We've took a trip to El Bajio. This is a region in Mexico north of the Rio Lerma that includes the states of Guanajuato, Queretero, Aguas Calientes, and the mountains of Jalisco. It is the birthplace of mexican independence from Spain, Mariachi, tequila, La Guerra Cristera which took place after the Mexican Revolution that pitted the faithful against the new mexican government laws restricting any religious manifestations. The area is still reknown for its staunch catholocism. We visited the cities of Guadalajara, Ajijic, Zapopan, Lagos de Moreno, Guanajuato, Dolores Hidalgo, Atotonilco, and San Miguel de Allende.
El BajioOur route followed the slow moving mephitic Rio Lerma from its beginning where it bubbles through the volcanic ash covering an ancient lake from the base of the Volcano Xinantecatl near Toluca all the way to Jalisco where it regurgitates its accumulations into Lake Chapala. From Lake Chapala the Rio Lerma's name is changed to the Rio Santiago. The only difference is the name. It is a river of foam and distinct fragrance.
Route of the Rio Lerma
Rio Lerma Black water tubesGUADALAJARA:
Guadalajara, our first stop, has never been one of my favorite mexican cities. I know it is rich in history yet it brings out my prejudices,, and I admit they are prejudices. In recent years the once and tarnished beautiful city center has been turned over to whacked out teens on a never ending party. There are abandoned locales to be seen everywhere.The periphery surrounding the center city has the look of the USA, a mixture of manufacturing, malls, and suburbia. Guadalajara is a prosperous place there is no denying that. The "Centro Historico", although still very beautiful, has the feel of being a little abandoned for a more modern interpretation.
Deteriorating Buildings in El Centro Historico.
Zona Moderna Guadalajara
Cow after Leonardo 
Restaurant La Fonda de San Miguel 
TEQUILA the old way 
Dicen que en Guadalajara si no eres mariachi eres gay.
Zapopan:
Zapopan is another religious site that is a suburb of Guadalajara. It is famous for its virgin housed in the basilica of Zapopan. She looks like a renaissance queen, her heavily adorned dress extending out from her shoulders forming a trinity of sorts. She is supposedly responsible for many miracles and is often the destination of pilgrims. Her statue is made of pasta de Michoacan, pieces of cornstalk smoothed and cemented together by glue.
Our Lady of Zapopan has the honor of being the first image of the Virgin Mary venerated in the State of Jalisco. For these and other reasons Our Lady was officially declared
Patroness of Guadalajara specifically against storms, lightning, and
epidemics. Accordingly, each year from 1734 up to the present day, The Lady leaves her sanctuary on the thirteenth of June and
throughout the rainy season, until the fourth of October, visits the
churches in every barrio of Guadalajara. In October she is returned to Zapopan in a procession starting at the Cathedral in Guadalajara followed, by some estimates, a million cheering people. For the rest of the year she is ensconced behind the altar in the basilica awaiting the faithful.
The Basilica of Zapopan 
Statue in the convent holdin the virgin
View of the large plaza from the convent store
Boracho en the corridor of the conventAjijic :
Ajijic is a village on Lake Chapala. It's long cement boardwalk was stunning this particular day given an approaching storm.
Storm brewing
Scott the dog, a staple of the malecon
Ajijic Malecon sunset
Malecon Ajijic sunset
Lake Chapala kids swimming
After we left Guadalajara we traveled northeast towards Guanajuato. We passed Lagos de Moreno, a site of bicycle pilgrammages. It was my first time to Guanajuato. What a surprise! It is a city like Assisi in Italy, a different color, but drilled out with tunnels like a chunk of swiss cheese or an ant hill. It is set within a convergence of bald, dry, mountainsides. There is not one 90° angle to be found in the entire town. There is a wonderful contrast between open airey plazas that appear like oasises, and small intimate courtyards. Narrow streets crawl up the hillsides like segmented worms. There are visual surprises everywhere. The zocalo is like page from Alice in Wonderland. Ficus trees encircle it but are trimmed to create a box canyon leafy fence suspended 6 feet in the air. When you are outside looking in, the center of the zocalo beckons like a tiny leafy diorama urging one to enter another world.
We left Guanajuato for Dolores Hidalgo over a desertified route,, yet toastily beautiful. I was enraptured by this ride over Sierra Santa
Rosa between Guanajuato and Dolores Hidalgo. The sun was intense and the
sky a crisp cerulean blue. The mountains were stunning. At first they
were bald and brown,,populated by spiney plants here and once in a while
there. As we climbed imperceptibly the urchin like cacti and
acacias were replaced by scrubby oak forest. One could see over the
thickets of bushy oaks into the mountainous distance. Red and brown
stone like an impressionistic painting done in earth tones.
Sierra Santa Rosa leaving Guanajuato
Sierra Santa Rosa leaving Guanajuato
Guanajuato Basilica
Zocalo Guanajuato
Towards more surprises 
Plaza
Zocalo of Guanajuato
Dolores Hidalgo:
Dolores Hidalgo is where the mexican separation fron Spain began with the famous grito of Cura Hidalgo, "Viva Mexico",,, and then began an endless fussilade of bullets and repetition. It is the birthplace, also, of Jose Alfredo Jimenez one of the the best song writers of simple frases that illustrate the profound dilemmas of the human condition. He is macho, or so it seems, then there are these self deprecating lines inserted into his songs that give one pause.
Excerpt from "Cuando Vives Conmigo" (When You Live With Me) by Jose Alfredo:
When my lips are welling blood
I will have entombed my defeats,
Today I surrender into your arms as well as anyone
because I know that my love without your love is worthless.
I will have entombed my defeats,
Today I surrender into your arms as well as anyone
because I know that my love without your love is worthless.
Excerpt from "Mundo Raro" (Strange World)
And if they want to know about my pastIt is necessary to tell another lie
I will tell them I came from a strange world
That I don't know about sorrow
That I triumphed in love
and that I have never cried
Exerpt from "El Rey" (The King)
Afterwards an muleteer told me
That one need not be first
But one must know how to run the race.
Church Dolores Hidalgo 
Pharmacy center of Dolores Hidalgo
Dolores Hidalgo Center of Town
Atotonilco:
Atotonilco is a World Heritage Site.
The 18th century church is the site of many pilgramages to El Señor de Atotonilco. In Mexico religious sites are divided between embra y macho. The embras are devoted to a Virgin and the machos to Jesus. In Mexico there seem to be more sites given to virgins than to the man on his lonely wooden tower. The virgins seem to attract both men and women,,,,more women overall,, we all know the importance of motherhood,,, and the machos seem to attract more men. Jesus started a men's club or so the story goes, a club that pérsists to today.
Many men, and some women travel to Atotonilco for pilgramages of denial and penitence. They may go for a two week retreat, wearing necklaces of chafey ixtle, whipping themselves with latigazos of the same fiber,, and sporting crowns of thorns. We attended a mass presided over by a benedictine priest who gave a sermon that perked my interest. Usually when the sermonizing arrives I start to fantasize about the architecture, but this priest talked to us like a wise working class guy,, even swearing a couple of times. He extolled the value of love and loyalty instead of repeating the same tired dogma.
Side Note: When the insurgents of Miguel Hidalgo passed through Atotonilco they grabbed a standard, with ironically an image of the Virgin Of Guadalupe, which from that moment on served as their fight flag.
Sanctuario de Atotonilco 
Benedictine Monastery near center of Atotonilco
Crowns of thorns for sale
Statue of Miguel Hidalgo
Inside the sanctuary
Ceiling inside the sanctuary
San Miguel de Allende:
San Miguel was on the "precious metals route" between the mines in Guanajuato and Mexico City. Like Tenancingo, which was on another precious metal route between Taxco and Mexico City. Guanajuato is laced with parks and fountains and a great site to see preserved colonial architecture. This beautifull town has alarge population of North Americans. San Miguel de Allende, once a mining town, then a ruin, is now a legendary town of artisans and
poets. Stirling Dickinson, an artist from the USA started the trend in the 40's. San Miguel de Allende was in ruins after the revolution. Dickinson is credited with attracting other artists to San Miguel to begin its cultural renaissance. His Institute Allende attracted foreign students after WW II. Many stayed. Now it
is filled with colonial mansions, terraced cobblestone
streets, and flower-filled patios. Its North American expatriate colony
of 10,000 organizes plays and lectures and even publishes a newspaper in
English. It is said to be the perfect
town for English-speaking retirees in Mexico who are
looking for ties with North American social groups. Dickinson, changed the face of San Miguel making it attractive to foreigners,,, and then perhaps Dickinson was a latter day colonist,, or at least the result of his efforts placed two cultures in each other's way, the North American and the Indigenous. One day years ago in San Miguel early one morning I was walking towards the zocalo on the narrow sidewalk of Calle Umaran. A blond North American lady was jogging on that sidewalk in full regalia,, lycra, white baseball cap, new sneaks, and earphones. She came up behind a Chichimeca lady and began marking time while yelling at her to get out of the way. It was clearly an attempt at bullying. The Indigenous woman ignored her and kept walking at her pace, and finally the blond stepped down into the street and passed her.
La Parroquia de Sam Miguel Arcangel
I have enjoyed your Bajio trip.
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