro Rivera}

The west side of the dam is the downhill side, where we just emerged from the park.

The dam was completed in 1749 to control both droughts and floods. In these steep hills, rainstorms can very quickly become deluges as water rushes downhill, even a small storm into a small creek can cause serious destruction. The dam catches the water and protects the neighborhood below. In times of drought, there is a reservoir filled with extra water.

And there is the water, with the eye-catching Atalaya.

Government buildings for the Secretary of Finance, Investment, and Administration.

Looking all the way across into the San Renovato Park, and to the curiously placed lighthouse.

Lighthouse-shaped building above the dam.

We caught a taxi back into the center of Guanjuato after that, since it was five miles back to the center of town. After eating, and visiting another of Pedro’s siblings (there are so many), we walked around downtown in the evening. I’ll show more photos from that walk later. But here are two from the evening that I liked, that fit into my theme today.