Australian Medical Students

[Charlie]

Hi all,

I'm a first year medical student from Brisbane, Queensland. A group of five of us are in the (very preliminary) stages of planning our overseas elective placement, hopefully at Hospital General de Guanajuato for a month in October/November this year.

This seemed to be the most active, English-speaking forum I could find about Guanajuato, so I thought I might join and introduce myself in the hope that I could find answers to (no doubt very many) questions as they arise.

I suppose my first question is about accommodation - I understand the hospital is a bit out of central Guanajuato, nearer to Marfil... is there much accommodation within walking distance?

Thanks a lot,

Charlie

[Jzmackenzie]

Charlie,

I graduated May 2010, so I understand.

October is VERY expensive in GTO for housing as that is the month of the annual Cerventino Festival.

Many people "house sit" for free housing. I suggest you try that first.

My website tells ALL about GTO. There are free downloads and many photos of the area at http://www.spanishimmersioneducation.org

Have a great visit!

Jacquie
(more about Mexico and free downloads: www.jacquelinemackenzie.com)

[mr bill]

Charlie, Thanks for joining gtolist.com and for your comments.

The general hospital is located in Colonia Burocratas [I think that is what the area is called] and some apartments can be found there [link] but it is better to say that the hospital is behind the long distance bus station and that there are many city bus routes that go there. This frees up your choice of location so you can find something more in el centro. There's not much to do in the area around the hospital. I'd suggest checking with the local program director here to see if the Secretria de Salud has its own transport from downtown to the hospital. The DIF which has an optometry program with Indiana University [which in turn has a sub-program with the University of Melbourne] has its own transport which takes the interns to work every morning.

October is a busy time in Guanajuato. It is when the annual Cervantino Festival is held. Busy but not impossible. Many places boost their rates but I learned long ago its better to have a full house than high rates and empty beds. [for my rentals at www.guanajuatorentals.com two of the three are already booked and the remaining one has only one bedroom] You can try an e-mail to Bernardo at www.gtomex.com. His website is also geared to vacation rentals but he is also a local real estate agent with other listings that are not on the website.

[DML]

Bernardo's e-mail address is : info@realgto.com

he is our realtor and i can vouch for him 100%. he is a great guy and his english is excellent if you cannot speak spanish.

good luck

[Charlie]

Thanks for your replies! We would be there from late October so hopefully we might miss most of the expensive accommodation but still catch some of the festival. Thanks for Bernardo's email, I'll be sure to drop him a line.