This is going to be a pretty long blog post as we stayed in Guanajuato for 4 nights.
We stopped in Leon and tried to find a place to sell a water filter. The filer guys were awesome in helping, but they did not sell anything that would work on campers and suggested Home Depot. I really just want one of those RV hose adapters, as they will filter particles and most chlorine smells. We stopped at the Walmart that we were passing and got some more supplies. It always seems like $100 USD every time we stop for supplies. Oh well. We did hit up a Home Depot and they had a nice system for about $250 USD that would filter particles, chemicals, and bacteria/etc down to 0.2µ. It seems a bit tall for what I need. I may just have to do that for drinking and coffee water but for now I am just boiling the city water that we get at the campgrounds.
There was a Sam’s Club also in Leon so we stopped there to check it out. We only found a big bag of dog treats as most everything else does not fit in the camper. The dogs were happy though to get some Beggin Strips. We headed out of town and onwards toward Guanajuato. I have heard about this place from other Overlanders like Hourless Life, and definitely wanted to visit. There was one campground listed in the town and we checked to see if they had space, which they confirmed. The owner warned me to come in from the panaramica road and go down the wrong way on a one-way road. I tediously created a route to the location he indicated and headed that way.
As we were entering the town, there were a couple of guys that had touristico shirts on and flagged us down. They told me I could not fit through the tunnels and needed to go around. I showed them the route that I was given and they kept saying “no” and pointing to their paper map (which was not a map at all), and tried to tell me to go through to the right. Well after trying to fix the map, I lost my route and Kathy picked up and tried to help. She routed me to a location, I missed the turn, had to go through a round-about for a second time, and then started up to the center of the city, immediately through a tunnel.
The tunnel had 5m of clearance, almost twice what we needed. We continued up, trying to get to the panoramic road (which we kept seeing signs for, and at one point Kathy’s map told is to turn right down a road that probably was not 8′ wide. I balked. We looked at the maps again, trying to get them to cooperate, and I was becoming frustrated. We traced a route to the panaramic road and at the entrance, there was a police truck looking like it was blocking the entrance. I slowly drove by, and he did not even look up from his phone.
We worked our way on this road, but ended up on it in the wrong direction and were heading back to where we started. When we got back to the bottom, I figured I would just follow the bus as he was taller than we were. That worked until he pulled off and let his people off. At that point I told Kathy we were going to follow the blue line and deal with any issues that came up.
It worked for the most part, except the last 400m where we were going up a 2-way street that was only 1 lane wide and the wires hanging over the street were barely taller than Howie. I did hit a few as we drove up the road, but fortunately there were parallel to the direction of travel and nothing caught. At one point, there were two parked cars, one on each side, the grade was going on 15% (don’t know for sure but it was steep), and I switched to 4WD-Hi to ensure all 4 wheels were managing the weight. I think as we passed the cars, I had about 2 inches of space between the camper and the cars. At the top it got better as the turn was about 135 degrees in the wrong direction. Roy, the campground owner, met us (probably because he heard the commotion on the road coming up) and guided us in backwards down in to the campground. I got out, wiped my sweaty palms, and almost hugged Roy for helping.
We decided to rest up and make some dinner in the camper as it was already almost dark and the 3.5 hour drive to Guanajuato took about 8 hours to get us there. The city is beautiful in a lot of ways. It is not as polished as German, Italy, or Spain, but it has a lot of really neat colors. We met a young Canadian couple that was also in a truck camper. They also felt that this mode of transport is the best compromise to a motorhome or a van. The couple are still working while traveling and are making their way to Oaxaca before heading back north. At the campground, there is a constant chorus of dogs barking that echo on all sides until the early morning hours. The weather is about 75 degrees in the daytime and gets down to the low 40’s at night at the 6500′ altitude. We slept well and were ready to roll the next day. We planned to stay 3 nights here to explore the town in the day and the night.
The next day I took the pups for a walk up the hill. Roy had mentioned a mine that was about a 15 minute walk up the road, which was perfect. The pups definitely enjoyed it until I decided to go look at the church up at the top of the hill as it was a hike for them as well. It was Sunday at this point so church was getting ready to start. Outside the little courtyard a couple of tables had been set up and there were families selling some hot drinks and snacks for the people heading in.
The pups and I headed back and met up with Kathy, where they got their treats and went in to the camper for their usual day-long nap. Kathy and I hiked down the hill into town. The mapped route took us into the tunnels that Guanajuato is famous for. The city originally set up the tunnels to route the waters of the river under the town but over time they have been altered to become roads. It is really neat to see the somewhat random car disappearing or appearing from these roads to merge into the streets of the town.
We had lunch at a really nice little cafe that gave us the option of an inside patio or inside the restaurant. We decided on the interior garden area and had some great camerone tacos and I had BBQ pollo, which turned out to be some sort of Molé sauce. It was delicious, nonetheless. We knew Guanajuato was the birthplace of Diego Rivera, a famous Mexican artist and husband of Frida Kahlo, and we quickly mapped out the museum to take a tour. It was a small sample of his art over the years and is pretty impressive the different styles that he painted, drew, or colored over the years. The tour was only $60 pesos for the two of us.
We wandered the streets and tunnels for a couple of hours after lunch and then caught an uber to take us back to camp. It was only about 1.5 miles, but this city is build over several canyons and streets can be closer to the pitch of stairs than regular roads. Plus it was only $90 pesos for the trip, so $6 USD.
The next day we took the pups on another long walk up to the mine area so Kathy could check out the area. Then we decided to stay in the campground, take a ciesta, and head into the city at night to enjoy all of the lights and evening atmosphere. I found a great restaurant called Casa Valadez that had 5 star ratings, so we Uber’d (to the French-Canadians it is Yoo-ber) to the general location. It turns out this restaurant has a famous Mexican chef Karen Valadez, who has competed in Iron Chef Mexico. We were serenaded by mariachis in the park (through the windows) and treated to some great food. I had the enchilada de pollo covered with the 5 types of Molé they make in the region while Kathy had a great Pasta Alfredo. We finished with her famous dessert, a corn cake surrounded by vanilla and cheese sauce with a habernero kick. Delicious. It was not too bad at $65 for the meals and two drinks.
We walked around the town in different areas and marveled at the lights and colors. We eventually found a town sticker that we can put on Howie in our travels back. This time we were only 0.8 miles from the camp so we walked home. The last 400meters is brutal. We love this town and hope to come back some day.
The last day we were here we just rested at the camp. We has planned to head toward Mexico City, but the tickets to the museum we were planning to see were all sold out, so I finally got a set from a tour group for the 11th. In the extra days, I found a surprise thing for Kathy that she will love, so we are heading to a town called San Miguel de Allende for three nights. We will drive to Mexico City early on Saturday hoping to get to a campground north of the city. Then we will Uber to the city for an AirBnB we have reserved for 8 nights, so we can explore Mexico City. We will be leaving howie at the campground storage so we don’t have to worry about driving and parking in a city of 20+ million people.
Here are some additional photos of Guanajuaco. And here is the track we took to get there.
