Guanajuato, Dolores Hidalgo and San Luis Potosí
Posted by Zihrena

Thursday, August 17, 2000 - Guanajuato, Dolores Hidalgo and San Luis Potosi
(continued from the Tlaquepaque to Guanajuato entry)

After breakfasting at the Abadia Hotel (breakfast was included in the already reasonable price for the room), we ventured over to one of Guanajuato's favorite attractions for visitors: The Museo de las Momias, or Mummy Museum.

Though we arrived at the museum fairly early, there was already a long line of people waiting at the ticket counter to enter. The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. The entrance fee for adults at the time was $24 pesos, plus a $6 peso charge for cameras. Because of the mineral characteristics of the soil of Guanajuato's principal graveyard, which is perched on a hilltop off to one side of the town center, many of the bodies buried there naturally mummify. This phenomena was discovered when the graveyard began exhuming the remains of those whose families were unable or unwilling to pay the continued costs of burial plots after the five-year period covered by the initial burial fee had expired. If payment was not received, the bodies were removed from the graveyard to make room for others. With the opening of the museum, those bodies in good mummified condition (many still sporting tatters of their burial clothing) are added to the collection and open to public viewing. Taking the tour past cases and cases of mummies is a bit gruesome -- in our opinion the museum has gone a little overboard in the number of mummies on display -- we would have been quite satisfied to leave long before filing by the last of them.
After leaving the mummies, we wended our way down the hill in the direction of town, headed for the Alhondiga de Granaditas museum, a massive stone structure constructed from 1797 to 1809 as a grain storage and distribution center and used during the War of Independence as a fort. The impressive structure of the Alhondiga now houses a museum displaying a fine range of historical artifacts of the area. Returning to our hotel to pack up and check out around noon, we decided to take the Panoramic road that pretty well circles the town along the hills above it, affording a wonderful view of the valley and taking us past several mines, both functioning and closed down (wonderful husks of crumbing stone), and finally down to the Presa de la Olla, an old dam forming a small lake fringed with trees, near which there are a few stone workers who carve fountains, headstones and other statuary.

Driving back down into town, we took a last spin through several of the town's fabulous tunnels that snake below the ground in a confusing maze. Guanajuato, between these tunnels and it's narrow, turning cobblestone streets, is another place in which it's easy to lose one's bearings, but the streets and tunnels are well marked, and following the signs (even though you're sure you're supposed to be going in the other direction) will usually get you to where you want to be. We left Guanajuato at 3 p.m., heading up Highway 110 through the picturesque town of Valenciana perched above the valley, toward the Cuenca la Esperanza nature preserve and the historical town of Dolores Hidalgo. Along the roadside in the hills were numerous vendors selling
apples, pears and quince. Down the other side of the hill we entered a dry, desert-like area of smaller, rolling hills, dust and cacti, in about the middle of which was the historical town of Dolores Hidalgo, where on Sept. 25, 1810, Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla made his Cry of Independence.

We entered Dolores Hidalgo square, with it's church and arcades. It was just after 4 pm and many of the shops were just reopening after the midday siesta. We found several merchants displaying the wares of Dolores: colorful hand-painted Talavera pottery dishes, jugs, lamps, ashtrays, tiles and other crafts from the area. We couldn't resist picking up a few small items. On one side of the square there was also a small store specializing in all things strawberry... dried strawberries with crystallized sugar, covered with bitter or sweet or white chocolate, strawberry jam, sherbets and preserves. As we left town, we also stopped at a couple of the many places along the highway displaying rustic, hand-painted decorative tiles and washbasins.

Leaving Dolores Hidalgo, we continued along Highway 110 until we reached it's junction with Highway 57, that would take us straight up through the desert to San Luis Potosí, our overnighting destination. The landscape along this road is not tremendously interesting -- lots of prickly pear, now covered with it's succulent tuna fruit, more than anything. We hit San Luis Potosí in early evening, drove down into the center to find a hotel near the large train station and, once registered for the night, promptly unregistered ourselves when we discovered that this particular hotel, even though it had phones and TV in the rooms, had no electrical outlets available for us to recharge our camera batteries, and that was a vital consideration on this trip.

But we found another hotel outside of town toward the highway, got everything charged and ready for the following day, and slept in preparation of our last leg from San Luis Potosí to the border.