Ron and Nancy in Tlaquepaque Jalisco Mexico: New Years Eve and a Trip to Guanajuato

We think we mentioned in our last blog that we had to change apartments for two weeks as someone had already booked our big apartment for these two weeks when we booked for 5 months. It is much cozier but the internet is much, much faster so rather than taking two days to upload our photos, today it took maybe 10 minutes. What a difference.

Our apartment front yard is the parking lot for the restaurant that is part of these apartments and it is also the playground and backyard for the family that runs both. As a result, when we are here (and at other times also) we get invited to all family celebrations. We turned down a Christmas invitation but accepted a New Year's Eve.

It was a BBQ with all the family and many friends of the younger children. In this photo, Juan Carlos is starting the BBQ and it took a while. Remember the days we got to light BBQ coals. What he is using are really not BBQ coals as we know them but charcoal, hand made not too far away from here, and it is tough to get started.

And Olivia's s0n, Rudolpho, was the chief cook. Mexican steak and refried beans and salsa and guacamole and of course, tortillas. It was yummy.

Just part of the crowd that attended. Nancy and I were by far the oldest and the soonest to go home. I got up at 5:00 AM and it was still going on.

After 3 weeks of no dancing or mariachi music at the Parian, the powers that be, decided they needed to catch up, so for two weeks straight, every afternoon and evening there was mariachi music in the Parian. And sometimes there was dancing also. You have seen many photos like this but this one was special to us so we have included it.

The Parian had large crowds for the Christmas season so the decision they made was a good one. This photo is just one very small part of the complex called the Parian.

After New Years, Nancy and I were talking about taking a small trip, we thought to San Miguel Allende to visit some friends there but that did not work out so we decided instead to go the Guanajuto. Olivia and Juan Carlos had never been to Guanajato so decided to come with us and what a great trip we had.

Guanajuato is a World Heritage City, very old, very beautiful, very hilly and 500m higher than here so it is 5 degrees colder. We needed extra blankets at night and coats and long pants the rest of the time.

It is still Christmas holiday time here in Mexico and Guanajuato was packed with Mexican visitors. This is a photo looking down the street from one of the main parks.

And this one is looking up that same street from the other end of the park.

There were many restaurants to choose from and this one was our breakfast restaurant the first morning.

And this is the hilly Guanajuato from a view point that was gained, not by walking, but a funiclar, that was pulled up the hill by a cable.

A couple of years ago we had some photos in our blog of these same mummies that were still at the mummy museum we visited as part of a tour. The soil here mumifies bodies so to keep the books balanced, the city digs some of them up and puts them on display and we pay to see them.

This is a photo from the window of the bus so a bit blurry but it shows just one of the many streets that are just like this. Very narrow and very steep.

This church, called Valancia, was built by the mine owners, Both gold and silver were mined in this area.

Coming down the stairs from the church. Ron, Olivia and Juan Carlos

Part of our tour was a visit to a silver mine and a walk down into the tunnels. This is the beginning of a long hike, first down and then up many, many steep stairs.

And finally at the end of the tunnel or as far as our guide would take us. It was a hard journey.

Another part of our tour was to museum that displayed many old torture instruments, mostly from the time of the inquisition. The rest of the photos show some of the methods of torture and death. They speak for themselves.

This one is a bit interesting as there is a trough that was filled with water at the bottom of the wheel that the head would pass through and often held there.