(4)

The big white building is one of the many university's. We were up on the view point where you could really see how the city was built in a valley and how the water could cause flooding problems

 With the city built so tightly most street are very narrow, on a few streets they are so narrow that neighbours can hand things back and forth from balconies.  These narrow street only allow walking traffic so how do you move goods around.

Walking is a favorite of locals, most climb up down numerous stairs cases and from what our tour guide told us they are seldom empty handed and they tend to sit down and rest occasionally.

Donkeys moving freight.

The pink building on the left is one of the few mining sites that is still producing silver

Every type of traffic.

A beer keg parade. Debbie needed to hold Lynn back.

Whats wrong with this picture?

Lynn is walking the wrong way.

(3)

Guanajuato is famous for its network of tunnels that were built in 1956 to help keep the traffic problems under the center of town.

The first tunnel was built on the old river bed that was left after they detoured the river. There are enough tunnels that they have to have street names at entrances and also at junctions inside the tunnels

Not a lot of lite is used in the tunnels we came to some areas where there was parking and stairs to reach the city above.

In the old part of town there are not many roads that two vehicles can drive down at the same time

(2)

We arrived just after dark in Guanajuato, because we were a group of three we had to split up as they do not have vans for taxis, our hotel was just down the street from this theater.  We first thought the area did not look safe because of all the young people around. It's amazing how areas always look better in the daylight

Every night the steps of the theatre were covered by young people, there are over 30,000 students here in Guanajuato.  

These two do not play in a band they are in a theatre show

In the evening we had young adults and during the day young children

This was the church that the Pope was to be holding a mass in late March. Ted and Maureen received a blessing for Ash Wednesday here. They were both amused by the stamp and ink that was used instead of a finger and ash

Architectural students

Drawing the church above, they were out drawing  at 8:30am

(1) Late Feb Road trip to Guanajuato , San Miguel de Allende

For the last four winter seasons we have made some type of a land trip this year we decided to take a bus trip to the centre of Mexico. Instead of just us two we were in the company of our boat friends Tom and Pam from Kewao, and Ted and Maureen from Tarry- A-Bit. The area we travelled to is where the independence of Mexico was born.  So first we need to get there. After some research we decided on Primera Plus.Prior to boarding, they hand out lunch or snack bags depending on the lenght of your trip. Separate bathrooms for men and women, foot rests, reclining seats and yes we even had movies, even thought they were in Spanish.

Our trip was to the area in that is the geographic centre of the country 

Black Strap Ski Hill

The landscape  from La Cruz to Guadalajara where we changed bus to head to  Guanajuato reminded all 6 of us of areas in Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba.

Washed out field in Manitoba

Rolling hills in Alberta

Who`s going to russell up these cows

Getting ready for the rodeo

Bad Lands ?  No, really volcanic rock

Getting ready for a rodeo

Old time farming when crops were hand picked

Bus terminal, which one is ours?

This farmer is land rich while his neighbour is machinery rich. We have been told that both farmers work together.

Really looks like the Badlands around Drumheller

Yelpa

Debbie had read all the guide books and everyone said that you must see Yelpa! Tom and Pam had been there 4 years earlier and said it was a quaint little place and very picturesque. After much thinking and weather watching we decide that Ted and Maureens' Boat Tarry-Bit would be the best boat to take all 7 of us over in. When we awoke that morning we both wanted to stay home as we were not feeling to great. The weather was a little dicey but off we went

Yelpa

This is the area that they say you can anchor in and then crawl up the dock, Ted tied up to a fisherman's buoy and then he took us to shore in his panga. He also arranged a guide for us which we really did not need.

 On our walk up to and back from  the water fall we were able to see different angles of the beach front. We did agree that if the sun had been shining it would have made for some great photos

Our guide told us that these are called angle of death trumpets, not sure if this is true or not.

In our travels we have found that if the Mexicans have a tourist spot they tend to make it hard to take a picture of the complete site with out capturing some modern building or someone selling items. The waterfall area was no different, to get a picture of the whole waterfall, we would have had picnic tables and banners for coke in them.

This little boy and his dog just could not get enough of the water nor, did they use the steps and side-walk?  No, the rocks were more fun to jump on.

Housing and hotels ranged from well maintained to a little run downed. Now speaking of run down We had 7 people on this boat going over these 5  were a little under the weather on the way backall 7  were feeling bad. We felt it was a combination of the food we had for lunch and the seas that had not calmed down.

Early Feb to Feb 14

We made three or four trips into Puerto Vallarta the trip takes about ninety minutes and twice the bus driver pulled in to get diesel which he paid for with coins we think it cost about 800 pesos that is a lot of coin.  Last year we saw a car with birthday wishes on it this year it was Happy Valentines and congratulations..

The beach off the malacon had sand sculptures on one sandy area and a mother and daughter on the other sandy spot that stacked up the rocks to look like Inukshuk,which the tide knocks down each time it comes in. Both groups had buckets placed  where us nice tourists could leave money.

We chuckled when we saw this young boy outside his class room. All the schools in Mexico are closed in and have bars on the windows, here it looks like the class rooms are built like zoo cages  who let the children out.

We found that there were not many tourist in Mexico this year ,even  Puerto Vallarta was down the shop keepers spent so much time waiting for us gringos that they lost mucho kilos. 

We both wondered how much product you would have to sell to keep a store like this open.  We do not think they are making their quota this year.

Pam and her daughter Marilyn wanted to go cloth shopping so Debbie took them to a few shops she had pasted in her travels. Elmo was visiting this store and gladly stepped in for a photo with them

Once again the Mexicans make us a laugh at their signs

Late Jan early Feb.

We took a tour outside of Puerto Vallarta to the Vallarta Botanical Gardens. The guys Lynn, Tom and Ted, well, really Ted did not want to come and look at flowers. It seems to us that the gardens have only been open to the public for about 5 to 8 years. In this time they have become a destination to see when in this area.   Most of the  plants  are native to Mexico with some from other locations around the world.

 Very big vanilla beans

 The first time Debbie  saw a bird of paradise flower she was working in a florist shop and the flowers had been flown in from Hawaii

 

The blue flowers hanging upside down  are Orchids

The fish pond was a high light with kids,along with the fish food that the fish gobbled up