(I am experimenting with larger format pictures in this post…let me know if this causing issues with loading the pages, if so, I will revert to the smaller sized photos.)

We arrived in Guanajuato to a warm welcome from a friend of Derek’s who, after falling in love with and marrying a beautiful Mexican woman, has moved to the city.  David and Claudia have a great home and a wonderful family, and it was our great pleasure to stay with them while we explored their city.

The ceiling in our bedroom was amazing, it is called a Boveda ceiling, a self supporting vault dome built out of brick.  Ignore our amateur bed making skills….

David and Claudia’s home, with wide archways, heavy wooden beams and fantastic art, was an interesting and fun place to stay.

Guanajuato is stunning.  It was once an important silver mining city and is built into the hills of the surrounding mountains.  An interesting feature of the city is the tunnels that are now used as part of the road system.  The older ones were originally built as a diversion for the river to prevent flooding.

We walked through one of the longer tunnels.  It was maybe half a kilometre long.

But the real appeal of the city is the beautiful architecture, the cobblestone streets and the colourful homes.  We spent three nights with David and Claudia, and were lucky to have them as our personal guides for much of our time there.

Basilica Colegiata de Nuestra Señora de Guanajuato.

Teatro Jáurez.

Many homes are accessible by stairs only.  Beautiful, extensive murals like this abound in Mexico.

Universidad de Guanajuato.

There were photo opportunities everywhere you looked.

Artists have painted similar views of the city many times.

The view from El Pipila.

We were able to pick up the fridge parts my niece Fedexed to Guanajuato and we used one of our days in the city to do the repairs.  It is a bit of a process, as you need to access the fridge from both the rear and the front, so we had to take everything out of the fridge and partially remove it from its enclosure.  Derek replaced the thermo couple and the interrupter, we put the fridge back in place, turned on the gas, looked at each other and said, “Should we test it out?”  Well, of course, you would say, why wouldn’t you test it?  Well, we have been having trouble with this fridge for as long as we have owned the camper (10 years), and have replaced the thermo couple a few times, so it is a bit of an emotional subject for us.  Derek seems to always be opening the back of the fridge to fiddle with the thermal couple.  But this is the first time we have replaced the interrupter…maybe we are on to something?

Anyway, we sparked her up, and the little dial went all the way to the top!  We smiled, we said “Woo Hoo”, we high-fived each other; it was a very happy moment for us.  Where we are camped now we have electricity, but every once in a while we turn it to propane and start it up just to see that little dial go to the top.  The real test will be if it starts up after driving some rough roads, but we are cautiously hopeful that we can now operate the fridge on propane – great for when we don’t have electricity as even two batteries are not sufficient to operate the fridge overnight at normal temperatures.

We loved our time in Guanajuato; it felt very festive, despite the spring like temperatures.  And we enjoyed our time with David and Claudia and their family. We accompanied them on a Christmas shopping outing, grabbed evening tacos with them at one of their favourite taco restaurants (10 pesos for a taco….about 70 cents Canadian….yummy!), and went with them and some of their relatives to Jumanji: En la Selva (Spanish dubbing of the movie Jumanji: In the Jungle) at a very nice, brand new movie theatre with a ton of leg room! It was fun to hang out with their family and to learn about their Christmas traditions.  ‘Tis the season for family, and we thank them for making us feel like a part of their family for a few days.