On our last trip to Guanajuato, 20 years ago, we took a tour and saw the main points of interest around town.
This time we had two conscious goals. We wanted to see a couple of things we've heard of since then but hadn't seen. We wanted to:
1) Check out El Callejon del Beso (The Alley of the Kiss) a site of local legend, and
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| Hidalgo's corner of Alhondiga de Granaditas |
2) See the Alhondiga de Granaditas (the old Grain Exchange building) a building where an important early battle of the Mexican Revolution took place, and that later became a symbol of Spanish oppression when the Spaniards placed the heads of the leaders of the insurgents on each corner of the building.
Other than that we just wanted to wander around town and hang out.
We'd accomplished all the random wandering we wanted to do, and on our last day found the two locations we'd intended to visit. It looked like our trip was complete.
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We had a couple of hours before our shuttle was coming to take us back to San Miguel and figured we'd just find a cafe' to hang out in.
We ran into an American who lived in Guanajuato and discussed things we might want to see with her. She recommended the best coffee in town. We decided to go to one of their shops to have a cup of coffee and while away the next couple hours.
We headed in that direction but only got about a half a block before seeing the Diego Rivera Museum.
I just started laughing. That moment was just so 'us'.It's like we literally can't leave a place without checking out where the local artists live, and work. Even if we don't do it 'on purpose'.
A friend had even told us before the trip that we should check this out. We'd said: "Sounds right up our alley." But then we instantly forgot about it.
Now here it was right in our face. If we'd walked down any other street we'd have missed it. If we'd been looking at the architecture of a building on the other side of the street we'd have missed it. (The photo to the left is of a sign inside an inner courtyard of the building. The sign outside isn't very big.)
But we didn't miss it. We stumbled right into it, the museum was open...and we had just the right amount of time to see everything without being rushed.
Diego Rivera Museum
This is the childhood home of Diego Rivera. The lower floor is set up with furnished rooms. Nothing is original to the home, but it did give you an idea of how the home was when he was growing up there.The majority of his work is at Casa Azul, and other locations around Mexico City, but there were enough to get an idea of his style and his ideas.
My favorites were the portraits of several of his friends, and family, including: Frieda Kahlo, and David Alfaro Siqueiros, whose murals we've seen at Bellas Artes in San Miguel.
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| Michael getting chummy with Diego |
I also gained an appreciation for the connection between Rivera and Picasso and their artistic conversation exploring the same subject matter in their own ways. My favorite like this was a small sketch of a white dove. I'd love to have a print of Rivera's version, but I've searched online and can only locate Picasso's version.
We spent a very satisfying hour or so wandering the museum, and still had time to get a to-go coffee and sit for a bit in the Jardin de la Union before going back to San Miguel.
Perfect. There are times when I think that, maybe, we should do more planning for trips, but we're so often rewarded for our haphazard ways that it's hard to make the effort. Or maybe we actually need to leave the space for serendipity to play into our days.
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