Real De Catorce Anyone?

[DonaldW]

I stopped there on my first ever "drive in" to Mexico (of course after hitting a DosXX brewery tour in Monterrey LOL). It was overwhelmingly impressive but that was actually my first silver mining city experience. (First times are hard to duplicate.)

I would now make the following observations/comments .... it's been long enough that I would enjoy going back... I was driving a Land Cruiser and many of the wires literally shook down out from under my dash due to the road and this has never happened before or since in the 270K miles of it .... I LOVED the horseback ride into the mountains and photo ops shot back down onto the city from above .... I have watched the really bad movie "The Mexican" several times (some of the locals are in it, including the hotel owner at Real) and I enjoy the movie just to see the city scenes in it, plus my girlfriend Julia of course .... the hotels I found started at around $85 US (double ouch) ..... didn't try the peyote but Tony from the Sopranos episode at least leaves a curiosity about it ... otherwise it's mostly what it's advertised to be, a dusty and plain looking brown building ghost town (of course with growing Gringo infrastructure).

The hills are near unmanageable on foot for a newbie but Guanajuato will be an excellent training ground for your city walk there. If you don't ride horses, you will miss half the fun. You can probably see the city in a day if you are limber, but lingering and chilling around is fun as well. If you have the budget for the expensive hotels there it's nice to fire up the pot belly stove in the crisp mornings if your hotel provides one. Note also it may be daunting to some if you stay in a hotel with a nice restaurant and are requested to order your dinner before noon, and you decide on the cabrito, and later while looking out your window you see the proprietor arrive early afternoon with a live baby goat tied in the back of his truck, knowing you are watching the beginning of your meal. But as Frank says - That's Life! You're ridin' high in April and shot down in May ... Enjoy the city - very unique.