Can we talk about Guanajuato?

[DonJuane]

Indeed ....

I find Guanjuato a real butt-buster in terms of getting around the town. It usually takes me about 3 months after having left the city and once I return to get back “up to speed” in navigating it by foot. In fact it is quite easy to execute several 1500’ climbs a day while moving from place to place in this city. Bus service is available to a lot of places but for the most part, the place you probably want to go is “up” and the only way to escape the walk “up” is to spend over an hour on a bus, getting dropped off on the Panoramica to work your way down the hill to your destination, or hire a 50 Peso taxi to do the same. In Guanajuato, there is no way to drive the familiar “American Car” from place to place as you may be familiar with back home (or actually anywhere in a normal “car traffic” city). And add to that if you get stuck living out in the suburbs you’ll discover that not only must you still deal with navigating the downtown area, but your commute has been further complicated by now finding a way into town only to start from scratch on that normal uphill journey once you land there.

Now regarding the elderly. I have often wished to bring my own 88 year old mother here but I know I would have to hire a team and a stretcher to get her up and down the callejones in the neighborhood where I live. A wheelchair would seem like an option until you scope out the place and discover it will also require hiring minimally 4 strong men to carry it chariot-style from point A to B if she is disabled.

Some will decide to attempt to manage the city by owning a car, but you’ll pay a premium fee to find a secure parking lot and if the lot is convenient, you’ll find a neighborhood of people usually blocking you in where you have to track them down to get them to move their car to get yours out. And by the way, the car is only used to leave town because to drive your car into town and expect a place to park is a great challenge as well as a gamble, plus the effort to get it parked and back out is normally larger than that of simply walking and enduring the hills.

Now there is the Guanajuato culture. Understand that this is sadly changing as more Gringos move into the area which gives other Gringos a method of masking the culture which exists here. In days past, the Gringos mostly stayed to themselves and depended on integrating into the local culture to survive. This is actually the best route if you want to move to Mexico and be happy, that is, if you are forced to learn the language and integrate into the lives of the locals (else being forced to live a life alone, which is near impossible in the swirling culture of Mexico). So going this route is a win/win and this is what I like most about Guanajuato (among the many things that have been outlined here). If you are the ambitious type, have either learned previously or have a solid plan to learn Spanish and if in your journey here you also understand the concept and are quite willing to drop some of the notions of our own North American culture, then you can likely grow to be happy here and have a rewarding life. Some who have been most successful at this have worked hard to become part of the community, including volunteering in charities or even forming them themselves.

However if you are unable to adapt, hanging on to the traditional North American values which may or may not include, relentless one-upping, telling your own tales while not listening to others, bragging about who you were back home, your investments or properties, how much money you make/made, making up someone you have become now that you are in Mexico, working hard to show off your fancy car or other “things”, or otherwise attempting to glorify yourself in the eyes of others while using these methods then if this is the plan, you will likely quickly learn that something quite large is missing from your life here. At that moment you may become just another Gringo in the crowd, seen from Chapala to Costa Rica, watching the local boards or Gringo gossip lines for what is tonight’s “bar of the night”. You may huddle together while sipping your favorite beverage and reminiscing into the night about those traditional once lived North American values while trying desperately to find a new audience, or simply the way home after dark.

So in reality, the success of moving to Mexico and your happiness here will be completely in your own hands. I love it here and for all the reasons that I have spoken. And I always feel best when in my heart I find that as fair skinned as I am, I am thinking like a Mexican.

In closing I can’t help but refer back to perhaps not my favorite artist, but a guy I enjoy listening to heck of a lot. Part of one of my favorite, yet little known songs by Jimmy Buffett is “Banana Republics” …. And now, the lyrics to the song:

Down to the Banana Republics
Down to the tropical sun
Go the expatriated American
Hopin' to find some fun

Some of them go for the sailing
Brought by the lure of the sea
Tryin' to find what is ailing
Living in the land of the free
Some of them are running to lovers
Leaving no forward address
Some of them are running tons of ganja
Some are running from the IRS

Late at night you will find them
In the cheap hotels and bars
Hustling the senoritas
While they dance beneath the stars
Spending those renegade pesos
On a bottle of rum and a lime
Singin' give me some words I can dance to
Or a melody that rhymes

First you learn the native custom
Soon a word of Spanish or two
You know that you cannot trust them
Cause they know they can't trust you

Expatriated American feelin' so all alone
Telling themselves the same lies
That they told themselves back home

Down to the Banana Republics
Things aren't as warm as they seem
None of the natives are buying
Any second hand American dreams

Late at night you will find them
In the cheap hotels and bars
Hustling the senoritas
While they dance beneath the stars
Spending those renegade pesos
On a bottle of rum and a lime
Singing give me some words I can dance to
Or a melody that rhymes

Down to the Banana Republics
Down to the tropical sun
Go the expatriated Americans
Hopin' to find some fun