Home for the Holidays...Well, Kind Of

We left San Miguel de Allende by bus and made our way to Guanajuato, Mexico where we would spend the next 5 weeks. This was the longest we’ve stayed in one city since our time in Granada and we were definitely looking forward to our own space and being able to cook. For our first 10 days, we stayed in an Airbnb way up on a hill that overlooked the city center. We were lucky enough to have some family visit us for Christmas and the New Year. We did the best we could to make our new home festive for the holidays (even after another round of sickness)!

It was fun having our family in town before our Spanish classes started, because we were able to get in most of our sightseeing. A popular stop for tourists is the Callejon del Beso (Alley of the Kiss). We visited, but decided not to wait in line for our chance to kiss on the third step. Hopefully we didn’t blow our chance at happiness! If you’re interested in the full story behind this famous alley, you can read about it here.



One of my favorite things about Guanajuato is the many plazas throughout the city. The trees are well groomed, the fountains are pretty at night, it’s clean, and the city itself is so colorful. The plazas are a great place to hang out and eat ice cream or mummy candy, and sketch! Plaza de la Paz hosted the New Year’s Eve party we went to. It seemed as though there was always something going on in the city.

We rode the Funicular (basically a glass elevator) up to the statue of El Pipila (a war hero) to get the most stunning view of Guanajuato. We even went back two more times - once when my cousin Lucas and his friend came to visit us for the day while they were visiting friends in San Miguel de Allende, and one time when we decided to walk up the steep alley to the top (so exhausting!) to watch the sunset. The bar at the top is fun too!

The Valenciana Mina (mine) was a quick, but interesting, visit too. We went inside the church (Templo La Valenciana) and then went down 60 meters into the mine. We went to several museums and did a ton of walking and exploring the city. Uber worked pretty well, but with the narrow alleyways and underground tunnels that cover most of the city, we found it easiest to walk everywhere. After trekking up and down the hill all week from our Airbnb, we were happy to make our move to our apartment (two bedrooms complete with dining and living room!) that we rented through Escuela Mexicana, and where we would spend the rest of our time in Guanajuato. It was time to unpack!