Jen and Elias, an employee of the school, met me at the airport in Leon and then we drove into Guanajuato. My plane out of Houston was running late, so we got to Guanajauto well after dark.

Here's what the city looked like from the roof of our hotel (about 3 stories high).

Guanajuato is a mining town, at one time the richest town in all of New Spain and after Mexican independence. They originally put Rio Guanajuato under the town, then rerouted it altogether after a bad flood. They built more tunnels for car traffic, and today the tunnels are fairly well used, although there is a lot of car traffic on the surface.

It was reassuring to see that the town is well supplied with Diet Coke, my preferred caffeine vehicle.

Por favor, un Coca "light."

The Jardin de la Union is a very cool (literally) place in town, probably the coolest, owing to the fountain (evaporative cooling) and the trees (forest microclimate).

It was there we saw a guy in a soccer jersey that was gold and black stripes, said "Steelers" on the front with a "32" on the back.

Folks here have good taste.

That's the monument to El Pipila in the upper right. He crawled to the doors of the Alhondiga and set them afire, allowing the rebels to take the fort, (the guide books give mixed indications if El Pipila (The Turkeycock) lived).

Sunday morning we woke up early and headed to San Miguel de Allende. Just like the nearby town of Dolores Hidalgo, this town has had the surname of an independence movement leader appended to its name. The bus ride was about 2 hours and cost 65 pesos (about 10 to a US dollar).

This is the Parroquia de San Miguel Archangel.

San Miguel is about 10% foreigners (mostly US folks) according to the guide book. Seems like there were more English-speaking Mexicans and billingual signs here.

Some of the businesses around El Jardin.

Streets are straighter in San Miguel de Allende than in Guanajuato.

View from the Mirador, the lookout above town.

Less hilly than Guanajuato, but you can get a workout if you like.

Parroquia de San Miguel Archangel -- interior.

We caught a city bus back to the intercity bus station and then rode back to Guanajuato. We sprung for a first class bus, which had no intermediate stops and a 1.5 hour ride. Then a city bus back into central Guanajuato.

The fountain in the Italian garden, my favorite.

Dining with the upper crust.

The Spanish garden which was integral to the home.

The street where Jen's school is located.

That's "El Pipila" on the skyline, with his arm raised, sparking the War of Independence.

Then there's Don Quijote, on his own crusade.

Then there's me...

This is outside the Mercado Hidalgo, the main market place in Guatajuana. This building has about 4 or 5 prepared food stalls (think snack bar) on each of the three levels you see. Just before this, four campisinos came walking up and a woman from each stall began to wave menus and exhort the four guys to come eat at their stand. They picked the closest one.

Need a hot pepper? You've come to the right place.

The city was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Zone in 1988, so there are no traffic lights, neon signs, and you need permission before doing renovations on buildings with this placard.

We had a wonderful lunch here, although we did not eat on the little bridge. This is near the University so there were lots of youngsters hanging out and internetting.

Here we ran into a person named Judy from Seattle that we had also run into on Saturday. Turns out we have a common friend, Alison. Small world dept.

Here's the Church of San Roque, or St. Rochus. I went to a St. Rochus church as a kid so I am interested in churches of the same name (also saw one in Ljubljana). This is on Calle S. Roque (St. Rochus Street).

The story of St. Rochus includes him hiding out and a dog helping him by bringing food. Of the statues I've seen of St. Rochus (now 3), this dog is the biggest, and looks like a yellow Lab.

I can't imagine Bailey stealing food and bringing it to me in the woods...

This church also had two crucifixes with a very bloody Christ on each, two statues of the scourged Christ (robe, crown of thorns), one statue of a fallen Christ with the cross, and one of Christ in his tomb. It also had two side altars. It isn't all that large of a church. It was like others the in that (Jen pointed this out to me) there are no stained glass windows and that the windows were very near the top. The insides were bright, but they probably stayed cooler because of no low windows. So with all that wall space there is room for statues and crucifixes.

The Alhondiga is now a very nice museum, with meso-American relics, exhibits about the War Of Independence, and the role of Guanajuato in Mexican history.

The Spaniards put the heads of the four executed revolutionary leaders in cages and hung those from spikes on each corner of the building.

The rebels won this first battle, and the war, but it was a long, bloody struggle, and it seems that little if any quarter was given.

Bunches of school kids came in and were doing whirlwind tours, but I noticed that the teachers stopped here and pointed this out to the kids.

This is the inside of the building/fort. Each room, of course, was designed to hold grains, then it became a fort, then a jail/prison, and finally a museum.

When I first saw this on Saturday, I was bewildered, "why on earth would Prussia have a consulate here?" Then when I thought more it, it made perfect sense. Maximilian was a Habsburg, the French were meddling in Mexican affairs (ruled at that time by Louis Napoleon or, if you prefer, Napoleon III).

It was tough to get ahead of Otto von Bismarck, so hence, Prussia must have had eyes anywhere Prussia's rivals had designs.

This is now a bar.

Someone asked me "where are all the people?" They are here; this is the Jardin de la Union during the day.

We didn't walk down, we rode the funicular (inclined plane). The cars are not as large as the ones in Johnstown; these were cozy with 5 people -- one other passenger besides us, and a young man that was riding up and down as he was chatting with the young woman serving as conductor.

We tried 2 restaurants and there was not a soul in either although it was 8 pm. Not wanting to be alone, we struck out toward the Jardin.

The sign for El Consulator Bar (the Prussian consulate of a few pix back) said Horas Feliz 7 -9. 2X We didn't know if we could get anything to eat but at least we could get lubricated.

So we went in there, got margaritas and peanuts, and ended up watching a futbal game between Chivas (Mex) and Santos (Brazil) as part of the 2008 competition for the Santander Libertadores Cup. Sports on TV is alright with me, especially with half-price maragaritas. I ended up vocally rooting for Chivas.

Jen asked some questions of an old Don at the table next to us and caused him to miss three goals -- two by Chivas (his team) and one by the opponents but he didn't care. He spoke some English having been a doctor in Wash DC early in his career. After a while he went up to get his wife and we all chatted the best we could (Jen and the couple, mostly). It was a nice time and although we were not out very late, we had trouble getting up this morning.

I don't have a lot of memories of the pre-Vatican II Church, and my childhood church got a new, young, dynamic priest shortly afterwards who removed the statues and all. Here's a Christ child figure in a case with a pile of toys, mostly cars.

These churches do seem much older than any US Catholic Church I've been in for the last 40+ years, and seem closer to the Orthodox cathedrals in Russia or some of the Slovenian and Croatian churches.

Speaking of those trips, I did not try to learn any Spanish before coming here, figuring that I could pick up what I needed on the fly or else rely on Jennifer (she is in Spanish school, after all). And while I don't think I've done all that poorly, my mind does get jumbled up with similar phrases in Russian, Serbo-Croatian, and German (since I was taking that in the evening last year).

I had been able to at least keep those languages out of my mouth when addressing folks, but the other evening I slipped up and said "Dobro noches" to a bathroom attendant.

C'est la vie!

After Jen's class on Thursday, we went out for a bite to eat with her teacher, Mario. He is from Mexico City and has lived in Guanajuato for six years. He lived on Vancouver Island for 5 months one year, so he had an idea what Washington was like. We had a good time.

I never mentioned that Guanajuato is at 2000 meters (over 6000 feet). Saturday and Sunday I had a mild headache all day trekking around, which I blamed on altitude, but by Tuesday the calves stopped hurting and besides sucking air I was OK.

Jen has class from 6 to 7, and at 6:50, I set out to meet her and Mario. I had just left the B&B which is located up one of these hilly streets. I run across 3 young women, one crying out a name loudly, and they are pushing an old senora in a wheelchair up this damn steep cobblestone street. Very slowly pushing her.

Well, I don't know how to say "Let me help you" in Spanish but they quickly got the idea. We pushed OK for a bit but then hit a step. They spun the chair around and removed those foot rests, and then leaned the chair over and each grabbed a handle.

That left me holding the back of the chair, and we went over a couple steps. Mind you, I have no idea where these folks are going, but I do know there are not steep streets beyond the B&B -- it turns into a staircase.

So we went up those steps, I'm being real careful not to slip (in Birkenstock sandals) because then a real disaster would occur.

The first turn in the staircase after the B&B, they stop and gesture that we have arrived. Gracias a Dios! I was sucking serious oxygen. They were very grateful for my help.

So, in the Cervantes capital of America, I become a modern -- but successful! -- Don Quijote.

With that high point, our short trip to Guanahuato was over! Gracias, amigos, y adios!