Puerto Escondido & Guanajuato

Puerto Escondido on Mexico's Pacific coast had some pretty impressive beaches and is a popular place for surfers, not that I even attempted surfing with my sense of co-ordination and balance what would be the point??

Though this dog seemed to have no problems - every time his boy went out to get on his board the dog followed and wasn't for being left out.

And the local mobile shop (the wheelbarrow) comes to the beach to sell some goodies.

This poor porcupine puffer fisher was washed up on the beach.

Puerto Escondido is still a fishing village so the fishermen are out early every morning and are joined by the pelicans and egrets trying to poach from their catch.

I hadn't been planning on going diving again but it was so hot in Puerto Escondido that by 11am you couldn't walk on the beach and though the waves were great for surfers it was not safe for swimming - so what option but to hit the dive spots for a few more dives........

I thought there was different types of Puffer fish here but it turned out the yellowish ones are just young males who haven't reached puberty yet!!

Sophia my dive instructor.

Some old anchors and a bottle on the sea bed.

A lobster

Stonefish - I had been warned about these little guys on a few of my dives as they are the most venoumous fish in the world and can be fatal to humans though this is the first time I have seen one. They get their name as they can camouflage themselves against the rocks and it is easy for divers to stand or put their hands on them!!

A little Porcupine Puffer.

I couldn't believe the number of star fish I saw on these dives their were literally hundreds of them - and different types.

Sophia demonstrates to me that this was the shedded spike from a swordfish.

A big turtle resting on the rock.

I'd seen a little bit of a Greeb Moray Eel before hiding in the rocks but this big guy - he must have been at least 4m was just sitting on the sea bed.

A very colourful shell with another mollusc thing living inside it.

Quite a few little eels as well - a spectactled eel and a zebra eel.

Quite a few little shells attached to the rocks or on the sea bed as well.

This little guy was just having a rest after a long swim.

Alys the daughter of the lady who run the hostel I stayed at in Puerto Escondido.

Guanajuato City which is also a World Heritage Site was one of my favourite places in Mexico - a colourful maze of narrow cobbled streets and quirky buildings. This city was built in this area after the discovery and boom of the silver mines.

There is a series of subterranean tunnels built under the city to help with traffic congestion which adds to the atmosphere in the city.

I was only in the city a couple of hours when I came accross this dance show which was pretty colourful and lively.

Just on the outskirts of the city is Templo La Valenciana - there are a couple of different legends surrounding this temple - it was built to honour a promise of a local baron who became rich from the silver mines or it was built to make amends for the exploitation of the miners!!

Of course there was a visit to one of the old silver mines.....

Probably one of the strangest museums I have been to travelling was the Museo De las Momias - this place just highlights Mexico's obsession/fascination with death. These mummies, which are not thousands of years old, in fact some were only buried 30 years or so agao, are from a local cemetery where basically they were running out of space so family members were asked to come and pay for them to remain there or claim the bodies. When they dug up the graves they realised that the lime and clay combination of the soil had mummified them. Those bodies that were not claimed were put in a temporary store but were attracting so much interest that they eventually opened up a museum. Only in Mexico.

The view over Guanajuato from El Pipla.

It tunred out that I was in Guanajuato for the start of the Cervanino Festival which is a festival of performing arts....though lots of concerts and shows on I just enjoyed all the free street entertainment. As you can see this ranged from firworks, clowns, dancers, mimes, some strange opera type preformance and an even stranger dance show with girls changing thier clothes and getting down to their underwear!!

These kids liked Feliz so much and were arguing over him I had to rescue him before they ripped him apart!!

There was also a few musuems and galleries in Guanajuato with some quirky stuff on display.

The Hacienda San Ganriel De Barrera which used to be the home of an old wealthy Mining family shows just how the rich in this area used to live. The gardens here were beautiful and I found a nice place in the shade to sit and chill with my book for a while.

Callejon Del Beso, AKA The Alley of the Kiss - the narrowest alley in the city where as you can see the balconies nearly touch. The local legend here is that a wealthy family once lived here whose daughter fell in love with a commoner but they were forbidden from seeing each other. He rented a room in the house opposite and they would secretly meet on the balcony for a wee kiss - but it all ended in tragedy when they were discovered!!