Guanajuato is one of the Magic Towns of Mexico (pueblos mágicos), these are towns around the country that offer visitors a “magical” experience – by reason of their natural beauty, cultural riches, or historical relevance.

Where possible we try to visit as many magic towns as we can. So far all the towns we have visited have all had their own special magic, and who doesn’t like a bit of magic in their day?!

Guanajuato is a UNESCO city, steeped in history, tradition, culture and amazing architecture. It was once a prosperous silver mining town. There are still two silver mining companies extracting silver from the hills today.

Entrance into the old historic town of Guanajuato is through a series of tunnels that run under the town. We spent the best part of an hour getting lost and very confused trying to get to our hotel, there were swear words spoken! We were using google maps, which was a bit hit and miss in the tunnels (we had lots of misses). Luckily Carlos the owner of the hotel, got on his motorbike and came and rescued us. After this experience we would strongly recommend if you are driving into Guanajuanto to get one of the guides on motorbikes to help you find your accommodation – well worth 50 pesos. You can find them a few kilometres away from the entrance of the first tunnel.

To make the most of our time in Guanajuato we decided to book a walking tour with Susanna from Cacomixtle Eco Tours. The walking tour lasted about three hours, and was very informative. Susanna gave us a fantastic insight into the history of the town and its people, and took us through the plazas, the local market, and through lots of steep little cobblestone back streets. At the end of the tour Susannna gave us some recommendations for dinner, and ended up joining us. This worked out well,  as she could recommend some of the local dishes for us to try, and she was good company.

Colour streets of Guanajuato

our tour guide Susana

Tacos four ways – yum

Outside a carpenters workshop

The cobblestone streets of Guanajuato

Mexican street food

We also booked a mountain bike tour with Cacomixtle Eco Tours, for the next day. Susana and Antonio (Susannas’ father) picked us up at our hotel in the morning. We drove up to the Sierra mountains to an altitude 2500m where we began our ride down through the hills. Along the way Antonio talked about the history of silver mining in the area, the communities created around each mine and the architecture. It was beautiful scenery and great exploring life in guanajuato outside of the hustle and bustle of the town centre. It was beautiful riding in on the old camino royale and seeing the town as we rode in from the hills.

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The weekend we were in Guanajuato there was a fiesta to celebrate one of the Catholic Saints. On Saturday night the town and main plaza were busy and had a wonderful festive atmosphere. There was also a parade thought the town the next day.

One of the main attractions that Mexican tourists come to visit in  Guanajuato  are  to see the mummies. These are not really our cup of tea, so we passed.

If you are in San Miguel or Chapala we would highly recommend a long weekend in Guanajuato, it really is a magic town.