Guanajuato State - Part 1 (Sept 22 to 27)

September 22
Km’s Pedalled – 79.5 km’s

Destination – 10 km’s from Lagos de Moreno

Some Notes – I slept in until 11am. I am not sure how that happened. The day was perfect weather and the road was up and down hilly. I basically stuck to Hwy 45. The only town that I biked through today was Encarnación de Díaz. In that city I visited a cemetery called Panteon Municipal de Encarnacion de Diaz and cathedrals Parroquia de Jesus and Maria y Jose and Parroquia de Nuestra Senor de la Encarnacion.

Panteon Municipal de Encarnacion de Diaz

Parroquia de Jesus and Maria y Jose

Parroquia de Nuestra Senor de la Encarnacion

Tonight, I received the photos of the poem I submitted to the restaurant in Zacatecas. Back in Zacatecas when I met Elton Guillen and we went to La Leyenda Restaurant and with Elton translating the owner wanted me to submit a poem to be hung on his restaurant wall. This was really exciting for me. A Mexican experience for sure. I link to the poem can be found HERE.

One of my poems hanging in a restaurant in Mexico

September 23
Km’s Pedalled – 71 km

Destination – Leon

Some Notes – The only town I visited was Lagos de Moreno on my way to Leon. I got very lucky to get inside Parish of Our Lady of the Assumption Cathedral. I entered just as a funeral was ending. While everyone was leaving, I was able to get my photos. They were closing the doors as I was taking pictures. It was a super nice cathedral.

Parish of Our Lady of the Assumption Cathedral

While in town I also visited Capilla del Sr. Del Rescate, Templo de La Luz, Templo de Nuestra Senora de la Merced, Templo del Calvario, Templo del Rosario and Templo La Purisima.

Templo de La Luz

Templo de Nuestra Senora de la Merced

Templo del Calvario

50.5 km’s into my day I arrived in the state of Guanajuato. Which would mean that between yesterday and today I biked 105 km’s through the state of Jalisco. The weather was great and the landscape was once again, up and down over hills all day.

Lagos de Moreno – Templo del Calvario

I wasn’t looking to stay in Leon at all. I entered before dark and made my way to a fire station to see if I could camp there. The station was gated and I couldn’t see anyone. I decided to head downtown to another station. It was a fairly long ride to the downtown and it didn’t take long to get dark. When I finally arrived at the fire station, I could see people but I right away realized sleeping would be impossible due to street noise.

The Hostel San Jemo happened to be only 2 km’s away. They tried to tell me $400 pesos for a private room and apparently the dorm beds were all taken, which sounded weird to me as the place was practically empty. I said that was far beyond my budget. We agreed to $500 pesos for 2 nights in a private room. So, I guess I will be seeing more of Leon than I had planned.

September 24
Km’s Pedalled – 41 km’s

Some Notes – One of my first impressions of this city is that it has a lot of aggressive drivers here. The city overall is kind of rough but the downtown and cathedrals are pretty nice. I was pretty amazed how quickly I was able to get to them all.

I spent the morning and afternoon visiting cathedrals. I found and visited 17 different cathedrals/churches today. I was actually able to get inside quite a few of them. I visited Cathedral Basilica Metropolitana de la Madre Santisma de la Luz, Iglesia del Senor de los Milagros, Parroquia de la Santisima Trinidad, Parroquia del Sagrario, Parroquia Nuestra Senora del Carmen, Parroquia Santiago Apostol, San Francisco de Sales, Santuario de la Virgin de Guadalupe, Santuario de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, Templo Lady of Angels, Templo de Cruz de Cantera, Templo de La Paz, Templo de San Felipe Neri, Templo de Santo Domingo, Templo El Mezquitito, Templo Expiatorio del Sagrado Corazon de Jesus and Templo Inmaculado Corazon de Maria.

Cathedral Basilica Metropolitana de la Madre Santisma de la Luz

Iglesia del Senor de los Milagros

Parroquia de la Santisima Trinidad

Parroquia del Sagrario

Parroquia Nuestra Senora del Carmen

Santuario de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe

Templo Lady of Angels

Templo de Cruz de Cantera

Templo de San Felipe Neri

Templo Expiatorio del Sagrado Corazon de Jesus

Templo Inmaculado Corazon de Maria.

This morning I discovered one of my front brake pads had slipped from my brake calipers and is missing from last night. So, I spent the later part of the afternoon replacing my front brake pad. I had to visit 3 bike shops to find my style of brake pads. The weather was great except for some rain later in the afternoon while dealing with my bike brakes.

Downtown

This evening I was able to transfer and organize all my photos. I am looking at almost 1,000 photos taken since leaving Aguascalientes.

September 25

Some Notes – I am staying in Leon one more day. I have almost 1,000 photos to edit. I figure at $250 pesos per night for a private room is better than $250 per night in a dorm bed down the road. My whole day has been spent in front of the computer. I was able to edit all my photos and write and post my Aguascalientes (Sept 16 to 21) blog post and write this post up to date. I also wrote and posted Mexico – My truth blog post. I finished work at 1am but went to bed after 2am.

September 26
Km’s Pedalled – 76.5 km’s

Destination – Guanajuato

Some Notes – The weather was perfect today. I biked by the following 2 churches on my way out of Leon – Parroquia del Sagrado Corazon de Jesus and Parroquia N. Sra de Czestochowa. I then snapped a shifting cable on my way out of town, luckily it was a pretty quick fix.

Parroquia del Sagrado Corazon de Jesus

Parroquia N. Sra de Czestochowa

While biking through the town of Silao someone who didn’t speak any English gave me a $100 pesos donation. While in Silao I visited Templo de la Casa de Ejercicios, Sanctuary of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Santuario De Nuestra Señora De Guadalupe), Parroquia de Santiago Apóstol, Templo de la Tercera Orden de San Francisco, Templo del Carmen and La Luz del Mundo

Templo de la Casa de Ejercicios

Sanctuary of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Parroquia de Santiago Apóstol

Templo del Carmen

La Luz del Mundo

It was a long day to get to Guanajuato and I ended up arriving just as it got dark. Guanajuato is one of the more interesting cities I have ever visited. It seems like the roads run through tunnels under a mountain. It was near impossible to find my hostel but I eventually did because luckily, I picked the right tunnel exit. I am at the Hostel Guanajuato. The charge is $180 pesos ($9 USD) per night which is not bad because I am the only one here.

Tunnels under Guanajuato

September 27
Km’s Pedalled – 26 km’s

Some Notes – A perfect day with perfect temperatures. The first place I visited was the Museum of the Mummies of Guanajuato. They had a very interesting price structure – $88 pesos entrance fee plus $31 pesos if you wanted to take photos. From there I visited Panteon Municipal Santa Paula Cemetery. And from there I went looking for lunch and had my usual roast chicken for lunch. Between visiting the mummy museum and looking at my leftover chicken bones I was left with a weird feeling inside me.

Museum of the Mummies of Guanajuato

I spent the rest of the afternoon looking for churches and cathedrals. I was able to find and visit Bascilica Colegiate de Nuestra Senora de Guanajuato, Iglesia de la Compania, Iglesia de San Diego, Iglesia de San Jose, Parroquia y Templo Belen, Santa Casa de Loreto, Templo de Pardon and Templo de San Francisco.

Bascilica Colegiate de Nuestra Senora de Guanajuato

Iglesia de la Compania

Iglesia de San Diego

Iglesia de San Jose

Parroquia y Templo Belen

Templo de Pardon

Templo de San Francisco

I did a fair bit of biking around. Last night I was pretty worried about getting lost in this city but it seems all roads eventually get you to the historic centre. I also biked through the tunnels running under the city a bit. Via Google I was able to find out there is 8 km’s of tunnels running under the city which seems like a lot of tunnels for a mountain.

This evening I was able to get my photos organized and a couple hundred photos edited.