Guanajuato’s Streets

The streets are really wonderful, if you like narrow streets that wind through the heart of a city.

In the interest of keeping your interest, we will start with the famous Callejón del Beso (Alley of the Kiss). People love this version of Romeo & Juliet so much that they tell it over and over and change every detail each time. I could not find the same story twice. I couldn’t even find the young people named the same in most cases. It’s Anna & Luis, or Carmen & Carlos, or Carmen & Luis, etc. Here are the basics:

A young woman lived with her greedy Spanish father on the slopes of the Cerro del Gallo hill. He wanted to marry her off to a rich man so he kept a protective eye on her and was angry to discover that she was in love with a poor miner (probably not a Spaniard either…). He sent her to her room and forbade her from seeing the poor man. The young man knew that the outer wall of her bedroom was close to the outer wall of the adjoining home. He managed to get into that home, climbed from his balcony to hers, and had a rendezvous with his beloved. Of course, the greedy father discovered them. In his haste to escape back to his balcony, the man tripped and plummeted to his death. In a fit of anger, the father ran at his daughter with a knife and stabbed her. She died, and fell over the railing as well. The two died together on the stairs. It’s all quite tragic and irresistible.

Tourists now believe that if you kiss your lover on the third step (according to some stories, that’s where the lovers died), you will have good luck – especially in love – for the next 7 years. Not sure how all that death and pain translates to good luck, but who am I to critique this story that is not mine?

That’s the only story I have for you. What I have left is a selection of street scenes that captured my interest. The colours, the architecture, the people out walking everywhere, the sunshine, the music (oh, sorry, you can’t hear it. But trust me…the music!), the history, the vendors… There is so much packed into this place.

Please just enjoy the photos.

With so many streets that could not accommodate cars, we were forced to walk a lot. Pedro and I were perfectly happy. The kids got used to it pretty quickly. Andre had difficulty at first, learning to pick up his feet. Every path is paved with stones or bricks and is uneven compared tot he streets he knows. He was constantly tripping at first. By the third time we went out, Andre was no longer tripping over paving stones.

Pedro and I thought that whomever works here has a headache of a job. With hundreds of very steep, very narrow, very paved streets – flooding must be absolutely horrific here. Bless the department of hydraulics and topography. And even moreso the department of hydrology.

One more thing I noticed on the streets was the strangest type of moss growing on power lines and light poles. I have never seen this before. A lichen, maybe? What the heck is this stuff? It was on everything in the older parts of town.

I hope you enjoyed that!! Wasn’t it fun walking the streets with us? What a cool city it is. I think I could have spent a couple of weeks in Guanajuato and still be delighted each day.