We slept in till we woke up this morning, which felt absolutely fantastic on this first day of vacation. Once we all showered and got ready to go out, our first stop was, predictably, for a cappuccino, which was dutifully drunk in the sunshine in the midst of the flower market. The flower market plaza was today filled with woven palms of all sorts, in honor of Palm Sunday today.

We knew there was a mass at 1:00, so our first stop was the Alhondiga, site of the huge massacre of both Mexicans and Spaniards, which El Pípila finally won for the Mexicans, by burning down the huge wooden door with the oil the Spaniards had released so the Mexicans would fall in the streets.

It was gorgeous! To think that this building, which from the outside looks like a fort, and from the inside looks like a palace, was built as a GRANARY! Some lucky cereal! It has had many lifetimes, at one point serving as a prison. We could see holes in the marble where bars had once been, and cutouts in the wooden doors where guards could look in at the prisoners.

After we toured the Alhondiga we walked over to a nearby church to attend Palm Sunday mass. You can see that every other resident of Guanajuato also lined up to attend one of the many masses held today, in one of the churches on nearly every street corner here in this gorgeous city. No shortage of Catholics here today!

The Immaculate Heart of Mary was absolutely gorgeous, and completely overcrowded.

After mass we were starving and happened up a side alley onto a beautiful and very quiet little plaza. There we ate lunch. Greg and I both had “enchiladas mineras,” which we decided are basically pan-fried quesadillas covered with potatoes and carrots, and served with a sauteed chicken breast.

After lunch we walked a couple of blocks to the famous “Callejón del Beso,” where two star-crossed lovers supposedly lived on opposite balconies, just a few centimeters away from each other.

At this point we were getting a bit tired, so we took a cab over to the Mummy Museum, which is beneath the Panteón de la Ciudad, the city cemetary.

We met a lot of very friendly and kind people today, and thoroughly enjoyed our one full day this trip in this UNESCO World Heritage city. We will be back! Tomorrow we hope to visit one of the silver mines, the Valenciana.