After spending 3 weeks in Mexico City, I started to get itchy feet to travel again. On a whim on December 16th, I decided to head to San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato for a few days before heading back to Mexico City for Christmas.
Mexico City to San Miguel
I finished work bright and early one morning and headed out straight away to catch the first Blabla car ride to San Miguel. The ride was EXTREMELY quiet with 3 Mexican guys crammed into the back seat and the driver in the front. Everyone wore masks and mostly stuck to themselves. The Blabla car cost 230 pesos and took around 3 hours.
I had visited San Miguel briefly once before and didn’t fall in love with the city so I decided to give it another shot. I spent a few hours walking along the orderly streets with brightly colored houses and upscale boutiques and cafes. I dutifully took photos of the Christmas decorations and the main square. After walking around for a few hours and grabbing a quick lunch at a cafe, I decided it was time to relax a bit. I am obsessed with cantinas so I found the most perfect, “old-man” cantina and sat alone for a few hours drinking beer, watching Mexican music videos and resting an incredibly swollen knee (don’t even ask how I hurt it…..I have NO idea).
I went out to an amazing vegetarian restaurant that night and after filling myself up with vegan tacos, I strolled home for a much needed night sleep.
The next morning, I got up bright and early (well, maybe not bright. I haven’t slept in past 5 am since around April) to teach and then set off for one more walk around the city before heading to the bus station. It was freezing that morning so I arrived for my bus to Guanajuato with frozen feet and fingers.
Overall, while San Miguel is a beautiful city, there is something lacking there. It doesn’t have the same dramatic landscape and “cool-factor” of Guanajuato and it lacks the studenty vibe of Queretaro. While I definitely understand why people LIKE San Miguel, I struggle to see why people LOVE it so much. I will keep trying though and hopefully, one day I will fall in love with the city like everyone else 🙂
San Miguel to Guanajuato
From San Miguel, I boarded a short bus ride to Guanajuato City, my all-time favorite place in Mexico. As a city built on rolling hills, Guanajuato is a city full of narrow alleyways, never-ending steps and the brightly colored houses that you find all over Mexico. It is also full of gorgeous little squares and a vibrant pedestrian street that look like they are straight out of Europe . While I originally intended just to stay two days and then head back to Mexico City, fate had other plans. I managed to meet up with an old friend from India there which was a wonderful surprise and right after I arrived, Mexico City unexpectedly went back into lockdown. Rather than spending Christmas and my birthday sitting in my bedroom alone, I decided to just keep traveling.
I ended up spending 9 wonderful days in Guanajuato. I spent my days strolling up and down the streets and visiting the tourist attractions of the city. For the first time in months, I got to go to museums, visit a theater (there was no performance but it was still so great to see!). I visited my favorite cantina (which had finally re-opened), my favorite cafe (which serves coffee that is powerful enough to launch a spaceship) and reminisced about India. It was exactly what I needed to re-balance myself before the next round of covid lockdown. Read more about Guanajuato here!
Guanajuato to Zacatecas via Leon and Aguascalientes
I sadly left Guanajuato and took a bus to Leon, the biggest city of Guanajuato state. There wasn’t much to see there so I quickly grabbed another bus to Aguascalientes. A smallish city with a cute (and walkable!) downtown area, Aguascalientes was a good pit stop on the way to my next stop. I spent the evening doing a quick walk through the city and the next morning, I did one quick cruise through town and then caught a bla bla car to Zacatecas.
Zacatecas is a gorgeous hillside city with stunning colonial architecture and a plethora of small alleyways and hidden parks that you can get lost in for hours. I checked into a lovely little hostel and then spent the afternoon wandering up and down the narrow streets and taking way too many photos of the adorable Christmas decorations. I attempted to go on the funicular (one of the top tourist attractions in town!) and even during COVID times, the line was sooo long that I decided to skip it. I can’t imagine what it would be like to go during “normal” times.
Since the funicular was a no-go and I had an aching knee, I spent the rest of the afternoon at a bar overlooking the city drinking some hard-earned beer. In the evening, I strolled around taking photos of the city before getting an early night sleep.
The next morning, I explored the rest of the city and then made the difficult trek to the bus station. Word from the wise: take a taxi! It is a tough uphill climb and then a boring walk alongside railroad tracks. There is nothing to see and it is definitely worth the extra pesos to take a taxi.
Zacatecas to Durango
From Zacatecas, I took a bus to Durango and because it was already early evening and I wanted to see some of the city before it got too dark, I grabbed a taxi downtown. The drive from the bus station was not overly appealing and I began to feel a little worried about the city itself. In complete honesty, the only thing I knew about Durango at all was that it was the name of a car. After checking into a crappy hotel, I walked the few blocks to the city center. I was very surprised to find out that it is beautiful! The main square features a gorgeous cathedral and is bordered by a pedestrian street full of bars, restaurants and shops. Adjacent to the main square are other smaller squares with cool architecture and a lively atmosphere. I spent the evening walking up and down the streets and poking my head in and out of the shops and was up bright and early the next morning to do another wander through the historic center before catching a bus to my next destination – Chihuahua!
Chihuahua to El Fuerte
The trip from Durango to Chihuahua was pleasant with a quick stop in Torreon which despite looking like it had a few attractions according to Google maps, actually had very little to offer. I finally got to Chihuahua late in the evening and went straight to bed after a quick dinner.
The next morning, I met my travel buddy and we headed out to explore the town……in the SNOW! I didn’t even know that it snows in Mexico!! We spent a very, very cold few hours walking up and down the streets of the downtown area before finally calling it quits and heading out for dinner at a vegetarian restaurant and finishing the day at a craft beer bar. Chihuahua reminded me a bit of an old Soviet city with wide avenues and humongous buildings. It was certainly interesting to walk around for a few hours but the real draw to the area is a bit southwest of Chihuahua city so that is where we headed early the next morning.
The bus ride from Chihuahua to Creel was certainly interesting with people crammed in like sardines and a very leaky ceiling that dripped icy cold water on my travel companion for 6 straight hours. The drive wasn’t particularly pretty and we were delighted to finally stumble off the bus in the tourist hub of Creel. The town seems to exist purely for tourists taking the Copper Canyon train but what it lacks in old-school charm, it makes up for in quirkiness. The town has a plethora of stray dogs who love nothing more than a cuddle and surprisingly good pizza.
From Creel, we took a few day trips to see some truly spectacular scenery (check out my post here to read more details!) before catching the train to El Fuerte, a tiny town about an hour east of Los Mochis, the main transport hub of the region. The train ride was pretty overpriced for what it was but since it is the only passenger train in Mexico, it gets pretty popular.
From Los Mochis, we headed to Topolobampo which besides having an awesome name, is also a cute little place with never ending views of the sea. We spent a few lazy days there getting some much needed downtime before I was off on the next part of my adventure!
Topolobampo to Sayulita via Mazatlan
I left Topolobampo and made my way south to Mazatlan, a haven for North American snow birds. I was excited to check out the city after seeing photos of it and hearing people go on and on about how great it was. Rather than being impressed, I was slightly disappointed. The city has a great malecon and a charming, but tiny, historic center and not much else. I spent about 24 hours there and was more than ready to head out again.
I caught a bus to a town called Tepic where I switched to another bus headed for Sayulita. It was a long day and I wish I would have broken it up into two separate days. The bus dropped me off on a main highway late at night and it was quite scary. I finally caught a city bus headed towards Sayulita and gratefully jumped on. About 10 minutes later, I was in the center of Mexico’s Pacific coast version of Tulum and my own personal version of hell. Unfortunately, I didn’t know that at the time. I checked into a weird little hotel and was originally put in a room that only had 3 walls (the 4th was a lattice wall with a curtain) and demanded to be changed to one of the many, many other vacant rooms that all had 4 actual walls. Once I got settled in, I took a short stroll and was shocked to see the bars completely jam packed full of American hipsters on vacation. I headed back to the hotel and endured a night full of partying neighbors before getting up at 3:30 the next morning to work.
SInce I figured it was worthless to spend a lot of money for a hotel when it didn’t guarantee a good night sleep, I switched to what seemed like a pretty laid back hostel and spent the day exploring the tiny town and its nearby beaches. I headed back to the hostel in the evening and was disappointed to see that the whole place was crawling with a mixture of Instagram influencers, surfers and smelly hipsters. I escaped temporarily with the only other guest that was close to my age for a quick dinner and beer before heading back home for a restless night full of sounds that no one should have to hear.
Sayulita to Puerto Vallarta
The next morning, I packed my stuff and got out of Sayulita as fast as possible and headed for Puerto Vallarta. Now this was more my style! Puerto Vallarta is a beach town with a big city feel. The city is hugged by mountains and its cobblestone streets lead straight into the ocean. The town is a mecca for gay travelers with lots of fun bars and trendy shops and the sunsets are epic. There is also some amazing street art. Best of all, there are a few microbreweries selling delicious beer right in the historic center. As a sun hater (no day at the beach is worth the sunburn that I will inevitably get), the microbreweries offer the perfect refuge from the mid-afternoon heat.
The surrounding area is full of activities and attractions from zip-lines to whale watching and it truly is a destination that has something for everyone. Sadly, after 4 blissful days, I headed back to Mexico City.
Cool travels!
Love your brother.
Erich
There are a couple mistypes in the article.