BJX From New Eyes

Well here I am again in good old Guanajuato. For the first time since I've been coming down here, a few crewmembers expressed interest in going into town. If I must be honest, I kind of prefer to fly solo around here because I have a bit of a routine when I go into town, but I was open to see how other folks did things.

We hopped in a cab and took it to the Pipila, the monument overlooking the city center. This saved everyone the trek up the steps, but it seemed like cheating.

From the Pipila, we walked down into town and into the University of Guanajuato. It would not have been a normal stop in my itinerary, but I suppose it's good to see new things.

The captain showed us a few places he liked to eat. For the most part, I made a note to not return to these establishments. They were overly touristy and/or only served pizza. In the captain's defense, he eats vegan, so his dietary restrictions don't do him any favors in a place like Mexico.

After walking into a few churches and mulling about, we ate at a restaurant in one of the secluded squares away from the chaos of the main pedestrian zone.

The flight attendant and captain were both somewhat concerned with what to order. Both were vegan and both were nervous about the water, as they discussed how one shouldn't order a salad. Mexico dining 101 really. About 5 minutes after this conversation took place, they each ordered a plate of fruit and a smoothie.  I sat there befuddled. The human mind is a curious thing.

I'm sure they'll be fine, but I just found the progression from, "I brush my teeth with bottled water!" to "I'll have the mango smoothie!" to be a bit nonsensical, but maybe I'm missing something. The streets were very crowded in the main pedestrian zone, and it really wasn't fun. With the easter holidays looming and a flower festival going on, the timing wasn't ideal. I don't like being sandwiched between a lot of people. I've also decided I prefer exploring Guanajuato by myself. This is nothing against my fellow crew mates, who were very friendly and pleasant, but I've clearly become accustomed to doing things my way.

If I had come across the crowds above and I was by myself, I would have hailed a taxi and left. It was torturous being in the crowds and knowing I didn't have that option without seeming antisocial. I persisted.

After what seemed like hours...because it was, we took a taxi home. I noticed that for both directions, the cab fare was 10 pesos more than what I have paid in the past. Were my cab-sharing gringos the cause for this price hike? We will find out next time I go into town.

Something else we will all find out tomorrow . . . how did that mango smoothie go down?

San Antonio for "Spring Break"

I'm a few days late in posting this, but I am ... what's the word . . . ah yes, lazy. Anyway, I once again had an overnight in San Antonio for the first time in a while. Unlike my previous visit in December, it was not cold and rainy. In fact, it was quite pleasant with temperatures in the 80s.

As a crew, we went out for food and beverage. It was nice to be able to sit outside and relax a bit. This was in stark contrast to my previous visit where I was attempting to blow warm air onto my hands to keep them from freezing.

Now the unfortunate downside to this improvement of weather, further exacerbated by the time of year which coincides with many a spring break, there were a lot of people. This made for a lot of slow walking behind people who were lost/drunk/annoying/choosing to walk 6 abreast/oblivious.

I was devilishly thinking to myself about how easy it would be to start pushing people into the river. How many people fall in during a day? I think 17.

One of my greatest pet peeves in life is slow walkers. It's right up there with people who stand real close to me in a line, and people who take longer than 15 seconds to drive away from a parking spot after getting into their car. Maybe I'm not good with people.

When the crew all returned to their rooms, I ventured out for what I hoped would be a relaxing stroll around the river walk. It was still wall-to-wall (or river to restaurant) people. I eventually had to go up some steps and walk on surface streets because the slow walkers and abrupt stoppers were driving me bats (which were also getting in my way, particularly below bridges.)

It's kind of a catch-22 for someone like myself. When the weather's good, the people come out and ruin the atmosphere. As a result, Nicole and I have been forced to travel in off seasons. London in February. Peru in the rainy season. And I can't believe I'm saying this, but maybe San Antonio on a rainy December's day was more photogenic and enjoyable.

Las Momias!

Well here I am, back in Guanajuato, a UNESCO world heritage site, and home of the Museo de las Momias (the mummy museum). I had tried to go a few months back, but it was a Saturday and the lines were out of control just to buy tickets. As today is a Tuesday, I had better luck and was able to see this unique place. I went in not knowing much about the mummies of Guanajuato, so it was a bit of a surprise to discover that this is all a relatively recent process. Evidently, you cannot be interred forever unless family members continue to pay a tax.

 So to make space for new bodies, those that went unclaimed or hadn't paid the tax ended up in a storage building next to a cemetery, which is now the museum. As most bodies in this town were kept in dry, air-tight crypts, the decay was slow and thus mummified these corpses. How this all ended up being a museum is the more intriguing part of the story. And it really just seems to tie in more to the fact that Mexican culture is far more embracing of death as a normal cycle of life than its northern neighbors. The macabre displays are treated with more fascination and reverence than horror.

I have been to many museums showcasing mummies from ancient egyptian times or viewed displays of people who were preserved in the bogs of england, or in lava cavities in Pompeii. For some reason, those exhibits interested me and I did not have a feeling of unease like I did here in Guanajuato. For the historical exhibits I mentioned, there was a feeling that the displays contributed to greater scientific or historical understanding. In Guanajuato, I was viewing bodies whose families simply didn't pay a tax. These are bodies from the 19th and 20th centuries, not ancient periods of time.

The clothes were still visible on many of the bodies. Some were just babies, dressed up as saints because it was believed it would make for easier passage into heaven.

It was absolutely bizarre to see these kinds of things. Based upon the timeline, the child's parents could hypothetically still be alive. Should we go pay a visit to the cemetery to see little Pedro? Oh that's right, he's not there anymore. Do you have 60 pesos, so we can pay him a visit in the museum?

Another section showed the body of a woman lying down with her hands up over her face. It was believed she had been unintentionally buried alive due to a rare medical condition that made her heart appear to stop. Based on the movement of the arms, it was deduced that she was not actually dead, but unfortunately now finds herself in a museum . . . very much dead.

It was all . . .  interesting to say the least. The museum ended with a photo op with empty coffins and one with a mummy in it (labeled a replica, but it would not have shocked me if it wasn't). After the photo op was a gift shop featuring skeleton t-shirts, mummy dolls to hang on your rear-view mirror, and other curiosities.

It was different than most museums I have been to in recent memory. I learned more about Mexican culture than I did about the mummies themselves. The other visitors gazed closely at the mummies with a respect and fascination whereas I was more bewildered by the whole thing. I have much to learn about the rest of the world.