Querétero and Guanajuato -- two lovely cities in Central Mexico

This post follows up on my promise to show some of what we saw during our February trip to Central Mexico. Both Querétero and Guanajuato are north of Mexico City and easily accessible by bus. And a bus ride in Mexico is pretty pleasant if you go first class. You get comfortable seats with lots of leg room, snacks and drinks and your own screen with entertainment. Some of them even have internet. Three hours later we had arrived and taken a taxi ride to our Air B&B on a street just a few blocks from the historic centre of town. This is the courtyard of the pretty spot we stayed on a street just a couple of blocks from the historic centre of town.

The centro contains lots of plazas and pedestrian walkways with restaurants, galleries and coffee shops, not to mention churches and museums and upscale hotels with outdoor bars and restaurants.  It was easy to while away a few days exploring here, plus we got to connect with our friend Natalia and her husband who we met for lunch.


Here's a few photos to show the area. It's very Colonial and pleasant to wander around, poking into old churches and museums. This area is a UNESCO heritage site and well worth exploring.

Walking down the quiet residential streets rewards you with views of centuries-old doors and window boxes.

The most prominent feature of the centro is its enormous aqueduct, consisting of 74 arches, built between 1726 and 1738 at the request of the nuns of Santa Clara convent to bring water to the residents of the city.

It's really special place to visit because it's very pedestrian friendly and clean. The city is prosperous and many residents come to the historic centre to stroll the plazas and walkways and eat at the many good restaurants.  Despite this it's not really touristy at all.  

I didn't take as many photos as I might have liked but this is one of the fountains in one of the main plazas. I like the dog face and the fishes.

The next city, Guanajuato (Pronounced: Gwana-wato) is just a short bus ride away and another world altogether. Guanajuato was built in a narrow valley and the streets are winding and narrow. Many streets are inaccessible to cars, with lots of stairs. Others go beneath the city in tunnels. The historic centre has many small plazas and Colonial buildings. The growth of this city resulted from abundant minerals (mainly silver and gold) mined in the surrounding mountains. Now its wealth comes from visitors who come throughout the year.

You can see how the city is built up the hillsides with houses painted brilliant colours that only work in a place like Mexico..

This is the view from our little balcony above a street above a sweet little plaza. And the green window was just beside it.  And below a couple more street scenes featuring saturated colours. Our street was one that was traversed by wandering minstrels at night singing traditional songs.  There's a lot to experience in this city.

Here's one of the subterranean tunnels. There are actually sidewalks in these that go for about a mile underneath with stop signs and crossings too.  It was ok for driving through but I don't think walking would appeal, even though they have exhaust fans working

Some streets were very steep and narrow. There's even one called the alley of the kiss because it's supposed to be possible to reach across balconies to windows and kiss someone on the other side. We didn't find that one but the one here on right is pretty tight. That's Harry walking through it back into our plaza.

You can see that it's a great place to explore on foot.

I will do one more post on Guanajuato because I want to show the lovely market and central zocalo plus a lovely ex-hacienda that we visited.