Car Trip 26

We said goodbye to the city of Zacatecas and headed out for our next stop. The lovely colonial city of Guanajuato. Our route carried us southeast, passing through the highly industrialized outskirts of San Luis Potosi. We skirted around Leon and finally arrived in Guanajuato itself.
Guanajuato is another town that L had been to many times before. Thankfully, because the streets were incredibly difficult to navigate. They are narrow beyond belief and there is no rhyme or reason to them. One interesting fact about their roads though is that they have an entire network of underground highways under the city. They built these on an old underground river bed which was diverted because it used to flood the town so often. We drove around and around, stopping at this hotel and that and finding nothing suitable. Finally L directed me to pull into this alley like street. Which I did.


one of the underground highways

It was another one of those twisting little alleys and I stopped almost at the mouth of it and let L and B get out to check a couple of hotels located right there. From where I was (illegally) parked, I could not see around the corner just in front of me. And it was a one way street with me parked in the wrong direction! So while I nervously waiting for them to return, I noticed that B had left his pack of cigarettes in the car. Ok then. This counted as a stressful enough time to go ahead and sneak just one. I was blissfully puffing away on it when B suddenly appeared at my window and told me I had to get out. It seems that they had found a room but wanted me to check it out before registering.

No way did I want to get out. I could feel that I was light headed from just that one cigarette. But I had no choice. I reluctantly gave up my position in the car to B and literally staggered across the street to the hotel. I was so dizzy I could hardly stand up, let alone walk straight. What a buzz! I made it to the lobby and the waiting L and followed him to the room. I only had to just barely step into the room to pronounce it unsatisfactory. It was a pit. I got the evil eye from L but he acquiesced and followed me back to the car. It was then that we decided to check out the hotel right in front of us.

This room was more than adequate. It had a great view of the houses on the hills, a little park down the street and it had three beds! Whoopee! We each got to have our own bed! Quite the luxury. And they had off-street parking. Granted, it was underground and was quite the pain in the behind to muster the car into it, but off-street parking nonetheless.

We carried our luggage to the room and dropped it all on the floor. At that point L started to hop from bed to bed. Sort of like in the Three Bears story. Finally he ensconced himself on the middle one and proclaimed that one to be the most comfortable and his, his, and his alone! Fine. B and I each just chose one of the two remaining. As we were rummaging through our backpacks, we heard this shriek coming from L.

He had decided to pull back the coverlet and have himself a little rest before we headed out to lunch. When he exposed the pillow to daylight, he also exposed all the boogers that somebody had wiped on it also! I mean it was covered. Not just one, but like a whole weeks’ worth all smeared on it. I laughed until I had tears in my eyes and my stomach hurt. The more L gagged, the more I laughed. Between my fits of laughter I managed to let him know that he got exactly what he deserved for his “I got the best bed, na na na na” attitude. He threw the coverlet back up over the offending pillow and we got ready for lunch. But not until I also pointed out to him that the wall just above where his head would rest was also similarly decorated to the pillow! Again I am convulsing with laughter!

Needless to say, on our way through the lobby, L stopped at the front desk. He was not a happy camper and let them know it. They promised that we would all three have fresh linens when we returned. And we did.

L took us to a little café directly across from the steps of the University and we had a great lunch. One of those Comida del Dia things that has a set menu. I wanted to tell L that he had better be sure to check his plate before he ate off of it, but I held my tongue. I don’t think he would have appreciated it. Lunch over, we set out to see some of the sights of Guanajuato.