Guanajuato, Mezcal and Bre!

After almost 3 years have finally made it to Guanajuato to visit my friend Bre! after coming here for a few months holidays she has ended up staying here for the better part of three years, and i can see why.  This town is beautiful, lots of winding, (hilly!) streets with beautiful brightly coloured houses and..... lots of partying!  I had been warned by previous visitors about this last part and that i had better build up my stamina to keep up with the people here and have been trying,  but between the strong and delicious tasting mezcal (like tequila) and cheap beers i've found it pretty difficult!

                                           Bar fusilado with all the different flavours of mezcal

Of course this town has alot more to offer then just bars, on my first full day here Kent (Bre's boyfriend) took us to the ex-hacienda San Gabriel de Barrera, this was originally a huge homestead built by the spanish, now with half the property split into a hotel and a museum.  This place is huge, with large sprawling gardens, each section of garden had a different theme, modeled on various countries, i'm told that back in the day it took over 200 people to keep the garden up and running.  The house even had its own private chapel with just 5 chairs reminding you that all this splendour was only for a family of five.

Next Stop....mexico's different "appreciation" of death, the Museo de Las Momias, which exhibits mummified remains of people dug up from the past 100 years or so. The first remains were dug up in the last part of the 1800's when space was running out in the cemetary and they needed to make more room.  When the bodies were exhumed they found that due to the mineral content of the soil and the extremely dry atmosphere that the remains had been preserved in a unique way (mummified).  Its abit of a shock realising that many of the remains here have living relatives and are only on display as they couldnt keep paying for there burial place after death.  There are various types of mummies here ranging from old men, pregant women, children, babies...coming from a different culture i found it quite confronting, especially with the children,  but I guess it does raise a pretty good question as to why i'm so comfortable looking at ancient mummies say from egypt (including baby and child mummies i have viewed) and not these ones.