I’ll be honest, Ali and I really don’t know how to be vacation people. We’re finding that around here, when the kids have a school break everyone seems to take that as a cue to spend one week somewhere else. I struggle to wrap my head around the idea. Frankly, it sounds horrible. Two days of traveling, five days of overpriced, overcrowded tourist spot. Ouest will tell me I have to get over it. She’s right. I admit it.

With the clock running out on their Christmas break, we had to do something. So we jumped in the car and drove to Guanajuato. It’s an hour away. It’s practically a staycation. But hey, it’s our first school break. We’ll try and figure out how to do this next time. I hear Semana Santa is a great time to hit the beach. That’s a heavily laced sarcastic comment.

Okay, they’re being good sports.

Guanajuato is a beautiful city. The whole place is wedged in between mountains and the majority of what you’d want to see is along a strip just a few blocks wide and maybe twenty blocks long down in the bottom of it. We’ve never been here during the rainy season, but it must be quite a show down there at the bottom when the water rushes down the cobblestone streets from the top.

Guanajuato is a “just wander around town” kind of place. It’s all about the colors.

This hotel actually threw a little snow machine up on the wall. Whatever works to get you in that festive spirit.

Christmas 2025, sponsored by Coca-Cola.

January 2nd, but the New Year’s crowd was still around and having a good time.

Quick morning walk to the panaderia for some bread and coffee.

The two-story Mercado Hidalgo was originally supposed to be a train station. Some try to attribute the building to Eiffel (of tower fame), but it sounds like records suggest it’s much more local. Either way, kind of a cool building, and serious overkill for a market.

Alhóndiga de Granaditas Regional Museum. This was a good museum and has some fantastic history behind it. The building was built as a granary. Thick walls and few windows to protect the town’s grain supply. A year after it was finished, the revolution began. Spanish loyalists barricaded themselves inside as Hidalgo’s army approached. They couldn’t get into the building, which is when a legend was born. A local miner, El Pipila, strapped a large stone to his back and crawled to the huge wooden doors, then set them on fire.

The doors burned and Hidalgo’s insurgents stormed the building and slaughtered everyone inside.

Four of the most famous revolutionaries in Mexico, Hidalgo, Allende, Aldama, and Jimenez were caught the next year. Their heads were chopped off and hung in iron cages from the four corners of the building where they stayed for the next ten years.

Mexico’s fight for independence is riddled with great stories like this one.

When we saw this photo dated 1908 we were immediately struck by the power lines. Confused, we turned to the interwebs for answers. Turns out the state of Guanajuato was one of the earliest adopters due mainly to the needs of the mines.

Callejón del Beso. This alley is home to Mexico’s “Romeo and Juliet.” Two lovers, wealthy and poor, two balconies, angry father, murder, broken heart. Another Mexican legend that has it all.

Literally the only awesome thing missing from one of my favorite childhood television shows, CHiPs.

And that was it for our quick overnighter in Guanajuato. Great city. The kids had no memory of their previous visit, so it was nice to hear them both agree that it’s a nice town and was, “Better than we thought it would be.”