Tour de Guanajuato, Part II

This morning I woke up around 6:30 to go out taking pictures. Normally I would be a little reserved about going out alone, but this city feels really safe. There is a lot more money here compared to many of the other cities we have traveled to. Guanajuato is where the richer Mexicans come to vacation and the city does a great job of attracting tourism by keeping things clean and safe. At first I was worried that with my absolute lack of directions I would get lost and not able to find my way back to our hotel. The city is a labyrinth of side streets and staircases that climb forever. If you are on foot, there are no dead ends, no matter what alley you go down. Each alley/street is either going up or down, with only a small part of the valley being flat, down by the city's main square.

I managed to get a couple tunnel shots off, and a couple other cool shots during the 1st hour, but overall I was disappointed with the pictures I took. I think I regressed in my photo skills while sticking my nose in medical books for the past 2 months. The second hour was a little better as I climbed up into some of back alleyways behind our hotel. For some of those people who live in some of those houses, the nearest road is probably a 5-10 minute walk through the skinny walkways between other people's houses.

After getting back to the hotel and washing up, we headed off to breakfast on one of the city squares. On the way down, we saw lots of people on bikes, but thought little of it. Then as we were eating, it seemed the entire city started to come out into the streets, and the number of bikers grew exponentially. by the time we were done, it was difficult to get out of the restaurant due to the crowds. We hung around to watch (to our disbelief) that they were setting up for a bike race through the city. Keep in mind the first two paragraphs of this post where I talked about how narrow the little alleyways were and how there are only limited roadways...

The first couple races were warm-up races for kids and other age groups. They went around the blocks a couple times, getting the crowds excited for the main attraction to come. It was cute, but the most excitement came when the adult that was showing the kids the route to take totally biffed it just after starting the race - please see the video in the previous post. When they let the main race group go, they released them in groups of about 30-40 bikers at 5 minute intervals. As far as we could tell, they probably let out about 200 bikers. After a good half hour or so, the first group of bikers they let out returned for the second lap. It was pretty fun as they whole town cheered on the bikers. It was kind of funny, because nobody really marked off the race route and nobody was keeping the route clear of pedestrians. We saw a good half dozen people almost get run over by bikers. It was funny watching the giant crowd boo at the people for getting in the way. 

Eventually we tore ourselves from the crowd and did a little shopping. After dropping our recently purchased souvenirs off at the hotel, we headed out for lunch. As we started to walk down some remote/narrow alleyways, some of the people on the street were telling us to be careful because bikers were coming down the walkway. We looked at them in complete disbelief only to find ourselves moments later almost getting mowed down by bikers with full suspension bikes coming down a huge string of stairs that we were climbing. We were so surprised/bewildered/impressed/shocked all at the same time. I can't believe the route took them up and down those narrow alleyways through the city. As we continued to walk (much more cautiously this time) we came upon another set of stairs (not near as hard core as the first set, but still kind of crazy to ride your bike down) and waited for the bikers. This time, I was ready with our video camera and my D200. Previously, I posted some video of that second set of stairs.

ESPN needs to get on these Guanajuato bike races. They were awesome. In fact, I don't think there was any video coverage from any local news stations. I would think that in a city like this, with a bike race going through it, and being as hard core as the route is, they could really draw some serious worldwide attention. Will and I kept joking about coming back next year and entering the race. I guess the only thing that would hold me back was all the ambulances we heard throughout the city the entire day - after we climbed that first set of stairs, we heard someone biff it on their way down. We also saw a couple different guys who had bloody legs/arms.

We finally made it to lunch on the other side of town. We had to walk through a really busy  marketplace that made everyone a little uneasy. After lunch, we decided to walk/hike to a large statue on the hill called "El Pipila," which means "turkeycock" in Spanish. Turns out this statue was made in honor of a peasant who helped the Mexicans gain their independence by burning down the gates to the granary where the Spanish were holding out. The hike to the top of the hill/mountain that it was on was straight up a ton of little back alleys, which made for a good hike. The hike was worth it as the views of the city were spectacular. 

Haley keeps raving about Guanajuato and how she has a new favorite city - move over Charleston. I also like the city a lot. It has a nice charm to it and all the people are really friendly. I think it has to do with the city being so rich and accomodating to tourists.