La León Feria Estatal (The León State Fair) runs for the month of January and offered us a huge variety of new discoveries on our first days in Mexico. Join us!
La León Feria
León, Mexico: El Centro Histórico
Rather than sitting in long lines at gas stations, we turned left and drove to León, where we discovered an exciting city we had never heard of before! On Day 1, we visited the historic center, el Centro Historico. We saw churches, plazas, even bullfighters, and heard some truly indescribable music!
Check out the video on our Messy Suitcase YouTube Channel.
Why was Bob Fretting?
Check out our latest video on the Messy Suitcase YouTube channel — Crossing The Border (a.k.a. Why was Bob fretting?)
On the Road to Mexico
How do you get 3 people, 3 cats, 3 musical instruments and multiple suitcases and bags to Mexico to start a new life? You drive. 37 HOURS.
Messy Suitcase Video: Why Guadalajara?
Beto (Bob) is developing his video editing skills, and working on putting the many videos he has made over the past year of traveling in Europe and then Mexico up onto the Messy Suitcase YouTube Channel!
After toting his GoPro all over Mexico, and now Vermont, plus the drives back and forth, he’s just learning how to edit the footage, so please be patient, and feel to comment with words of encouragement. Each video will get better, and they will be packed with fascinating info and our illuminating comments and observations.
We’ll hope you’ll follow our the Messy Suitcase YouTube Channel, and ring the bell to be notified as we put more videos up. We are also open to new ideas!
Enjoy the video Why Guadalajara?
Missing the US, Missing Mexico, Part 1
Now that we’re back in the United States for the summer, we’re experiencing a bit of a culture shock! We’re realizing there were a lot of things we missed about the US when we were living south of the border, and we’re delighted to get to experience them again.
But even more surprising – or perhaps not – is how many
things we miss about Mexico.
things we miss about Mexico.
Enjoy our lists!
Things We Missed About
the United States
the United States
These are some of the things we missed about the U.S.
when we were living in Mexico:
when we were living in Mexico:
· English-language book stores (especially Barnes
& Noble)
& Noble)
· Noodles & Company
· Really good hamburgers
· Brick oven pizza
· Having white wine on restaurant menus
· Lilacs
· Yards and green grass
· Being able to put toilet paper in the toilet
· Being able to drink water from the faucet
· Being able to brush our teeth with water from the faucet
· Did we mention being able to drink water from the faucet?
· Cheezit crackers
· Toilet seats on public toilets
· Toilet paper always available in public toilets
· Being able to ride our road bikes
Things We Miss about Mexico
Here are a few things we miss about Mexico, now that
we’re back in the States:
we’re back in the States:
· Low prices for everything
· Tlaquepaque, and the fact that there was always something free going on in Plaza Hidalgo
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| Ballot Foclorico in Plaza Hidalgo, Tlaquepaque |
· The incredible views of Guanajuato below and the eye-popping, jagged mountains beyond from every window at Casa Estrella
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| Guanajuato views |
· The fervent Roman Catholicism, including:
o Gorgeous churches, basilicas and cathedrals, even in the humblest villages
o Bloody Jesus statues and other curiosities inside churches
o Parades to accompany statues of Nuestra Senora (our mother Mary) from church to church
o Easter pageants, especially the bloody Jesuses carrying their crosses, accompanied by costumed throngs
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| The Virgin of Guadeloupe. She’s everywhere. |
· The food! Especially:
o Nieve de garafa (fresh, hand-stirred ice cream made inside metal barrels, with
unconventional flavors such as tequila, elote and blackberry cheesecake)
unconventional flavors such as tequila, elote and blackberry cheesecake)
o Michoacan ice cream
o Cuarto de Kilo (awesome Guadalajara hamburger chain with crispy, lemon-pepper-dusted French fries)
o Pollo Pepe (great chicken place, also a chain)
o Gus’s, our favorite the taco place in the basement of the mercado (market) in
Tlaquepaque
Tlaquepaque
o Mercado fruits, veggies, breads, and fresh chicken and fish
o Valentina’s, our favorite pizza place in Tlaquepaque, with its rooftop garden
o Cat-shaped bolillos (small loaves of bread) from Pasteleria Don Pedro
o Amazing donuts everywhere in Guadalajara (who knew Mexico was such a big donut destination?)
o Mexican street food, especially elote (corn) and chayote (a unique Mexican squash) with queso y crema (cheese and a uniquely Mexican thick cream), then doused with salsa. The lonches (meat sandwiches), tacos and fresh-made potato chips were also excellent.
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| Elote in Tlaquepaque |
o Pasteles (cake) and pan de elote (corn bread) from La Petit Plaisir, the French bakery across the street from the Guadalajara Language Center
o Chocomilk in any restaurant, which is a refreshingly frothy, blended confection
o Cremax cookies
o Raspadas (shave ice with fresh fruit and syrup)
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| Raspada Frambuesa (raspberry) |
· The drinks! Especially:
o Horchatas and horchata fresas (a rice and cinnamon drink, sometimes accompanied by strawberries)
o Aguas frescas (fresh water with the essence of fruit, including mandarin oranges and jamaica, a therapeutic flower)
o Tequila and mescal
o Mexican craft beer
o Limonada (lemonade)
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| Horchata fresa and tacos in the Tonala mercado |
· The sounds! Especially:
o Mariachi music
o Church bells
o Crowing roosters (who expected to miss this sound?)
o The song played by the Zeta Gas truck (“Zeta, Zeta, Zeta Gas!”)
o “Agu-AA!” yelled by the Pura water garafon (jug) delivery man
o The daily jangling bell of the trashmen
· Atlas FC Futbol (soccer)
· Lucha Libre (wrestiling)
· Adorable roof dogs
· Waiters never rushing us and always waiting for us to ask for the check
· The weather (warm days and cool nights, with the occasional dramatic downpour but not a speck of snow)
· Speaking Spanish all the time
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| Got this shot into the goal at an Atlas futbol game |
Next up … Part 2: Things We Won’t Miss About Mexico
Casa Estrella: Our Hillside Home in Guanajuato
It’s a shame we ever stayed at Casa Estrella: We will never be happy anywhere else again.
Thanks, Donna
My friend Donna Bryson recommended we spend time in the World Heritage city of Guanajuato, where she and her family enjoyed a vacation a couple years ago. Since Donna was my favorite partner in exploration when were young, single and living in NYC, I trusted her advice and we decided to visit for five weeks or so on our way north from Tlaquepaque.
Lodging proved to be a little bit of a challenge, though.
Guanajuato is a colorful, astonishingly well-preserved city of 150,000 with narrow cobblestone alleys and winding underground tunnels carved out of rock, neither of which was very welcoming to our wide black Tacoma Toyota truck. Hotels and apartments in El Centro (the historic center) don’t have convenient parking, if any at all, and guests have to navigate narrow, steep pedestrian walkways to get to their entrances – hardly practical when you have as many possessions as us, in addition to
three cats and two bikes.
three cats and two bikes.
So we widened the search beyond Guanajuato City, and ended up at Casa Estrella Vacation Rental Homes in Valenciana, a village about two kilometers up the mountain from Guanajuato. And although it would have been nice to be able to step out of our lodging right onto one of Guanajuato’s nine plazas and walk a block or two to a restaurant, Casa Estrella offered unique benefits that made it the perfect choice for us.
Car- Friendly
Casa Estrella was one of the only places to stay in Guanajuato that offered secure parking for the truck, though because of the hillside location, getting the vehicle out the couple of times we used it was a spine-tingling tight, logistical challenge. So once we parked the Tacoma, we left it to collect dust, and used buses, cabs or Uber to get around. Buses only cost 7 pesos (37 cents) a ride, and Uber or a cab cost 60-70 pesos ($3.65-$4.20) per ride.
Once we got down into Guanajuato, we used our feet for transportation.
Pet-Friendly
The staff at Casa Estrella happily welcomed our three cats and considered them part of our family. And the cats loved our two-bedroom apartment, Casa Estrellita, from the moment we opened their traveling cages and released them from their travel confinement. Ellie swiftly took over a round blue chair in the living room, though all three cats alternated through at one time or another. Kaylee liked to hang out high up on the second-floor landing, regally surveying her domain. Noxy ambled from bed to bed, and eventually befriended a corner chair in the dining room. He managed to escape one day when the cleaning crew came, and relished the opportunity to amble around the little courtyard below our apartment before coming back to our door and waiting for someone to notice he had been gone.
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| Kaylee |
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| Equinox and the Monk statue |
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| Smoitie in the kitchen |
One day, Casa Estrella’s resident cat Toby, who was the spitting image of our old cat Jiji who died in 2012) except for a scarred right eye, came to the door and meowed loudly, as though asking our cats to come out and play. Lex and I did just that, hanging out on the stairs petting Toby for a long time. Toby belonged to Inge, a Dutch retiree who dispensed wellness advice, astrology readings, and essential oils from her little apartment across from the fountain below us. The cats never met him.
People- Friendly
We knew Casa Estrella was going to be people-friendly from the moment we parked our car. First, the manager, Javier Salazar, greeted us warmly. Then three male staffers swooped upon the truck and rapidly carried all of our heavy suitcases, duffle bags, musical instruments, and other assorted paraphernalia up the stairs to our apartment before we even had a moment to breathe. What service! By the time we could blink our eyes, our stuff was in our rooms and we were ready to settle in.
Casa Estrellita
Our two-bedroom apartment, Casa Estrellita, was absolutely stunning. With a warm pallet of many-shaded oranges and royal blue, with bright pink accents, its warm glow enveloped us. The dining room had a bar with a wine rack in one corner, and a domed brick ceiling with a chandelier hanging over the handmade round wooden table. A newly-constructed breakfast patio overlooked the city of Guanajuato below and awe-inspiring mountains beyond (and Javier brought a lounge chair when he saw how much I enjoyed spending time there reading).
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| My favorite breakfast spot |
The kitchen was large and well stocked. The dinnerware consisted of individually crafted, hand-painted ceramic plates, bowls and mugs from the local Gorky Gonzalez Pottery Studio. The rest of the house was also filled with decorative pottery – on shelves, walls, the bar, along the steps and even on the fireplace mantle—from Gorky Gonzalez, Mayolica Pottery of Santa Rosa, and other local artists.
Both bedrooms, on the second floor, were generous, with sliding doors and balconies showcasing the incredible view of Guanajuato and the mountains. Beds had heavy, hand-carved headboards. The master bedroom even had a fireplace and a changing room, and the master bath had a sunken jetted tub, which Aryk enjoyed, and a hand-painted sink, which Noxy occasionally napped in.
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| Master bedroom with fireplace |
The volume and quantity of the artwork throughout the apartment made my jaw drop daily. A brightly-painted, skeletal, smiling Catrina statue stood inside the front door, next to a small painting of a Lucha Libre warrior. A handcrafted wooden monk statue looked down from a lighted alcove at the bottom of the wide stairway. There were painted ceramic serving platters, a full-length copper lamp, a basket crucifix over the bed in the master bedroom, a Diego Rivera print in the main hallway, hand-woven rugs, and tapestries.
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| Catrina |
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| Mayolica |
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| Mayolica |
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| Diego Rivera print |
The Grounds
And beyond our apartment, there was so much more to explore and enjoy! Casa Estrella’s public space was beautiful and comfortable, with leather couches, a huge solid wood dining table with a tile-covered wall over the banquet, a large covered deck, even a big double-kitchen for use by guests staying in rooms without kitchen facilities. (Casa Estrella also provided a delicious, healthy daily breakfast for an additional fee, consisting of yogurt, granola, fresh fruit, tamales, and coffee.)
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| Yoga with Blanca |
Beyond the main building, there was a swimming pool and a Jacuzzi. Down the steps, the Fiesta Fitness Room offered an elliptical, complete weight set, free weights, Bosu, exercise ball, barre and more, as well as a large patio for weekly outdoor yoga classes (by Blanca of Casa Quatro in Guanajuato) offering the mountain view as the perfect “dristy.” There was also a spa room for massages, a botanical garden, a tennis court, an RV park with a beautiful bathroom and shower, an organic garden, and other public spaces.
Wellness
I mention all these things because Casa Estrella’s focus is on wellness, and I left feeling so relaxed and serene. Javier, the manager and concierge, gave us exceptional service to made us feel truly pampered. If you ever decide to visit Guanajuato, you can learn more about Casa Estrella here. Tell Javier that Lisa sent you!
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| Saying goodbye to Javier., the manager and concierge at Casa Estrella. Hasta luego! |
By Lisa Hamm-Greenawalt
Torture and Death in Mexico
We visited three morbid museums that reflect a certain
obsession with death and torture in Guanajuato, Mexico.
El Museo de las Momias de Guanajuato
(The Mummy Museum)
The one that attracts the most tourists is El Museo de lasMomias de Guanajuato, or the Mummy Museum of Guanajuato. This underground museum tucked into a corner
of the old city displays scores of naturally mummified bodies found to be in surprisingly good shape when they were disinterred to make room for new bodies in the cemetery above.
of the old city displays scores of naturally mummified bodies found to be in surprisingly good shape when they were disinterred to make room for new bodies in the cemetery above.
The mummies were discovered in the late 1800’s after the government instituted a perpetual burial tax on the cemetery. If the families of the buried did not pay, the bodies of their loved ones were exhumed. It was during this process of evicting the dead for back taxes that the mummies were discovered, beautifully preserved.
After exhumation, the mummies were stored in an ossuary beneath the cemetery, where they are displayed today. Each mummy has a tag with a little information about them and theories on how they died. Many of them are still wearing the clothes they were buried in.
The most interesting to me was the mummy pair of a mother and her unborn child, advertised by the museum as the smallest mummy in the world.
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| Mama |
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| Baby |
In addition to the mummies, the place is full of existential quotes such as the following:
“Man must open himself to death if he wants to open himself to life.
The cult to life is also cult to death.
A civilization that denies death ends up denying life. “
–Octavio Paz
La Casa de Los Lamentos
(The House of Wailing)
La Casa de Los Lamentos is a cheesy House of Horrors located in a historic 18th-century mansion where serial murders occurred in the 1890s and early 1900s. The story goes that the owner, Tadeo Fulgencio Mejia, was obsessed with trying to contact his dead wife, Constanza, and committed an unknown number of murders as human sacrifices to perform rituals in an attempt to reach her. Human bones were supposedly found in the mansion’s basement.
The museum uses red and flickering lighting, slammed doors and other sound effects, a Hitchcock-style video in a picture frame, and ghostly holograms to scare the BeJesus out of the unfortunate who walk in and pay the 45 pesos admission. We stumbled upon it while exploring the Valenciana neighborhood and it was a hoot!
But we were the ones wailing at the end, because we came out of the museum to a colossal downpour. We had walked half a mile down the hill from Casa Estrella and had to wait out the tormenta before we could walk back. But what a diverting hour or two!
El Museo Casa del Purgatorio
(The Purgatory House Museum)
We stumbled upon El Museo Casa del Purgatorio, tucked innocuously into an alley near the Templo de San Cayetano (Saint Cayetano Church), while walking around the little village of Valenciana, down the road from our lodging. Aryk and Lexie were with us for this exploration of a museum that turned out to be about methods of torture and killing during the 18th century Spanish Inquisition in Mexico, when people were persecuted and killed for being Catholic.
Methods of torture we experienced through our guide included a spinning wheel into excrement (sort of an extreme sort of water boarding), the stretching table, the guillotine, and of course the gallows. The museum even featured a small cemetery with a replica of the tomb of El Pipila, the hero of the Mexican Independence movement – despite the fact that this iconic miner hero wasn’t even caught and tortured, but apparently lived to the ripe old age of 83 before dying in his hometown of San Miguel de Allende.
This museum was so gruesome that Lex had to leave and waited outside. The rest of us enjoyed it in a perverse way.
By Lisa Hamm-Greenawalt
Cristo Rey: The Heart of Mexico
Today we traveled to the corazon (heart) of Mexico to see the iconic statue of Cristo Rey. This imposing bronze statue of Christ the King, 75 feet tall and rising 8,461 feet above sea level at Mexico’s geographical center, looms from atop a mountain above the town of Silao called El Cubillo
del Cubilete.
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| Cristo Rey |
The monumental Christ of the Mountain was created in art deco style by artist Nicholas Mariscal in 1944 to honor the struggle of Christians during a period of religious persecution in the early 1900s.
In the words of former Mexican President Vicente Fox, the statue serves as a “rebuke to the suppressors of religious freedom” who sought to quash the Church during the persecution of Christians in Mexico during the first half of the twentieth century.
A smaller previous monument was dynamited in 1928 by the anti-religious (and particularly anti-Catholic) regime of President Plutarco Elías Calles, as part of his mission to kill Christian rebels and destroy all Christian symbols during the nation’s critical “Cristero War” when state atheism was enforced. (Source: Wikipedia)
A Holy Shrine for Mexicans
Few Americans have even heard of Cristo Rey and El Cubillo del Cubilete, but to Mexicans, this is a holy place where many make a pilgrimage. At the foot of the statue is basilica in the shape of a globe where pilgrims visit throughout the year, especially in November, when Catholics celebrate the Feast of Christ the King. This elegant sanctuary, with its enormous crown of thorns encircling the ceiling and its gold-coated crown in the center, is one of the most visited churches in Mexico. (Unfortunately, I couldn’t stroll through it and take pictures because I was wearing shorts, which are
forbidden attire in the sanctuary.)
forbidden attire in the sanctuary.)
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| Sanctuary |
Crown of thorns
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| Golden crown for Christ the King |
Incredible Vistas
The 360-degree panoramic view from the base of the monument is truly spectacular. Guanajuato is having an extremely dry May, and we could see a number of forest fires in the distant mountains. In fact, on the drive to the shrine, we came within a few feet of one. Learn more.
Side Trips
On the way, we stopped to eat lunch on the covered veranda of a beautiful hacienda surrounded by grape vines called Jesus Maria, which served up wonderful wine, pasta, salads and seafood.
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| Our family and Javier enjoying dinner |
We also visited the village of La Luz, where we stopped into the fascinating, ancient church named Maria de la Luz.
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Thank you, Javier!
The tour was conducted by Javier Salazar, general manager of Casa Estrella Wellness Center, where we are staying. He made for a very knowledgeable and sometimes devilishly funny tour guide!
By Lisa Hamm-Greenawalt
Hasta La Vista!
That’s it, we’re doing it. Our oldest child Aryk is off at university in England. Our youngest child Gavin has just graduated from high school. Rather than be empty nesters, my husband Bob and I are stepping off the treadmill and hitting the road to spend the next decade or two exploring the planet.
Our oldest child Aryk is off at university in England. Our youngest child Gavin has just graduated from high school. Rather than be empty nesters, my husband Bob and I are stepping off the treadmill and hitting the road to spend the next decade or two exploring the planet.
We are relatively young and healthy, and the stock market has done good things with our investments over the last few years. So we are renting out our house just outside Denver, putting our stuff in storage, and packing up a few suitcases, three cats, our daughter (for a gap year) and our musical instruments and heading south of the border to explore Mexico for the next few years. We plan to spend three months at a time in different communities, mixing up cities, mountains, coast and historic pueblos, to really get beyond just a taste of this glorious country.
I know people think we’re crazy. Whenever I tell them the plan, they look at me uncomprehendingly.
Why are we doing this?
- Because travel opens your eyes and heart in ways nothing else can.
- Because meeting all kinds of different people expands your horizons.
- Because learning a new language stretches your mind and keeps your brain supple.
- Because settling in one place forever feels limiting.
- Because the ocean is beautiful and the mountains are glorious.
- Because thanks to social media we can stay connected to old friends and dear communities while we make new friends and create new communities.
- Because Mexico has a low cost of living and high quality of life.
- Because … salsa and mole sauce.
- Because … bougainvillea and pelicans.
- Because … waves and reefs.
- Because … whales and dolphins.
- Because … ruins and festivals.
- Because … the Day of the Dead and Three Kings Day.
- Because … tequila and mezcal.
When we’re done with Mexico, we plan to move on to Central America and South America.
When we’re done with Central America and South America, we’ll give the cats back to the kids, ditch the truck, fly across the pond (Atlantic Ocean) and begin exploring the rest of the planet.
Because life is short. And the world is big. Join us on the adventure!
Posted by Lisa Hamm-Greenawalt
