Guanajauto, Mexico,, el veintiocho de Deciembre, 2019

Even though I wasn’t feeling that great, I was still out the door by 10 to explore on my last day in Guanajauto.  My first stop was at the Plaza Allende where there is a statue of Don Quixote- 

and his buddy Sancho Panza-

Don Quixote is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes.  It was published in two parts - in 1605 and 1615 and is the most influential work of literature from the Spanish Golden Age.  It’s often labeled the first modern novel and sometimes considered the best book every written.  It’s about a noble from La Mancha who read so many chivalric romances that he went a bit crazy and decided to become a knight to revive chivalry and serve his nation.  He recruited a simple farmer, Sancho Panza as his squire. 

i continued walking and came across the Templo de la Compañia de Jesus-

Next door is the University-

Very close by was a modern art gallery.  It only cost $1 so I went in.  Weird.

Siameses by Jose Luis Cueves-

Also by Cuevas is Autorretrato Como Obrero (Self Portrait of a Worker)=

Alan Altamirano-MkKabrito with Eterna Juventud - Forever Young.  I like the little brush strokes-

Sergio Hernández did Niña Cangrejo - (Crab Daughter) =

I’m pretty much churched and museumed out but was afraid to miss out on something awesome in Diego Rivera’s Museum.  He lived in this house for the first six years of his life but nothing is original.  Pictures apparently weren’t allowed but I managed one of Diego‘s cubism which is a European avant-garde movement that flourished between 1906 - 1914 characterized by simultaneous viewpoints of the subject.  Picasso was also a Cubist-

I saw a lot of Diego’s work in Mexico City.  He and Frida were married for a few years too.  Well, that was pretty much a waste of time.

Carrying on......  looking south towards Mercado Hidalgo-

They too have an ice surface.  Lots were skating on this one, usually they hang on to the side rails scared for their lives-

Looking north-

It is a beautiful city.

My last stop of the day was Museo de las Momias.  I followed a sign that said turn this way and ended up walking up a million stairs and at a cemetery that needed some love and care.  Around the corner was the Museo and the lineup.  I almost didn’t wait but am sure glad I did.  It took an hour and 7 minutes to get in the door-

And that was just inside the building. The queue went down a block and around the corner.

The mummies were exhumed from a Guanajauto cemetery in 1870 when families didn’t pay the new burial tax which was to ensure perpetual burial.  These corpses were naturally mummified so once removed from their graves could be stored in a building above ground.  The burial tax was abolished in 1958.  There are 58 mummies on display.   These people died from a cholera outbreak.  Bodies were buried immediately to prevent the spread of the disease and lots were burned.  It is thought that some were buried alive because of the horrific facial expressions, however most ghastly expressions were probably due to postmortem reactions-

The bodies were preserved naturally deep in the wall crypts which were isolated from the ground above.  There was no humidity or oxygen and that created the ideal conditions for the spontaneous desiccation of tissue and prevented decomposition-

There were also baby mummies-

And then photos of parents holding their dead babies-

A woman died when she was about 6 months pregnant.  She was about 40 and it is believed she died because she did not receive the nutrients necessarily to grow a baby-

The foetus is about 8 inches tall and is the smallest mummy in the world-

The only mummy extracted from a ground level grave and not from vertical crypts like the rest of the displayed bodies shows the importance of temperature and lack of humidity in decomposition-

There was a smaller museum next door with a few interesting exhibits including a mummified finger-

A person who died by torture-

Parent and baby-

and a nasty pirate-

This is a fetus that was found in the uterus of a young unmarried woman who killed herself.  It’s about 1.5 inches long-

I was a bit concerned that because of the crowds I wouldn’t be able to see anything, however, people were really good at moving along in single file and waiting for others to move along.  I’m really glad I went in because it was very fascinating.

Walking towards home, I spied another church - the Parroquia del Immaculado Corazon de Maria-

which had an interesting Christmas display in the front.  It’s Bethlehem-

I stopped at Mercado Hidalgo, built between 1905 - 1910-

which was going to be the train station but was never used for that.  There are many food stalls so I tried chile rellenos again and it was so greasy I used at least 10 napkins trying to get rid of as much as I could.  It was quite disgusting.  I should have had one of these instead-

I’ve enjoyed my time in Guanajauto and am looking forward to San Miguel de Allende tomorrow!

P.S.