Guanajuato & "How do you like your ice cream?"

Have you ever been to Virginia City, Nevada … the old silver mining town in the high desert hills south of Reno? If so, picture Virginia City, add about 140,000 residents, spruce it up, build a huge university with 11 campuses, inject a European type ambiance, develop an elaborate system of underground roads, and you got Guanajuato. I guess other than the silver mines and the environment, there really isn’t a lot similar between Virginia City and Guanajuato.

At exactly 9:30 AM, the doorbell rang. And there was Miguel. He would be our travel companion/guide for the day. We loaded into his Chevy Tahoe, and headed out of San Miguel de Allende toward Guanajuato, the state capitol of the state of Guanajuato.

The hour long drive on a two lane road took us over high desert terrain, sparsely populated, a few cattle ranches along the way. As we approached Guanajuato, that changed. The city that was built on silver mining (there are still a half dozen active mines there, now operated primarily by Canadian companies) is mountainous with the neighborhoods laid out over rolling hills. After miles of parched desert land, Guanajuato pops up like a welcome oasis.

It is near Guanajuato where nearly 200 years ago, the Mexican revolution was born. The city is rich in history. A college town, it supports many theaters, museums, historical squares and galleries (this was the birthplace of Diego Rivera).

From an overlook above town, it's easy to spot dozens of churches which tower over neighborhoods.

Inside the town, what strikes you most is the dominant European influence.

Their market place was designed after the great train stations of France. The numerous gardens and squares are based on Italian design. And the city itself is VERY clean. There is a major reason for it.

In the early 1900s when automobiles made their first appearance, city fathers decided they wanted to keep the streets clear of cars. So, they converted an underground dry riverbed over which the city had been built into a subterranean roadway. Then they built another, and another and kept building them until late last century. While it is easy to get lost in the underground tubes, the result on the surface is streets that are now largely reserved for pedestrians, shops, and sidewalk cafes. Combine that with the liberal influence of a college town, and you have a uniquely contemporary ancient city for this part of the world.

On the way back to San Miguel, we stopped at Dolores Hildago (yeah, that's the name of the town), and visited the church where the leaders of the Mexican revolution riled up the citizens … enough so to overthrow the Spanish government in 1810.

And before we hit the road to return to San Miguel, we sampled the “local flavor.” Ice cream is what Dolores Hidalgo is known for … dozens of vendors line the city square selling ice cream. But don’t expect chocolate or vanilla. There are about 100 different flavors ranging from tequila (which was more like frozen ice) to camarones (shrimp ice cream … it was awful). I settled on pine nut ice cream. All the while, overhead, the largest strangest spaceship-like pinata hung (or is it hanged) above the street ... just another day in Mexico.