Guanajuato, Mexico -- Parking

My wife had an inquiry from a lady who wanted a two bedroom apartment, wanted it within walking distance of the Jardin, with parking, and wanted the best website for monthly rentals.

Sounds fair? Straightforward? Explicit?

It does, I suppose. However, the problem is that this online request reveals that this woman knows nothing about the central Mexican town, Guanajuato, to which she is coming for three months.

About 20% of the streets in Guanajuato are totally inaccessible by car. And, those car challenged streets surround downtown which is where most of the vacation renters want to be. On top of that, these streets are not your normal streets. They could be more accurately described as alleys that snake up the sides of the mountains onto which this town is constructed.

I fear that the reason most, if not all, vacationing Gringos want to be as close to Guanajuato's downtown as possible is another misconception that Guanajuato's tourist industry must have some sort of American tourists entertainment just waiting for them to come and enjoy.

Whereas there are the Mariachi singers who walk up and town the outdoor cafe's singing for tips, that is about it.

You see, Guanajuato is just a town. It is a historically significant town that is a treasure of things to see from its architecture to watching how life goes on in a town so important to Mexican independence.

But, there are no Disneyland events to entertain the Gringo.

Once my wife and I were in a church taking notes for articles we were writing. Suddenly, and without any notice, a funeral for a child began to assemble. The men brought in a small casket with the child and the family came walking mournfully into the front.

We quietly excused ourselves and headed out the door.

A group of four Americans, talking as loudly as they could and dressed for the beach, came rushing into the front of the church with their cameras blazing.

Can you begin to imagine being in that situation? You are trying to bury your dead child and a group of idiots start clicking pictures of your dead baby?

No American I know would have tolerated such an instrusion.

Yet, these Americans thought it was OK to do so in Mexico.

In fact, I have been told to my face the following:

"I spent thousands of dollars to come to this country and that means I can do pretty much what I want."

This has got to confuse the hell out of any thinking person and make them mad at the same time just why Americans do this.

So folks, there is not only very little parking close to downtown, there is no planned event to entertain the Gringo.

And please, please, leave your sense of American entitlement at the border when you come here. You don't have the right to be hideously intrusive no matter how much you are spending on your Guanajuato Vacation.

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A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel: A Guanajuato Travelogue CLICK HERE

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