First month in Mexico

After Mexico City we headed north to a pretty little town called San Miguel De Allende. This was a nice chilled out place with lots of quaint and quirky shops selling handicrafts and jewellery, pottery and lots of different types of art, this is a great place to relax which is why it was voted in the top 20 places to retire in the world, this explains why there are so many wealthy old Americans, they were everywhere! Women covered in thick makeup, plastic surgery evident and the men smoking huge cigars and talking really loudly about how rich they are!?! Due to the ex-pat influence and money in the town there were lots of great places to eat, we tried a restaurant called El Pegaso and the food was gorgeous, it topped our list for the best scran of the trip so far. We had shark for the first time, really delicious, we will be looking out for that on the menu in future! To top it off they had home-made lemon meringue pie for desert, my favourite!

After San Miguel we travelled to Guanajuato, this was just like an old medieval English town, its architecture of winding streets a couple of meters wide, built on lots of different levels with jutting overhangs of balconies. It was very easy to get lost here and we did a number of times! Here´s a romantic story for you, due to the streets being so close, some of the house balconies touch at the top, a few hundred years ago, a young couple fell in love, the problem was the father did not like the lad as he worked in the local mine and the daughter was part of a rich family, so he forbade them from seeing each other, the miner didn’t let this stop him and rented a room in the house next to the girls. The two balconies were less than a foot apart so they sneaked kisses (besos) each night. As with most love stories, it ended tragically although I´m not sure how. The two houses are now a tourist trap where you can go and kiss then some bloke takes your photo! We went and kissed as you do but took my own photo, ever the pickey!

The town is built into a mountain side so there are lots of steep winding streets, with tunnels that the traffic uses. Quite hard to explain as there is nothing like it in England! The main reason that people settled here is due to the huge amount of silver, gold and other expensive minerals in the hills. At one point the mine produced over 20% of the worlds silver, so you never know you may have a piece of Guanajuato silver in your jewellery box! For Mexico this place is famous as the starting point of the Mexican Revolution against the Spanish in 1810 by Miguel Hidalgo. The movement only lasted a year as the four main leaders including Hidalgo were captured and executed, their heads were displayed in metal cages at each corner of the towns fort as a warning to any up and coming rebels. This only spurred the rebels on more and the rebellion lasted 11 years and the Spanish finally gave up and left.

Next was Zacatecas, another silver town. We timed our arrival for their biggest yearly festival, ´La Morisma´, I´ve never seen anything like it, around 40,000 people were involved in the re-enactment of the battles that the Spanish fought against the Moors. I´m not sure why they didn’t pick a famous Mexican battle, oh well!? It all began in the morning when both armies paraded the streets dressed in full battle regalia, they took turns to march through the town, I couldn’t believe the sheer numbers involved, each had the correct uniform for their battalion, there were kids as young as 2 marching, with their Dads, they were all so serious, acting like a true army. There were lots of different regiments, each with their own military band, really realistic. The two armies converged on one of the hills near town and the battle begins, they stormed each others castles with explosions and bangs, very impressive and as you may have guessed the Christians won! Also at the battlefield was other entertainment, similar to the travelling fairs at home, lots of silly games and strange and wonderful food to eat, none of it healthy!

As the festival is also a religious event there were also lots of people on pilgrimage, they travelled the 2 miles from the town Cathedral then climbed the steep hill to the battlefield on their hands and knees, in the mud and rain trying to reach the small church at the top. The terrain was really rough and they looked in agony, they had friends and family members placing old blankets in front of them as they hobbled to ease some of the pain, it didn’t look like it worked to me. Their faith and commitment was very honourable.

The day after the festival we went down one of the mines here, the mine had similar horror stories to home, the indigenous people being treated like slaves with the kids having to work from a young age, most not reaching adolescence. Around 5 people or more died each day whilst working in the horrendous conditions. The tour was in Spanish but still very inciteful (Michelle translated some of it!?), it gave us a good idea of the local history. One of Zacatecas´ hidden gems is Parque Juarez, small but nice, lots of green with a very pretty pinkish stone church on the hillside overlooking the park. The best thing was the water fountains, similar to the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, except on a much, much smaller scale! For those who don’t know about the Bellagio Hotel its where the fountains ´dance´ to classical music and look like fireworks as the water explodes with multi-coloured lights beneath the water. It was a great place to sit for a while and relax. Every city should have one! Its much better than Piccadilly Gardens with its semi naked kids running everywhere in every weather and the pigeons crapping all over too!

From Zacatecas we had another mammoth journey, in total 17 hours of travel, first was the 11 hour bus ride north to Chihuahua, famous for the midget dogs! We had an hours wait with the usual assortment of wierdos in the bus station at 4.30 am, then another 5 hours bus trip West to Creel, a small railway town surrounded by mountain in the middle of some of the most amazing scenery I´ve ever seen. Since we researched Mexico this was one of the must-see places, famous for the Barranca Del Cobre, Copper Canyon Railway, one of the most scenic journeys in the world. The journey covers 20 canyons, 9 of which are deeper than the Grand Canyon! It covers vastly different biospheres, from an altitude of 2300m to close to sea level. When I think of canyons I always picture the barroness of the Grand Canyon, this was totally different, it was completely covered in greenery, from pine trees and ferns to cactus, with the odd cascading waterfall to break up the greenery! The journey lasted 12 hours in total, 10 of these were breathtaking the other 2 I couldn’t say as it went dark! It was something I´ll remember and hope to do again some time as there is so much to see and its difficult to take it all in. The journey took us from the highlands of Creel to Los Mochis on the Pacific coast.

Before the train journey we spent 3 nights in Creel, the scenery was amazing and we had a great time here. The first day we toured one of the close by Canyons at Divisadero where we got our first glimpse of the size and impressiveness of it. One of the stops was a place called balancing rock, as you might have guessed this was where a rock balanced on another on the edge of a rock face very high up. When you stand on it you can shift your weight so that it pivots like a see-saw, the guide we had did this and we all thought he was mad as it looked a bit too close to the edge for my liking and thought it can´t balance like that forever! I still jumped on the rock for a photo opportunity but didn’t have the guts to make it wobble as my legs were doing enough wobbling on their own! Looking back I should have given it a go but at the time there was no chance!

The second day we went horse riding, my first real time on a horse as I can only remember being walked around on one when I was younger, similar to the donkeys at Blackpool. This was a bit different to say the least. Michelle is very much at home with horses so was loving every minute, so was I at first, strolling and taking in the fantastic scenery, brilliant rock formations, flowery meadows and picture perfect lakes. It all changed when we galloped, very fast! Al I could do was hold on for dear life and try to enjoy the rush as much as possible. Michelle said I looked like a scarecrow bouncing all over the place with no control what so ever! I can´t really disagree as the horse that I named ´Seabiscuit´ had a mind of his own and went wherever he chose! I just kept saying to myself the horse isn’t going to hurt itself on purpose so just go with the flow! Afterwards my thighs were killing and my bum looked like Id spent a few months in prison! I couldn’t sit properly for a week, Michelle was sore too so that made me feel a bit better! She said for my first time she was amazed Id managed to stay on as the saddles weren’t the best, she burst into laughter now and again just picturing me bouncing about like a rag doll, so glad she enjoyed the show!

The third day we went hiking to a canyon named La Bufa, 3 hours from Creel, once again so spectacular, so much greenery for miles and miles, so hard to put into words just breathtaking, I could spend forever here.

After the train journey we arrived into Los Mochis at 11pm and managed to get an overnight bus South towards Puerta Vallarta (14 hours away). The bus journey wasn’t as bad as most as once the sun rose the scenery was great. They should rename the Pacific Coast the green coast as everywhere was covered in an array of different shades of green with lots of types of trees and shrubs. It made me think of what a beautiful place this is and how luck I am to see it, not something I think too much about usually at 6am, especially on a bus! It put me in a great mood and revitalised the energy of a now old 30 year old!

When we arrived we were back into baking heat as you´d expect on the coast. Not really much to report here, a big tourist destination aimed at the Americans, the ATMS even distribute dollars! Luckily for us we arrived in the off season and the place was like a ghost town, lots of the shops and restaurants were closed, it was nice enough to chill out after our long journey.

From Puerta Vallarta we travelled South to Zihuatanejo, you film buffs will know it as the place Red goes to find Andy in Shawshank Redemption, the reason for us to come really! Hollywood must have filmed it somewhere else though as the beach is nothing like the film! –its now a tourist/backpackers haven, I suppose in the 1950s when I think the Shawshank bit is based on it would have looked different!?

I will update with the last few weeks in Mexico soon.