Somewhere⦠colder. And bloody hell, was Guanajuato cold. It may look sunny in the photos, but it was freezing. Dave and I arrived in our new home on an overnight bus, eyes twinkling with wonder as we gazed up at the colourful buildings. Except there was this strange stabbing pain in my head and a few hours after checking in to our Airbnb apartment, I was throwing up in the bathroom.
Or could it be food poisoning? He was looking as bad as I felt. Was this altitude sickness? Could it really be this bad? It was then that I started worry about what lay ahead for my time in South America. Some of my friends were currently in those places and were laughing at me reacting so strongly. Needless to say, I arrived in Guanajuato feeling a little bit pathetic. There was a nativity lorry and everything. It was all worth it. Guanajuato was seriously gorgeous, and I immediately decided I wanted to make it my home base, altitude sickness or not.
Dave and I spend so much of our time staying in guesthouses that simple things like an oven or a sofa or not having to work in bed fills us with euphoria. A lot of the restaurants in town had closed for Christmas and finding somewhere to eat usually involved a half an hour walk down a load of alleyways until we ended up at a tourist restaurant eating a bland cheese sandwich. We did manage to find an amazing taco stand close to our apartment where we had brain tacos, but other than that, it was a bit tricky finding decent food.
Fortunately, we found an enormous Mega supermarket, which meant we could cook and not have to worry about the lack of restaurants. But I left feeling conflicted and uncomfortable. It killed so many people that the city began to run out of space in their cemeteries.
In an attempt to solve this, a local tax was introduced, requiring relatives to pay a yearly fee in order to keep the bodies buried. The room filled with mummified children hit me hardest. There was a person who had been buried alive, found with her hands held over her face. We were encouraged to take photos, but it all felt a bit weird.
