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Last Updated on June 20, 2021 by Natalie

As we passed through the famous tunnels of Guanajuato City, Mexico, I began feeling excited again. I felt with renewed vigor, passing into a beautiful city that I’d never seen. Maybe this visit would be better than I thought!

The famous tunnels of the city were an unique and delightful sight. The old buildings that walled in the narrow roads were gorgeous and colorful. I was beginning to see why Guanajuato was considered one of the most colorful cities in the world.

Lost in Guanajuato City, Mexico

How the day started

Our time in Guanajuato started out just like our time in Guadalajara. We got lost.

We were looking for a particular parking lot, but as we passed by a one, I thought we should park there. It was a feeling I had. I almost suggested we park in that lot, but I didn’t. Instead, we circled the city again, using the VERY WRONG GPS. We turned off the main drag onto another street. It looked right according to the GPS. I assure you, there were not any signs marking this street in any way shape or form.

None.

But as we were again joining the street we’d just come off of, a police officer flagged us down.

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I call shenanigans

Apparently, this COMPLETELY UNMARKED street was for pedestrians only. I do call bullshit on this. We passed another officer while on that street who did not give our car a second glance.

We try to explain what we are looking for and give him the name of the parking lot. He asks for my husband’s license and wanders away. My husband follows him. I can see him talking with the officer and another man in the rear view mirror. My husband and the officer head back to the car.

But they pass by. I watch them through the windshield, getting increasingly uncomfortable.

Where’s my husband?!

After that, the officer wanders off out of my view. My husband follows. I expect them to come back any minute. The car is on with the AC running, but as the minutes tick by, the car grows hotter. The kids get antsy. Where is my husband? Is he okay? Is he getting beaten up in an alley somewhere?

Natalie, I tell myself. He’s fine. He is not getting beaten up in an alley somewhere.

Finally, he reappears and asks me for 7 more pesos. He has to pay 207 pesos to get his license back.

But!

No, he is not allowed to give the money to the officer. He has to give it to the construction worker near by instead.

Guanajuato’s “Welcoming Committee”

Welcome to Guanajuato City. We almost left. Getting lost is stressful enough without the welcoming committee.

We regrouped. My husband drove all the way outside the city and then back in. We finally found the lot and it was full. We drove through town again. Slowly. Very, very slowly. The city’s roads are narrow and the traffic barely moved. We parked at the lot I wished we’d stopped before. It ended up being closer to our hotel than we expected.

Check out Guanajuato’s hotel availability, search for La Casona de Don Lucas Hotel. The location is amazing, the breakfast is great, and the coffee was worth the effort!

Don’t let one person ruin your day, if you can help it

We tried not to let the Guanajuato welcoming committee ruin our time, but we both struggled to let go. My 5 year old son and I rode the funicular (it was a highlight!) We ate food. Then, we tried to walk to the mummy museum. But one of the kids in particular was feeding off my negative energy and whined during our entire walk. I thought said child would eventually get tired and stop. Nope.

We eventually gave up and started back. After a rest stop, we took a short cut through a pedestrian area.

The event that completely ruined my day

I saw two German shepherds gallop past, obviously street dogs. Of course, the street dogs make me sad, but at least these two handsome dogs weren’t as skinny as some I’ve seen. I couldn’t actually see their bones. Then, their squabble started. I tried to ignore it, as I didn’t believe they’d carry on for too long. However, I am not a street dog. Nor are our dogs. And this was not a minor disagreement.

The fighting dogs carried on for a minute and then one screamed and limped away.

My heart broke

I snapped. I dropped a few f-bombs in front of other tourists. And I didn’t care.

I hated Guanajuato.

We went back to our room and vegged out before our tour. And by vegged, I actually mean that I had a full on crying meltdown.

Check out these awesome things to do in Guanajuato City!

The turning point – our tour with Callejoneadas Guanajuato

While we were eating, we were approached by a couple of students in elaborate black velvet costumes. There are several groups from the University of Guanajuato and they all seem to fall under the name Callejoneadas Guanajuato. For some reason, we said yes to purchasing the tickets for the tour later in the evening.

As we were regrouping in our room, I was worried that our tour was going to be totally in Spanish. Guys, I can’t understand enough Spanish to participate in something like that yet. But I’d already bought our tickets. Since I had already been angry, I was angry again. I was so tired of wasting money.

This is where things took a turn for the better. We were provided an English speaking guide. The tour included music, a ceramic frog cup and grape juice, the men serenaded the women, they acted out the kiss alley legend, and we actually had fun. In fact, my foul mood that alternated with crying earned me a romantic picture kissing my husband on the third step of the kiss alley.

Even the kids had fun during the tour. It helped I brought a carrier and I carried each child for a time towards the end of the tour. I do recommend carriers for those who want to participate with young children.

Tour notes

Though I’m sure things are a bit different since 2020, I will note this tour was huge. There were a lot of people, maybe 100, and it wasn’t always easy to hear the speakers. Since we had a guide pretty much giving us our own private tour within the tour, it was a wonderful experience for us. Since then, I’ve read reviews that it would be better to decline buying tickets on the spot and instead go to the gathering place and see how large the day’s tour will be before purchasing. At the time, there wasn’t a limit on the tour size.

The food was fantastic

After the tour we grabbed some reasonably priced tacos at a little place just a block or two from our hotel. We went a bit further down to the Oxxo and grabbed water and snacks for the evening. In the morning, we chowed down on the hotel’s included breakfast. The coffee was divine. I drank my first cup black, even though I usually add milk, almond milk, or cream. It helped the pounding headache I’d had since waking. I had some crazy sci fi dreams that had vague Terminator and Star Trek overtones.

Additionally, our first meals on day 1 were also great. We picked two random places that had interesting menus. I tried green pozole for the first time and it was perfect. Pozole is a type of Mexican soup and it’s a favorite in our family. My husband’s favorite is the red pozole, which is also great.

A must do in Guanajuato City: Ride the funiculur

I highly recommend riding the Funiculur in Guanajuato City. My son and I went up and enjoyed the view at the top. Keep in mind your ticket is good for one-way passage only. At the time, my daughter didn’t want to ride it, so I was unable to explore the area above, which included some shops. We took a few photos and bought our tickets to head back down to meet with the rest of the family.

I also really enjoyed this activity.

A word on scams

Though in Mexico, bribing legitimate police officers is a thing that happens and is common, I discovered later that this was likely a fake officer or a transit officer who didn’t have the authority to issue tickets. Ours was most likely the latter, given the odd way my husband had to follow him around a few blocks. We were still newer to Mexico and had been given various types of advice on how to proceed in a situation similar to ours. This one was just out of the ordinary. My husband’s company contracts a security company to help us navigate various situations, such as being pulled over by the police. My husband did call them. The person who answered the phone talked to the officer and then told my husband to pay the fine.

While in a perfect world, we’d have refused and forced the officer to take the license to the police station to pay the fine directly, we followed the advice we were given with the tools we had. Since the man was either someone without the authority to issue tickets or a fake officer, it would likely have ended up this way no matter what and was probably why we were given the advice we were given.

It took a few years to completely piece together this particular story. I started by writing about it right after it happened and then adding the bits and pieces I’ve discovered as our lives in Mexico have continued. We had been scammed and that was why it felt so bad and weird.

Wrapping up our trip to Guanajuato City

In the morning, Guanajuato was better for me. I was going to walk around and look for the Teatro Juarez, but I was afraid of getting lost. I had my daughter with me, so I’d rather not end up having yet another bad adventure in ol’ GC. There were less people. Walking around was definitely easier. But we were done. We packed up and left.

At the time, I’d have told you that it’s unlikely we’d return. Though it isn’t high up on our places to visit again, now I wouldn’t rule it out. It’s a beautiful city!

It was one bad travel experience, after a year’s worth of great ones. It happens. Mine just happened to be in Guanajuato City. It’s likely that your experience will be better than mine!

Have you been to Guanajuato City? The best feedback comes from readers. Please leave a comment with your thoughts and suggestions. Thank you!

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