Alli's Excellent Adventures!: Guanajuato, Mexico, el veintiseis de Deciembre, 2019

I was out and about by 11, sort of just wandering and the first thing I found was the Old Railway Station. I’m not sure why it’s a tourist stop but it is. You can’t even go inside and they don’t use it anymore, in fact the only passenger train in Mexico as I understand it is El Chepe which I rode in the Copper Canyon-

Guanajuato has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988 and the Glorietta UNESC0 monument is at the entrance to Old Town-

Nearby is the Fuente de las Ranas, or frog fountain. Big deal I say-

I decided to head north a few kilometres to see the Templo La Valenciana which was built between 1765 and 1788 by a silver baron. The Mina Boca where he worked is next door. The exterior walls are made of pink stone and the front facade has some beautiful carvings and some unfinished sections-

Inside it’s all gold leaf-

and there is ivory at the front-

The side altars-

There are huge paintings on the side walls depicting scenes from the Bible-

Churrigueresque architecture graces the front and side altars and the second bell tower has never been started-

El Museo del Purgatorio is nearby and it’s filled with torture instruments. Once again the tour was in Spanish so I didn’t catch a lot of it but torture was used only to get a confession, not meant to actually punish the accused heretic for his crimes.

The prisoner was put inside the Iron Maiden-

that has large spikes coming out of the walls. The victim would be unable to move due to the steel spikes impaling him from every direction-

The head crusher would slowly be tightened-

Victims sat naked in the Judas chair on top of 500 - 1500 long spikes. Straps restrained the victim and because it was made of iron, electricity and heat jolted throughout and beatings to the arms, legs and feet would push the body into the spikes-

A prisoner would be strapped to this wheel and rolled along breaking bones. It was used for execution-

Prisoners would lie on the rack of nails and the rollers would be turned, piercing the body-

A person would be tied to this rack and left to hang-

People were tied to the board, castrated, had their intestines removed and then were quartered in public squares-

The Bridle, or Mask of Shame has spikes inside so the person couldn’t eat, drink or open their mouth-

A person was put in water in the pot, then the fire was lit and they were scalded, boiled to death-

People who needed to be shamed were put on display in plazas-

People had the rope around their necks and then were lifted up just enough so their feet didn’t touch but they wouldn’t die-

The blade was lowered and swung back and forth slowly slicing the person apart-

More hanging-

I liked the bathroom sign-

I enjoyed El Museo del Purgatorio way more than the Casa de los Lamentos which is just down the road. It’s a mansion that dates to the 18th century. During 1890 - 1900, Tadeo Fulgencio Mejia committed serial murders in this mansion. He was motivated by the idea of contacting his deceased wife Constanza de la Rivera, who died in 1890 during an assault. Her murder occurred during a domestic invasion orchestrated by employees of the mine where Mejía worked. He was accused of corruption because their salaries were late but it was because the mine was in crisis. Constanza was stabbed in the neck and died in the street. Supposedly, her death caused the mental breakdown of Tadeo Mejía. He consulted with a "witch" who showed him strange rituals that included human sacrifices of young men and women. Tadeo Mejía committed an unknown number of murders and several human bones were located in the mansion's basement. Once again the guide spoke very fast and I truly did not understand a word so I’ll make the next part up.

One of Mejia’s victims-