Guanajuato – Northbound and Down

MAKING OUR WAY TO GTO

It was hard to resist the desire to head back to the beach, but we’d heard the city of Guanajuato was a must see, so we continued inland. Along the way we stopped to camp at Roca Azul, a strange RV Park/mobile home community near Lago de Chapala, with a bunch of swimming pools and what seemed like long-term residents. That day, the place was full of excited Mexican teens enjoying the pools and summer weather.

The next day we hit the road, planning to stop for coffee in Guadalajara, but continued straight through as the streets were crazy and parking non-existent. Once we got to Guanajuato the driving became even more interesting due to the tunnels running under the city and extremely narrow brick surface streets.

Driving through the city, we quickly found out that google maps didn’t know the best routes. We found ourselves driving down steep brick roads barely wide enough for our rig, which often became too narrow to continue down. Sometimes, as in this case, the road simply turned into a staircase. Backing out was even more fun.

CITY LIFE

We’d planned to camp at a popular overlander spot in Guanajuato, but upon arrival, the owner told us that it was closed for maintenance for the next couple weeks. It was already late in the day, so we opted for a rental we found on Airbnb.

The rental turned out to be a perfect home base. We were perched above the city center, and easily walked down to explore the shops, museums and cafes. The walk back uphill wasn’t quite as easy.

DECIDING TO STAY

When it came time for us to check out, we weren’t ready to leave. We decided to stick around for another week, and found another rental owned by a lovely French women on the opposite side of the city.

Form here we could not only explore new areas of the city, but also hike into the hills and mountains surrounding the city. On one of our hikes we didn’t see another person, but we did run into Ferdinand the bull.