I’m back in Mexico; last year’s Día de Muertos celebrations in Oaxaca were so much fun that this year I managed to convince Bunny to come along with me. This year, we are visiting Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende to see what day of the dead is like in this part of Mexico!

Our first stop was in Guanajuato City, which is located in central Mexico, a couple of hours from the slightly more well-known San Miguel de Allende.

Guanajuato is a beautiful, lively, bustling little city. I was imagining it to be a quaint and quiet town, but on the weekend it was full of Mexican tourists and students who packed the streets wall to wall, with music, food, and street performers on every corner. The atmosphere was decidedly more relaxed on the weekday, when everyone returned to work and school. While it felt like a hotspot for visitors, we were surprised by how few Western tourists we encountered during our time there. There wasn’t much going on yet for Día de Muertos (we were there Oct 27-30), but we greatly enjoyed exploring the city.

One of the main plazas in Guanajuato city

Not the most beautiful photo, but this is a great example of what we encountered while walking around, tons of people enjoying a concert in the street.

DAY 1

We arrived in the evening our first day, and strolled around a bit to get our bearings. We didn’t have much time before we headed out to our dinner reservation at Las Mercedes, which is supposed to be *amazing.* We liked it just fine, but it didn’t stand out as one of the most remarkable meals I’ve ever had, and it was quite a cab ride away.

DAY 2

On our first full day, we woke up to find that Daylight Savings had occurred overnight, thanks to my not-smart watch. Having enjoyed a bonus hour of sleep, we set out in search of some coffee and breakfast. However we were surprised to see that the restaurants were all super packed- I guess the brunch scene in Guanajuato is just as bumpin’ as SF!

We settled for some coffees to-go and headed over to Mercado Hidalgo which has plenty of options for quick and cheap bites. The quesadilla stand I picked actually turned out to be not-so-quick, but worth the wait….yum!

We strolled around the market and the town center a little more before deciding it was time to eat again, so had a proper meal of Enchiladas Mineras at Truco 7.

Next it was time for some proper sightseeing! One of the popular things to do in Guanajuato is to appreciate the city from the viewpoint at the El Pipila statue that stands above the city. It was a quick FUNicular ride to the top for amazing views! People also brought the party up there, with a speaker, singing, dancing, and even some hula hooping.

On our way to the funicular, we got asked by a guy with a camera to be in a video for his YouTube channel, so he interviewed us about what day we would re-live if we could go back to a single day in our life, and what advice we have to people for living in the moment. Luckily his channel only has about 25 subscribers so I don’t think our advice will be the next viral hit.

Before you ask, no, you cannot see the YouTube video.

After our visit to El Pipila, it seemed about time to eat/drink again, we we headed back down to try to grab a drink at Bar Luna, which is on a very cute plaza called Jardin de la Union. The wait was over an hour, so we settled for the nearly-identical bar next door, Bar van Gogh, where the drinks were pretty bad, but the guac was very good.

They didn’t have any cocktails on the menu, so I ordered us tequila and what was supposed to be pineapple juice but just tasted like tang.

After our weird drinks, we strolled around and ended up stopping for much better mojitos at a very cute bar called La Champa.

We knew our trip wouldn’t be complete without checking out the night tour, Las Callejoneadas: a long-standing tradition in Guanjauato. The group dresses like medieval minstrels, and they sing, dance, and give a funny history of the city. Well, I gathered it was very funny, but we couldn’t really understand much since it was completely in Spanish.

To finish off our first night we had a great dinner at Los Campos and, obviously, some more margaritas.

DAY 3

Monday, we decided to escape the hustle and bustle of the city a bit, and, after an omelette stop at La Erre, headed back up the funicular and continued on past the viewpoint for some hiking in an area called El Cerro de la Bufa.

I got SUPER CONFUSED because I had read about a place called El Cerro de la Bufa in a totally different part of Mexico. So I was expecting there to be a tram, and a bunch of people, a museum, and a food stand with really amazing corn. But there is none of that in the Guanajuato El Cerro de la Bufa, so I was convinced we were in the wrong place, until I looked up the other place on a map. OUR El Cerro de la Bufa was just a small hike with a nice view of the city.

Look at this cool rock. Where’s the delicious corn I was promised?

Having had our fill of physical activity, it was clearly time for…TACOS. We walked back over to Mercado Hidalgo to try out a carnitas stand recommended by our AirBnb, called Carnitas Patlan

After eating our fill of carnitas, we did a little shopping for Day of the Dead themed earrings, then hopped in a taxi to Ex-Hacienda San Gabriel de Barrera. As the name implies, it used to be the home San Gabriel de Barrera. We didn’t get much history about the man, but had a great time exploring the many different styles of garden he planted on the property.

We finished off our trip with some more bad cocktails by the jardin at Bar Tradicional Luna, but enjoyed them greatly thanks to our personal serenade by a mariachi band. Then we did the thing where you wander around trying to find something to eat- and ended up having some guac and margs at a cute place called La Santurrona.

The next morning we packed up, ate some breakfast on one of the plazas and hopped on the bus to San Miguel de Allende for the second part of our trip!

Quick links to where we ate/drank/slept:

Bars:

Bar van Gogh

Restaurants:

Mercado Hidalgo: Carnitas Patlan