Guanajuato, Puerta Vallarta and Guadalajara

Here are the photos of my trip from after Chihuahua up to when I headed into Chiapas in the deep south of Mexico. I went to Guanajuato, Puerta Vallarta and Guadalajara during this period.

One of the many beautiful plazas of Guanajuato.


One of the many theatres, more than you would expect from a small city.


The view from the way up to the monument.


I really fell in love with Guanajuato, I think it has an amazing character largely due to this part of town.


One of the many churches


From the square in from of the Theatro Cervantes, many parts of Guanajuato relate to the story of Don Quixote.


This is what I imagine many towns in Italy and Spain looked like in the 1500s when this town really began to take off.

The famous Alley of the Kisses. Where the fable goes that two lovers lived in the two patios that almost touch but their love was not allowed by there families or something equally tragic.


Another gorgeous plaza.


Guanajuato from the hill which holds La Valenciana.


One of the mine shafts which payed for Guanajuato's beautiful buildings.

Sometimes the cost wasn't just gold...one of the shrines used by the miner's to pray for their safety.


Guanajuato has a famous Mummy Museum due to a natural pheonemon in which a lot of bodies in a period of time didn't decay but mummified instead.


Another plaza. Do you get the impression I was impressed with the Guanajuato lifestyle?


Off to Puerta Vallarta for a couple of days on the beach.


To be honest I wasn't that impressed, but to be fair I stayed in the part of town away from many of the more expensive hotels and I imagine cleaner/nicer beaches.


On the way from Puerta Vallarta to Guadalajara I passed through Tequila where all the real Tequila in the world is produced, it is quite interesting to see cactus actually cultivated. So to all the party animals here is a photo of promised land.


Guadalajara's Plaza de la Liberacion.


The Cathedral from behind.


Weeeeeee.


Plaza de la Tapatia (Intituto Cultural Cabanas)


The instituto from inside, murals by Jose Clemente Orozco are featured and this one is rather biblical.


Jaliscenses Ilustres a monument to prestigious Jaliscenses throughout the years.


Angel my guide for the weekend in Guadalajara, also thanks to Cesar for putting me up without ever having met me and still not calling the getting me comitted!

Chihuahua and Copper Canyon

From Monterrey to Chihuahua where I was met by Ale at the Bus station. We spent the day seeing part of downtown Chihuahua including the Hidalgo museum.

Ale, Priscilla and Claudia my gorgeous guides for the afternoon.

On Friday Claudia, her sister Michelle and her boyfriend Alvaro showed me some of the caves near Chihuahua.

On the weekend I went up to David's ranch.

A blue heeler! Candy was a little bundle of energy.

Yeeeehaw.

The ranch was really big and I only ever saw a small part of it but it was really good to have some peace and quiet.

Some nice views of Cuahtemoc.

And again at night.

Ale showed me the town's Cathedral

Ale and Priscilla took me to a cafe with a beautiful view of town.


On thursday I headed up to Creel near Copper Canyon. This is part of the Tarahumaran communal land.



The communal land is host to a number of amazing rock formations.

Like these.

and these.

Also Lake Arareko.

On Friday I took a 5 hours tour of the Copper Canyon. We stopped at 5 different view points and I took a *lot* of photos. These are just a small sample because photos can't capture the size of this canyon.

Me goofing around.







This was scarier than it looks, the rock I am standing on moves more than enough to be unsettling.

My favourite part of the photo is ^^ that little silver dot is someone's house, talk about location.


A tarahumaran woman working on some baskets. I would've liked to buy a some of their crafts but unfortunately when you are travelling for another 7 months it just isn't practical.


These red coloured trees were all around the canyon, the copper colour has nothing to do with the name though.





This is Cynthia.

Claudia had to put up with me and Cynthia for the night, she is a good friend.


And again. Chihuahua was a heap of fun and I met a lot of great people. Ten days spent there was probably too much but I really felt like I was at home. This is largely due to David's family being such fantastic hosts.

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