FOOTPATHS

Guanajuato Guanajuato is an United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site, due to its historic role in Mexico’s history. A gracious opera house, a basilica, a good stock of colonial and baroque buildings, plazas and little plazuelas, museums, converted haciendas, and grand and small churches all dot the urban landscape. The wealth that built Guanajuato came from massive deposits of silver and gold under and around the city. Spanish aristocracy arrived in the mid-16th century and virtually enslaved indigenous people as miners. Labor in the mines was so brutal that life expectancy was less than three years. A walking tour of La Valencia Mine shows visitors medieval conditions. Silver and gold mining continues today with modern equipment.

Altitude 6,500 Feet:
Breathe Deep and Walk

By Francie Royce

In a fold of hills in Central Mexico lies colorful Ciudad de Guanajuato. It is a wondrous city to explore on foot and hills surrounding the city are ribboned with trails.

Unique to Guanajuato is a subterranean road system created from a diverted river following the great inundacion, or flood, of 1905. Cars and buses use the tunnels, removing most traffic from surface streets. Narrow streets with even narrower sidewalks make walking on those surface streets that do carry traffic less than perfect, but traffic is slow, drivers generally cautious, and their attitude is surprisingly courteous to pedestrians. El Centro has a good number of pedestrian-only streets, adding to walkers’ enjoyment.

Best of all, though, are the callejons, narrow alleys that twist up, down and along the contours of hillsides to reach colonias or neighborhoods. Houses and other buildings crawl up the hillsides with bright splashes of color. Canary yellow, yam orange, lime green and blue-green turquoise walls stand up flat against the sun-scorched brown-and-grey rock hills. Flat roofs, home to dogs that lie stretched out sunning themselves, top stucco walls lining callejons. You can spend hours wandering and peeking into open doorways.

Hills and climbing, more hills and more stairs; up and down. Alertness to where you put your feet is a must with uneven cobble stones, cracked concrete, and stairs with various riser heights. Traffic on some streets requires that a walker to pay attention. At about 6,500 feet elevation, it will take new visitors several days to acclimate for vigorous walks.

Start Your Exploration with a Funicular Ride
For a good overview of the city, ride up the Funicular Panorámico, a one car trolley, and get a sense of the lay of the land. Enter the 12 peso ride behind Teatro Juarez. Exit the funicular at the top and climb up a flight of stone steps to La Pipila, a huge stone sculpture looming over the city. Pause at the tree-shaded plaza and read his history. If your knees are ready for it, walk back down along a callejon leading off to the right of the steps to the funicular.

Back Into the City Take
Time to Explore the Callejons.
One favorite route off the beaten track is up through the La Alameda neighborhood to the Church of Guadalupe. Start at Plaza La Baratilla, a lively place in the daytime with students, children chasing pigeons, vendors, and shoppers out and about. A fountain is the centerpiece. Bouquets of white calla lilies and a mixed palette of zinnias surround flower sellers against one wall; boxes of oranges and lemons are stacked on the steps of a frutería on another. Move up the callejon, exiting the plaza to your right beside Frutería Torres. You’ll pass fruit, pepper, and mole vendors lining the street for the first hundred yards then merge into Calle Alameda at a tiny plazuela. Cars coming downhill veer off into a tunnel just as you walk under a bridge. Climb further to Calle Cuacamaza and turn left, past a lavender house with yellow window trimmings, and enter a callejon that leads straight up 42 concrete steps where a cross in a shady plazuela greets you at the top. Catch your breath and the aroma of baking bread from La Infancia Panadería wafting across the plazuela, then move towards the corner with the mustard gold house and continue up, left again at your first calle. Go up this steep winding street, and when you reach the top and another small plaza you’re in view of your destination. Turquoise tiled belfries and a clock tower top the soft rose colored stone Church of Guadalupe.

Make your way down Calzada de Guadalupe for a breezy view of the city below, past residences and small shops with their walls straight against the stone sidewalk. Open windows and doors provide glimpses into ordinary life. Further along, pass under three short tunnels below university buildings and come to Subida Hospitales. The small façade of a 1565 hospital chapel is just up the lane. Backtrack to Calzada de Guadalupe and continue down one block along the side of massive university steps to Calle Pozitos.

Turn right, past Museo del Pueblo de Guanajuato (worth a visit) then past Callejon La Condesa. Cross Calle Juan Valle, the Diego Rivera Museum (also worth a visit) and go up the slope to Callejon Cantaritos, then left. At one twist and turn you pass Clave Azul, a bar decorated with Mexican movie star posters and old radios. Past the blue building you’ll enter the funniest portion of a callejon in the city, molded to fit the hips and shoulders of a body, then spill out into the best plaza in the city, peaceful Plazuela San Francisco. Outdoor cafes surrounding the square will serve you a well deserved cold limonada or cerveza.

A Tip for Walkers
Feel free to explore the callejons on your own. If you get lost, keep wandering, try your Spanish, or use sign language. When those legs get tired, a good back up to walking is a public bus system, with all buses ending up back in El Centro (4 pesos a ride.) Alternatively, a green and white or white taxi can be hailed to anywhere in the city for 30 pesos. The city isn’t large and eventually you’ll find your way. Buen Viaje.

Francie Royce is a co-founder of npGreenway, the Friends of the North Portland Willamette Greenway Trail. Visit her travel blog at www.francieroyce.blogspot.com and www.npGreenway.org.