Guanajuato Weekend

A few months ago one of my friends here in Mexico recommended a movie to me: Las Momias de Guanajuato (The mummies of Guanajuato). It’s a cheesy horror movie about a mummified luchador (wrestler) coming to life and haunting the residents of the city of Guanajuato. Little to my knowledge would I soon visit the very mummy exhibition portrayed in the movie. The terrain of Guanajuato must have some special chemical composition because it is capable of mummifying bodies in a span of less than five years. When archeologists began uncovering the accidentally-preserved bodies, they decided to make them into a museum, which has consequently become an item of Guanajuato regional pride.

This weekend we traveled to Guanajuato as the last official excursion with the exchange program. Guanajuato city--capital of the region with the same name--is about six hours north by bus from Puebla. It reminded me of certain towns in Spain, with its small tortuous streets, flowers hanging from buildings and the bustling nightlife. Not surprisingly, it’s regarded one of the more romantic cities of Mexico for all its charm. Our first full day was an unusual mix of activities: the mummy museum, a museum of the weapons used during the Inquisition, churches and historic monuments. In the afternoon a few friends and I went to the Casa de Diego Rivera, the house where Diego Rivera was born and lived for the first years of his childhood. This was definitely a highlight of the weekend because I’m such a huge fan of Diego Rivera. The first floor was a representation of the Rivera family’s house and the upper floors exhibited some of Diego Rivera’s sketches and paintings. That evening I went on a night tour of the callenjones (alleyways) led by a musical band similar to mariachi players. As we walked through the streets of Guanajuato, the musicians played traditional Mexican songs and told us the legends of the city. It seemed a bit like Christmas caroling without the cold.

We spent the second day in Guanajuato visiting two nearby towns: Dolores Hidalgo and San Miguel de Allende. For many Mexicans, Dolores Hidalgo is a revered pilgrimage site because it is where Hidalgo let out the battle cry that marked the beginning of the 1810 Mexican Independence movement. We toured Hidalgo’s house, but the attraction that I found equally captivating were the helado and nieve (ice cream) stands in the zócalo (main plaza). The helados of Dolores Hidalgo have a reputation for their unusual flavors, among which: shrimp, avocado, tequila, rice, cheese, beer, cactus along with normal flavors such as lemon and vanilla. To nobody’s surprise, I got the mole helado. It was spicy, chocolatey and rich just as good mole should be. After the helados we drove on to San Miguel de Allende to eat lunch and tour the markets.

My other chocolate highlight came Sunday morning. A friend and I had just visited the Don Quijote museum and were heading over to the university when I noticed a Sister selling hot chocolate outside of a church. Unlike other Mexican hot chocolate that I’ve had, this one was not as sweet and slightly resembled pudding because it had been thickened with cornstarch. It seems that wherever I go I manage to find some link to my chocolate research!




Downtown Guanajuato

A great view of Guanajuato City. On my left are two of the program monitors.


Statue of Diego Rivera




Night tour of the "callejones"


Mole-flavored ice cream


Exploring the markets (but these are not actually real fruits!)


Church in San Miguel de Allende. According to some, it resembles Disneyland.

Mexican Wedding

Last week my friend invited me to the wedding of his neighbor’s friend in a small village about an hour south of Puebla. The town is so small that it was practically a whole-village celebration. In many respects it was a stark contrast to all the weddings that I have attended in the past. We sat at long tables outdoors amidst stray dogs eager for scraps of foods and with the sound of chickens clucking in the background. The church ceremony had already taken place in the morning, but we arrived in time for the village meal around five in the afternoon. Not only was there food to feed everyone in the village, but probably enough food to sustain the village for a week. The main plate was mole poblano. The quantity was astounding; there were literally hundreds of gallons of mole served with meat from dozens of chickens and half a dozen boars and accompanied by stacks of handmade tortillas and tamales. Guests went home with buckets filled to the brim with mole. After feasting on mole (which I managed to smear all over my face) we moved the long tables to make room for the traditional wedding dances. My favorite was el guajolote, “the turkey dance”. The bride and groom danced in the center of a circle of a group of people dancing around them and carrying gifts, among which, were live turkeys, baskets of tamales and bottles of tequila. After dancing they brought out the wedding cake. I couldn’t help but find it somewhat humorous that the Mexican wedding cake tradition is for the bride and groom to each smash their face into the cake. Apparently feeding each other the first bite doesn’t have quite the appeal as a frosting-covered face!






Mole poblano with chicken and pork


My friend pretending to eat an entire stack of tortillas


There were four of these huge pots of mole poblano!


El guajolote ("the turkey dance")


The bride and groom stick their faces in the wedding cake (apparently this is the tradition)

Oaxaca Pictures

Iglesia Santo Domingo (the main church in downtown Oaxaca City)

Oaxaca City

Oaxaca City

Street vendors selling crickets (a tasty snack)

Woman serving hot chocolate in the market

Pan de yema (bread made with egg yolk)

Chocolate for sale

Tejate, the traditional cold chocolate drink of Oaxaca. It is made from a base of corn.

Tule, the widest tree in the world.




Textile making demonstration

Maguey, the plant used to make mezcal

Mitlpa (ruins)
Hierve el agua, natural springs in the mountains







Tour in the botanical gardens



Monte Albán









Woman preparing hot chocolate


Chocolate de leche y pan de yema

The good Friday procession

Oaxaca (day 6)

Semana Santa, or holy week in Mexico, began Thursday night with services and an evening procession around the city. That evening I walked around the zócalo (main plaza) to see vendors selling corn on a stick, families taking an evening stroll, street performers and balloons everywhere. But I didn't experience any of the religious aspect of Semana Santa until Friday morning when I joined my Oaxacan friend and her family for the procession of the saints. They live in a smaller village in the hilly outskirts of Oaxaca City. The initial idea had been for me to arrive early enough for breakfast before the procession; however, it took me longer than expected to find their house and I didn't arrive until the procession was just about to begin. Fortunately the chocolate de leche and pan de yema (bread and hot chocolate) that I ate beforehand were enough to sustain me for the two hour procession through the twisted streets of the small town. Members of the church dressed in purple and white gowns carried wooden figures of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene on their shoulders. Prayers were read at each of the 14 designated stops, in between which the congregation marched and sang with the accompaniment of a band. Once the procession concluded, parishioners met outside of the church to sip cool beverages of horchata, tejate (the chocolate drink) and agua casilda (a pumpkin beverage with chunks of fruit). I didn't have much time before I had to catch the bus back to Puebla, but in the time remaining my friend's family fed me a hearty breakfast of chilaquiles (tortillas with beans and cheese) and set me off with package of chile relleno with beans and rice. I departed Oaxaca with the only regret that I didn't have more time to spend in this welcoming city and province.

Oaxaca (days 5)

Today I toured Monte Albán, which lies just 10 kilometers in the hills outside of Oaxaca City. The ancient city of Monte Albán was one of the primary prehispanic settlements in Mesoamerica and was inhabited by the zapotecas. Today it is one of the most famous ruins of the state of Oaxaca, and with good reason. For all the glory that the pyramids of Chichén Itzá receives I found Monte Albán to be just as impressive. It also helped that to have a superb tour guide who went into detail about the zapotecan cosmogony, calendar system, societal hierarchy and even some of the legends behind Monte Albán such as why this magnificent city was abandoned before the Spaniards even set foot on Mesoamerica. I returned to Oaxaca in the afternoon and, following an excellent lunch of mole negro, met up for coffee with one of my friends from Oaxaca. She didn't hesitate to invite me over to her house for breakfast the next morning.