After spending few peaceful nights at a random lake in Jalisco and enjoying fresh fried fish with Micheladas, it was time again to get moving. The plan was to get deeper into the central Mexico and visit remote towns and villages. It was a Sunday and on Sundays, there’s always something happening in Mexico so we normally prefer to be on the move. I’ve marked few small towns on the map and off we went to see what is happening.
Instead of continuing east toward the center of Mexico on the road 70, we used back roads and went to the first town called San Miguel De Alto and Teocaltitan de Guadalupe. We never heard of them and had zero expectations but wow!!! They were both beautiful and full of life! The architecture of towns in Jalisco are stunning but it is definitely the people, their energy and rich culture that makes these little towns so magical! It was Sunday and everyone were out in the main plazas. We’ve spent few hours in both towns talking to people and enjoying life. Somehow watching people getting together in the plaza, eating street food, sipping their coffees, having a cerveza in the local bar while having their best outfit on with a loud music going on in the background mixed up with the church bells echoing through town, makes you feel alive!
It was around 1:00 pm and we didn’t have a place in mind to camp for the night and I couldn’t find good options around so we decided to start checking few places that could be a place to stay. Since we got into Mexico, we were lucky with the camp spots but our luck was about to run out!Â
We drove to another small town where google was showing us a stablished camp site! We were getting closer to the town and it was getting busier and busier! Quite uncommon for that time of the day on the Sunday. Eventually, it got too busy that we got stuck in the traffic with people, cars, horses and ATVs approaching from all the directions!
There we realized that we ran into the festival without knowing it! It was so vibrant and alive that we couldn’t miss it. After spending sometime to find a secure place to leave the car, we joined the crowd!
We still don’t know what was the event but this is the magic of the Mexico. You think that you have a plan for a day but Mexico always find a way to change it for you! We’ve spent few hours there in the town called Mezquitic De La Magdalena. Again a place that we never knew existed and met so many nice people and tried delicious food. Did I mention that we almost stopped cooking since we crossed the border into Mexico?Â
There’s always so many tempting and cheap options available that we don’t bother to cook!
Anyway after having our last Michelada of day, we got back to the car and headed toward the potential campsite for the night which was only 10 minutes away.Â
It was a weird shady place and we decided to move on and try our luck somewhere else. From here things got more interesting!!Â
Having no idea about the area we were in, I found a camp spot that was in a place called Lyon. Just looking at the map, it looked like another town maybe a bit bigger than others and the camp spot next to a lake in town looked good enough for us to push driving late afternoon to reach there. What can go wrong right?
We finally reached Lyon and by then it was 4:00 pm.
And just going through the last few turns on the highway, we started to have a view on Lyon! It was a giant city! Never knew that a city that big exists in the area. We were driving into a modern giant city and were hoping that the camp spot that we had in mind exists.Â
Well continuing the theme of the day that was expect the unexpected, we found the camp spot but guess what? For that particular day of the year, it was a massive Balloon festival happening at the camp location with live music! It was a big event and all the roads going to our potential camp spots were closed by security for the event! By then it was getting dark and after a quick search, we couldn’t find a decent hotel with car park and reasonable price to book and call it a day.
But I found a hotel in the next town which looked promising with reasonable price and car park so we decided to push forward and drive more. The name of the next town which again I had no idea about was Guanajuato! When I marked the location on the map to start driving, I had a brief look at the map and the way that it was looking on the map was not like any other town that I saw, but we didn’t have any other options than driving so we pushed forward! We got close to Guanajuato and started to see the topology of the city from far even in a dark. It was hilly and we were praying that our hotel is not on top of one of those hills.
And guess what, we were indead on top of one of the hills with the steepest climb on a narrow cobblestone street that we’ve ever done with Chaapaar! The hotel was on a shelf road with a tight spot to park the car literally on the edge of a steep drop off. They advertised that that they have the best view in the city with the parking and they definitely delivered both but honestly we don’t want to get back to that spot again with the car!
At that stage, we had enough for day and went straight to bed. The next morning, from the hotel balcony we had a better view of where we were! And after a quick google search about the city we realised that we are in an epic spot!! And after a short drive in the city center we felt in love with this city!!Â
I don’t know how on earth we never knew that a place like this existed in Mexico!! It was a true gem and definitely a spot that we need to get back to in Mexico but definitely next time without a car!
Apart from the fact that we didn’t know that it existed, driving around the city, it is hard to believe how on earth they built a city so complicated with an extraordinary architecture on these steep hills.Â
It is definitely one of those uniques places that worths visiting and we won’t forget it for the rest of our lives. Sadly, we couldn’t stay longer in this city because it was extremely hard to navigate with our car and found a decent place to stay with the car.
It was a pleasant surprise to find such a gem but we were shattered after having such an eventful Sunday, the day before so we were looking for some peace.
From Guanajuato, we continued heading east in the state of Guanajuato and had few more surprises with the little towns we saw along the way.
What we learned since we started to explore the mainland Mexico is how beautiful it is to not know what to expect and simply being mesmerized with the beauty we find along the way. This naivety can of course be brutal when you reach a big city that you never knew existed and you need to cross its traffic in the darkness but finding little gems along the way wash those experiences away.
We had nice time exploring some pottery workshops north of Guanajuato and explored the beautiful town called Dolores Hidalgo before getting close to the outskirt of a beautiful city called San Miguel De Allende.
Before reaching there, we had a stop at Santuario de Jesus Nazareno de Atotonilco, a truly unique white washed church with completely different architecture inside and out.
It’s so hard to believe all these masterpieces exist so close to each other and how well preserved they are.
We were satisfied with amount of beauty we experienced in just two days! We set up camp in a peaceful retreat just outside San Miguel de Allende.
In the next post, we experience the magical San Miguel de allende and will keep gettign surprised with all the beauty that Mexico has to offer. Till then take care and have fun.
