Viva la Independencia!

So for the independence day weekend of the 16^th, “El Grito” (the yell of independence) We took another roadtrip, this time to the beautiful city of Guanajuato (sounds funny? try saying it with me: gwa-na-hu-a-to J) It was my roomie, Sergio, my homegirl Celestine, and two friends who I just met for the trip but ended up loving Jorge from Chihuahua, his girlfriend Else from Norway and yours truly. A roadtrip is fun in the sense is that we’re all connected though waves of energy so there were the lulls; however, about the other 90% of the time it was bursts of restless energy and mayhem. Everything from random stops to the singalongs to songs we didn’t know but hummed the melodies. They’re right when they say getting there is half the fun! This time we took the autopista (tollroad) which was well worth it because the libre (freeway) is in terrible shape with potholes which can engulf a volkswagon, and two lanes undivided going in separate directions. Because of NAFTA and increased commerce, the autopista is definitely up to par with our toll roads. While our weekend plans were to go to Guanajuato, we stopped in Dolores Hidalgo which was where the revolution began with the cry of Dolores with Father Hidalgo rousing up with campesinos. So it was just ridiculous shouts of “Viva México!” and the people would shout “Viva!” and do all the vivas from the states to the Virgin of Guadalupe. Note, for those of you who aren’t catholic or are catholic and just don’t care, the Virgen of Guadalupe is sacred to the Mexican people. It was the apparition of the Virgin Mary in Mexico to the Indian Juan Diego (Click Here) With that it is a strong symbol of faith. The story goes that Father Hidalgo started hitting the banner of the Virgen de Guadalupe with his stick to rouse up the people to take up arms. I would have been pretty pumped. Continuing. We decided to just grab a bite to eat and head to Guanajuato early so that we wouldn’t run into any drunks on the way. You have to avoid that because these are little villages. We got to Guanajuato and I was dumbfounded. The streets we were driving on were a series of stone tunnels under the city which have passage ways that take you up to the street level. I felt like I was in Colonial Spain! I thought Zacatecas was preserved, but this place was gorgeous! Guanajuato won for being the most cultural city in the world. That’s right folks! More than Rome, Paris, Istambul, Guanajuato has preserved not only its architecture but its Spaniard traditions. Its know as a Cervantino pueblo after Miguel de Servantes who wrote Don Quixote. Every year, they have the Cervantino festival and everything from Flamenco to reenactments of Don Quixote. We got there and the party was already started! After a long day of driving, Celestine being serenaded by an old man and seeing a drunken Frenchman wearing a Mexican flag (only the flag people!) we retired to our sleeping Quarters which was Sergio’s best friend’s apartment floor. Thanks Paulo! Next day we woke up to the sound of drums beating and ran out to see there was a parade of all the children from the schools marching. It was cute but a bit too nationalistic for me. I’m not too fond of marching…Why can’t people just walk? But big ups to the chiquilinesJ The rest of the day we walked, and walked…and walked. The big thing here are the mummies. The line was way too long and Celestine and I didn’t really want to support the organization. Its not even an archaeological group. Its just people who go around digging for bodies and started a sort of side show. We bought tickets to a callejoneada, which is a Spanish tradition where you’re given this special cup which looks like a cannabis smoking apparatus and go around the streets singing songs with these groups called estudiantinas, or “tunas” and running around in the alleys. It was a bloody good time. All the instruments are classical Spaniard instruments like the lute and mandolin (which is actually Italian) and these groups are phenomenal. I recommend everybody go to a callejoneada once in their life. After that, we went clubbing and getting a nice light plate of 5 tacos @ 4am with the posse we went to sleep. Saturday, we woke up a little later than expected and got back to some sight-seeing. First stop was the house of Diego Rivera! On my way there, I couldn’t help but be drawn into the churches…so many beautiful churches! Its sad though because the inside domes you can tell were beautiful at one point but the frescoes and the plaster are all chipped and withering away with time. Preservation architects wanted! Diego’s haus was bomb-diggity. Not only did I see a lot of his works or styles of his I had never seen before, but there was a Dalí exhibit of paintings. The collection was based on Dante’s Inferno and there were the three stages of Earth, Purgatory, and Hell. I can’t really explain them other than Dalí-ish. You know what I mean. After that, we headed to The Museo de la Alhondiga de Granaditas, originally built as a grain warehouse, was converted into a fortress during the Mexican War of Independence. In 1810, Spanish loyalists locked themselves inside to fight the Mexican rebels, who were led by Padre Hidalgo. The rebels won the battle when a young miner known as Pipila, with a huge stone strapped to his back, advanced towards the fortress and successfully burned down its wooden door. All hell broke loss once the Mexicans got inside. It is preserved so well is what gets me. The columns were probably struck with swords and ricocheting rounds of ammunition, or even smeared with the blood during the battles.

After that, we went to El Teatro Juarez which had an Arabic interior design with the calligraphy. The better the seats for the nobility, the more ornate the calligraphy they were adorned with, and the most basic for the commoners in the nosebleed section. Later that evening I went with Else and Jorge to San Miguel de Allende for a dinner and seeing the village. By the time we got there it was late and all the shops were closed but the live music was great and I was awestruck by a beautiful cathedral. This will definitely be a town I visit again to see more than the little I saw. We got back around 2 am and the rest of the posse wanted to sleep except for Sergio and Paulo so we left ro go out at two and met up with the French. Oh the French! They were calentando el motor (pregaming) in this really bohemian hippy bar with Ché Guevarra posters on the wall. Once they closed the bar at 3, we headed to a club where they were playing cumbias. Our French friend, Ludo was already halfway to concorde and was haggling with the bouncer to lower th cover for 15 minutes (the cover was 15 pesos, which is like $1.38) He talked him down to us paying 5 pesos each to get in haha because we “were foreigners and deserved the best.” After being there for about an hour we swung to la Havana and danced some salsa and called it a night at 6am. Dearest Celestine woke me up at 9 to get me to go to the open market with her. Celestine bought almost every herb that existed, including pumpkin flowers, and I almost bought a cock for 50 pesos with hopes to train and enter in cockfights. I decided not to because I figured Jorge would have loved a stinky bird in the car all 8 hours. Besides, where would I keep it? Stay tuned…Kate’s coming to visit next week and we’re headed to the ghost town of Real de Catorce. You may know it as the cute little town from the movie with Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts in “The Mexican.”