After an awful night sleep because our dorm mate was up and down the entire night - using the bathroom, walking up and down the stairs, turning the light on to pack his bag. Thank goodness he finally left at 05:30 which gave us 2 hours to get some sleep. Our alarm went off and we woke up completely bleary eyed. Kevin had been bitten by something in the night so his lower back was covered with bites... :( Not a great start to the day. We packed quickly, ate some breakfast and were quite happy to walk out the doors of our junk hostel. We had a great time in San Miguel but the accommodation was something less than ideal. A quick local bus trip took us to the bus station and off we went to our next stop - Guanajuato, the city with the same name as the province. R15 was the difference between the cheap bus and the luxury bus so we opted for the luxury bus - snack pack, wifi, lots of leg room and headphones to watch movies (making the bus quiet instead of being blasted with Spanish voice overs) The journey was bliss! We had booked into a hostel on a hill so we had the option of taking a taxi to the top and walking down 1/4 of the stairs, or taking a bus to the bottom and walking up 3/4 of the stairs. We decided to go with the taxi to arrive, and the bus when we left. What we immediately noticed on arriving in Guanajuato is that the houses are painted different colours. Our hostel was built around the owner's house so it had all these different passages and decks on different levels looking out on the city below. We dumped our stuff and went to explore. That evening we returned with some drinks and snacks and sat watching the soft evening light settle over the city. As the light faded, the city's lights were slowly switched on until everything twinkled below us. The next morning we were up bright and early and only ate a small snack for breakfast - we were doing a Food Tour of Guanajuato. We met our guide, John, and we spent the next four hours wandering around the city eating and drinking various different things and hearing about the history of the city. We have tried to be quite adventurous with our eating in Mexico - eating street food, not always knowing what we have ordered and often, by default, trying new foods. It was really great to have someone with us explaining and decoding the menus. We visited a bakery and saw the guys baking pasteries in a wood and coal oven, a fresh juice stand, different taco stops and a stall selling Carnitis - basically beef tacos that are only sold until midday. Seems more like a lunch option but it is a breakfast food here. Maybe it's because we were eating food at the time but I remember more of this place's history. Guanajuato used to be a major silver mining town, and many of the mines are still active. The city is built on very hilly ground, so virtually every point in the city is on a slant. There used to be rivers running over the land but they needed space for cars so they dug tunnels so the rivers could flow below the ground. After a while they needed more space for cars so they build a sewage system and more tunnels for the rivers to flow and the previous tunnels become roads. The bigger buses and taxis have been rerouted below ground level to ease congestion on the ground level. At different points there are short steep staircases so you can pop down into the lower ground level. There is space for cars to park below ground so it feels like a whole underground secret network. Really cool! Other interesting place we visited was The Alley of the Kiss. According to the legend, there were a young guy and girl who fell in love but their families were enemies so they were forbidden to see each other. Nevertheless, the couple found out their way to meet in this alley - she lived in one house and he rented the house opposite, with the balconies very close... so close that they could lean out and kiss each other. One day, the father of the girl found them right in the moment when they were about to kiss each other. The father, blinded by fury, killed his daughter by stabbing a dagger on her back...!?! Local people believe that couples who kiss on the third step below the two balconies will enjoy seven years of complete happiness. I think they are just trying to bring a happy ending to the story of Crazy Dad With A Dagger. We finished off the tour with some icecream and then walked back to our hostel. With such full bellies it was definitely time for a siesta. We woke up later feeling well rested and walked into town for some dinner. The next day it was time to check out and catch another fancy bus tour second last stop - Guadalajara. Our time in Guanajuato was brief but very colourful and full of delicious food.