San Miguel de Allende & Guanajuato City, Mexico

Guanajuato was one of those places that was on my list of places that I most wanted to visit when I first made the decision to move to Mexico. San Miguel de Allende is known for being one of the most beautiful cities in Mexico. Tourists flock here in hoards. And honestly, it definitely deserves the reputation. I don't recommend as a place to go and "do" but as a place to look. And there is definitely a lot to see.

It took me two failed attempts to finally get there. On my first attempt, my friend flew out to visit me and I had to change my plans. On my second attempt, I honestly couldn't figure out how to get there. I got frustrated and gave up. On my third attempt, my good friend Lauren was there to give me the push that I really needed.

We bought the bus tickets on an impulse the night before we left and it was such a good decision.

Our trip definitely didn't go off without a hitch. We encountered problems almost immediately. Because we bought our tickets online, we made an incorrect assumption about the location of the terminal. In Puebla, there are two main bus stations. There's the Estrella Roja (Red Star) and CAPU. The name of our bus company was Estrella Blanca (White Star). We plugged this name into the GPS thinking that it was a third bus station that we had never heard of. But we were so wrong.

Our bus left at 6 in the morning so we scheduled an Uber the night before to take us to Estrella Blanca. And we didn't realize until 5:45 that Estrella Blanca is a company and not a bus terminal. We panicked. Our taxi driver explained our mistake to us and we explained that the bus tickets had been "muy muy carro" or expensive. He rushed us to the bus station and we ran to our correct terminal and made it 5 minutes before the bus left.

I felt so releaved and forced poor Lauren to take a selfie with me to remember.

Our bus tickets left from CAPU, Puebla and took us directly to San Miguel de Allende. Both Puebla and San Miguel de Allende are central Mexico, but Mexico is very, very big. It's about a 6 hour bus. Our bus tickets cost about 75$ roundtrip. That might not sound expensive, but we were earning pesos so this was a pretty big chunk of our salaries.

We encountered our second problem on the bus when we got stopped on the borders between the state-line. An immigration officer came to check our passports and make sure we were all who we said we were.

I have never, ever had a problem with an immigration officer, but this guy definitely had a problem with me. I had brought my passport and my work ID, but not the card that proved that I was a legal long-term resident.

The officer took my passport and started getting angry that I didn't have my residency card. He accused me of working illegally and threatened to turn me in.

I was definitely panicking. I knew that I was here legally and I did have my residency card, but I normally left it at home because I was afraid of losing it.

He mostly just made a lot of empty threats and tried to act tough. He definitely couldn't have had me deported, but he definitely could have ruined my trip. In the end, he gave up and let me off with a warning that next time, he wouldn't be so nice.

Oops.

We arrived to San Miguel de Allende at around 2 in the afternoon and proceeded to encounter the third problem of the day. We ordered an UBER only to immediately discover that UBER is banned in the city because of a local agreement made with taxis there. Our UBER driver was pulled over by the police within 5 minutes of leaving the bus station.

Our UBER driver tried to convince us to lie and tell the police officers that we were his family. This made both of us super uncomfortable. He started yelling at the police officer and refused to hand over his license. Lauren and I made our exit at this point.

Another police officer asked a local taxi driver to take us to our hotel. The officer told us that the ride would be complimentary, but the taxi driver ended up refusing to leave without payment. Moral of the story: don't use UBER there. And never trust taxis anyway.

We had decided to split our 4 day vacation into 2 days in San Miguel de Allende and roughly 2 days in Guanajuato City. I highly recommend doing it this way because both cities have a lot to see.

We stayed about a block away from the center of town so it was pretty easy to walk around everywhere.

After dropping off our suitcases, we set off immediately find something to eat. Our hostel owner suggested a few places but we ended up settling on Hecho en Mexico or Made in Mexico. It was definitely a little pricey for Mexico, but it was really good food and we were so hungry.

Lauren's co-worker had made the recommendation that we check out the view of the city from the top of Rosewood Hotel.

There's a really nice restaurant on the top that's definitely on the pricey side by Mexican standards, but very affordable by US standards. But the view is free.

San Miguel de Allende is beautiful. Really, really beautiful. Here's one more picture from the top of the hotel.

After seeing the view, we had some free-time to wander around the city.

One of the most distinguished examples of beautiful architecture is the Cathedral dedicated to Saint Michael the Archangle. It was constructed in the 17th-century in a Grand, neo-Gothic style.. AND it's pink. Which is pretty cool.

We got a kind stranger to take our picture.

San Miguel de Allende is really popular as a wedding destination for foreigners and Mexicans alike. And we saw so many weddings happening all over town. One of my favorite memories from the trip was just watching everyone walking around in their wedding apparel. Some people were very well dressed. I definitely felt like an imposter in my jeans and t-shirt.

As we were walking around, we were lucky enough to catch some of the gigantic paper mache puppets or "mojigangas." They're kind of beautiful and kind of strange, but very, very cool.

After walking around, we made a decision to take one of the tour trolleys in order to see as much of the town as possible. We under-estimated how popular it is and ended up having to wait around a few hours for the final one.

Our tour was in Spanish and cost about 65 pesos, but I believe that there are others in English.

Our tour was at night so I didn't get a lot of pictures, but I did manage to get one at one of the many looking points. As always, the picture doesn't really capture it.

We slept in a little the next day and bought our bus tickets to Guanajuato City. After coffee and breakfast at our hostel, we decided to do a quick trip to the nearby botanical gardens.

We weren't able to find a local bus so we ended up taking a taxi that our hostel recommended.

I highly recommend the Botanical Gardens. I was very surprised. I expected a couple of pretty gardens and some nice cacti, but it actually has some really nice trails. We were only able to spend a few hours there, but we could easily have hiked all day.

Here are some pictures from it.

The Botanical Gardens helped arrange a taxi to take us back to our hostel and then we paid him a little extra to wait and then take us to the bus station.

It's about an additional 2 hours to get to Guanajuato City from San Miguel de Allende. Personally, I loved both cities but I definitely preferred Guanajuato City. A lot of the architecture is similar but it's a lot less congested. Plus, he has all of these really amazing tunnels that made me feel like I was walking in a fairytale.

Guanajuato is most well known for its University and for the International Festival of Miguel Cervantes. So naturally, they have a few cute statues of Don Quixote.

Don Quixote is definitely one of my favorite literary characters so I was excited to see him.

I asked a few people what the connection was between Guanajuato and Miguel Cervantes, but I never fully understood why it is celebrated there. So if any of my clever readers know, then pretty please tell me.

I do know that there's a cute theatre located next to the statue of Don Quixote and that also there's a museum dedicated to the book character and his creator.

Here are a few pictures from walking around town.

On our first night of exploring, we stumbled on a really cool dance show.

We watched the dance show and then had a really great dinner with a balcony view.

It started to rain shortly after so we went back to our hostel to sleep.

The next day, we wandered around the city some more. We tried to visit the house of Diego Rivera, but unfortunately it was closed so we took pictures of his statue instead.

Next we went on a journey to find the alleyway of the kiss. The roads a little bit confusing so it took us a little bit to find it. We ended up stumbling on it by accident by following another group of tourists.

It's located behind the Plaza de Los Angeles. And to be honest, it's a little undescriptive. It is literally just and alley.

The story goes that a wealthy girl who lived in the room above the alley fell in love with a boy who lived directly across from her. According to the legend, her parents forbid her from seeing the boy because he was from "the wrong side of the tracks." They would meet in secret to kiss in the alley. Then one day, the girl's father found out and stabbed his daughter to death. After her death, the boy also killed himself.

I don't know if it's true, but I like the story.

Our original plan was to ride the ski lift to the Viewpoint, but like the Diego Rivera museum, it was closed for the day. We changed our plan and decided to simply purchase a tour from one of the groups located in the square.

We took a tour in Spanish, but I'm sure that many are offered in English as well. The tour included stops at Alhóndiga de Granaditas, the Mummy Museum, the Viewpoint, a mining museum, a candy store and many other small museums that didn't do much for me so I'm not gonna talk about them.

Alhóndiga de Granaditas was originally built to store grain, but it became important as the site of the first battle of the Mexican War of Independence between insurgents and royalist troops on September 28, 1810.

The Building itself is not anything special to look at, but the history was definitely interesting. I'd never heard of the site before the tour.

The next stop was the Mummy Museum. The Mummy Museum contains the naturally mummified bodies found in the cemetery in the mid 19th century. The mummies are very creepy. I'm kind of a baby so I mostly felt creeped out. But it's something that the city is very famous for so I'm grateful that I got to see it.

The third stop was the Viewpoint located at El Pípila. Honestly, just looking out at the beautiful city in the mountains was the high point of the day. It's crazy beautiful and I can't really fully capture how much I loved just looking at it.

Another stop on the tour that I enjoyed was the mining museum. Guanajuato is located far up in the mountains. Before it was anything, it was a mine town. Like many mine towns, the people who lived there came for the mines and organized around them.

I really enjoyed the museum because the guide offered a very honest history of mining in the town. It was a hard life for anyone who earned their living that way.

After the tour, we went to a music show that Lauren had been clever enough to find. It was located in the Teatro Juarez. I don't remember the name of the group, but they were playing as a tribute for mothers.

After the show, we got an ice-cream and had a final walk around Guanajuato. We ate our ice-cream in the University and fantasized about going to college there.

We spent one more night in the hostel before taking the bus back to San Miguel de Allende. We only had a few more hours left before our bus back to Puebla.

We had a final meal and then began the long haul back to Puebla.