The neighborhood wakes up early: dogs barking, children laughing, men singing, engines revving, gates slamming. Chris walked down the hill for some fresh bread and then walked back up the hill to have a breakfast of fresh fruit, coffee, bread and yogurt at home.
My calves hurt the second day we were in SMA from walking all hours and my thighs hurt here on this the second day from walking all hours up and downhill. We decided to start with the Museo Alhondiga which houses art in a building significant to the Mexican Revolution, but the bus we took turned a different way so our plans changed. Guanajuato would be a bear to drive in as a novice. There are four main surface level streets and then hundreds of narrow alleyways off of them; however, there are also underground passages, reminiscent of Lower Wacker except that none of the street names are marked and all of the streets are one way or the other, again not marked. We got off the bus when it deviated from one of the lower passages we were familiar with and we walked back into the center, first up from the underground and then down to the center. My thighs might hurt again tomorrow.
Today was the first absolutely perfect weather day we've had without even a hint of rain and so we took advantage of a bright blue sky to visit the Pipila monument that sits high above town and which is accessed by funicular. El Pipila was the moniker given to Jose de los Reyes Martinez who joined Hidalgo and was instrumental in taking the grainery, where the Spanish loyalists were held up (now the Museo Alhondiga), at the start of the Mexican Revolution. The statue itself is quite something and can be seen from miles around because of its relative height, and the vistas from its base are unbelievable. When you are in the valley, it is difficult to assess the size and height of your surroundings. From the monument, you can see the entire city. When in Rome... so we had a cup of corn with cheese, lime and salsa on it while we took in the view and, while it was a taste treat, two or three bites was probably enough.
We tried to get back into a few of the churches we passed yesterday but were foiled by weddings and, in one case, a funeral. We did get to see a man ringing the bells for the funeral. All of the bell ringing here is done by hand so it's sort of something to see.
Instead, we went to the Museo Iconografico del Quijote. Before I went, I thought it was a weird idea, since Don Quijote is a fictional character. Now that I have been, I want go back and explain to my younger self how wrong I was. As an English teacher and literature enthusiast, I'm not sure why I even thought it was weird to begin with, but it is neat to have an entire museum dedicated to works of art inspired by the same source and even better that the source is the seminal work of Cervantes. Go.
We wandered around a bit and had lunch in a little cafe where one can also have their laundry done before finding a major market in which to get groceries. We stocked up for the week so that we wouldn't have to bring big bags up the hill home time and again and got our tiny kitchen organized. We took our siesta on the roof-top terrace from which we have a marvelous view of the center on one side and the mountains on the other and Chris played his guitar while I worked on an assignment that is due tomorrow. Eventually, the sun sunk behind the mountains to our right and it was time for dinner, which was good in every way except that we forgot to buy a bottle of wine while we were out. Plans for another day...
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