Into the bowels of Guanajuato

August 13

This is a classic view in Guanajuato. The origins of the town are in mining. As the town expanded, it had to build over old mine works and infrastructure. On the surface, the streets are very constrained with basically two avenues through the center of town. But below, a warren of tunnels keep the traffic moving. People park their cars down in the tunnels since most of the residences are on alleys with foot-access only.

August 14

Building up the structures. And I needed to lighten up the stonework in the tunnel.

As I worked on this, the days-long festival (Virgin de la Acunción) at the church was reaching its climax (give it a listen below). Imagine this all day into the morning! One contributor of many to my recent insomnia. It has been cooler and rainy the last couple of days which has been great for my sinuses.

August 15

All done! The photo has the sky a lot darker than it is in reality. I just didn’t feel like working the photo over too much.

Saturday morning is the twice-weekly garbage ritual in the hood. People don’t leave their garbage out on curbs in cans. Instead, the truck drives up to a corner and rings a cow bell for about 30 seconds. Then the neighbors, still semi-asleep, do a zombie walk/shuffle with their cans and bags to the truck. This morning there was a man asking for help from the neighbors to empty the trash from the church because there was so much of it. Owing to the fact that I got a terrible night’s sleep last night thanks to the festivities mentioned above, I wanted to throw him in the garbage truck. I suppose I missed a chance to be a good neighbor, but I was wiped out. Tonight should be fine, except for the fact that they will be ringing their goddamned bells at 0630.

Tobias has been pretty good. He’s growing up. Ricardo is taking him on runs and his mother brought over her Wimaraner of the same age as Tobias. So he’s getting more exercise and company. We spend a few minutes with him every day so he won’t kill us when he gets big.

I just need sleep!