After our lovely time in nature, we then when on a city crawl – this was just how it all worked out as we slowly moved East across the country, taking in some of the places that people have mentioned to us. There was a heatwave throughout our urban adventures (approx 35-40degrees), which made for a sticky time and means everyone is very much in anticipation of the wet season, which seems to arrive later and with less gusto each year. Currently 70% of the country is in drought.
Urban time is sparse on words – photos speak louder.
Querétaro – we only had a swift afternoon in Querétaro but it made quite the impression – we instantly both loved it and swore to come back.
San Miguel de Allende: We’d heard a lot about this town, any foreigner does when you come to Mexico – it’s inhabitants are mainly Americans and Canadians. There was a mass descent in the 60s/70s thanks to (a now closed) art school. It is pretty but it feels very curated. We were not so keen on this place. It felt like the film Cocoon and not really like the Mexico we’d chosen to live in.
Guanajuato: A thriving UNESCO university city, which was a lovely contrast after San Miguel. Explosions of colour, parades and art everywhere.
Guadalajara: Mexico’s second largest city and as a result there is a healthy dose of competition between itself and CDMX, especially when it comes to food and art. We stayed in Colonia Americana which was once voted by Timeout as the worlds hippest neighbourhood (!) – it felt very much like East London 10 years ago, everyone wore black, people rode fixie bikes and minimalist establishments are hidden from tourists and google maps. After feeling initially intimidated by the coolness, we broke the back of the city by meeting a couple of said cool cats and hanging out with their arty friends for the evening. Turns out once you are in the crew, it feels better.
Plaza de Armas with elaborate kiosk gifted from France
Palacio de Gobierno
Inside the Palacio is José Clemente Orozco’s awesome 1937 mural
…..which foreshadowed the horror of WWII
More Orozco’s handiwork in Hospicio Cabaña (an old orphanage)
A gallery held more of Orozco’s work – incredible artist
(not an Orozco)
Gothic Expiatorio Templo
An array of dragonfruits, squished by hand into a delicious drink!
Guadalajara ended up captivating and really intriguing us, we felt like we had just scratched the surface…. we could have stayed longer but it was so so hot, we decided the sensible thing to do after so much back to back urbanity, was to flee to the beach and the cooling sea. We are going to return in 2 weeks, via the mountains and lakes of Jalisco (the state of Guadalajara), hopefully the rains will have come then and armed with our new chums we should be able to crack the underbelly of the city more.