There are only two more days left after today for Mexico week on TravelJapanBlog.com, and I have so many more pictures to share. I suppose we’ll have to revisit Mexico at some later date on this blog.

Today’s photograph is of the main building for the University of Guanajuato. It is located near the center of town and can be easily reached on foot if you are in the main part of Guanajuato. With almost 30,000 students and nowhere to grow in the immediate neighborhood most classes are held in other buildings though. The building I taught in was about a 10 minute drive from the building pictured here.

If you have spent any time in Mexico the above building may look familiar even if you haven’t been to Guanajuato. Why? Because it is featured on Mexican currency.

Posted on November 28th, 2008 under Other. Tags: guanajuato, mexico. Comments Off on University of Guanajuato

In the early 2000s the University of Guanajuato (Universidad de Guanajuato) built a new business school away from downtown Guanajuato. It is located on a hill and features spectacular views. The above photograph is of the cafeteria in the business school or at least the open air part of it. The climate is such that you can eat outside pretty much all year long.

I had a couple of students from Guanajuato at my university in Southern Oregon a few years back. I remember well the look of wonderment on their faces the day they came to class when it had snowed. It was the first time either had seen snow before.

Posted on November 27th, 2008 under Other. Tags: clouds, guanajuato, mexico. Comments Off on University of Guanajuato Business School Cafeteria

There are several symbols of Guanajuato. One is the mummies mentioned yesterday. Another is Don Quixote. The reason for the Guanajuato-Don Quixote connection is the nice museum in Guanajuato dedicated to nothing but Don Quixote.

Not only are the works in the museum very interesting and beautiful, but so is the museum itself.

The Don Quixote Iconographic Museum (Museo Iconografico del Quijote) is located near the Plaza de la Paz and Teatro Juarez.

I hadn’t read Don Quixote before my visit. After returning I did read the entire thing (all 1,000+ pages) with my son. I have an abbreviated version in Japanese (ドン*キホーテ) at under 400 pages that I plan to read someday.

Posted on November 26th, 2008 under Other. Tags: guanajuato, mexico, museums. Comments Off on Don Quixote Museum in Guanajuato, Mexico

Guanajuato, Mexico is known for its mummies. It is a dry area (although I’ve been caught in a few rain storms in Guanajuato), and there are natural chemicals in the ground which allow for a quick mummification process. The mummies you can find in the museum (El museo de las momias) are all modern mummies. I don’t think the oldest mummy is more than about a hundred years old even though no new ones have been dug up in over 50 years.

The mummy museum of Guanajuato features the world’s smallest mummy (on the right). The baby mummy pictured above, and its mother, died during the birthing process. It looks fairly large in this picture, but in real life it is only a few inches in height.

Ever heard of dying with your boots on? The guy in the above photo didn’t quite meet that saying, but he did die with his socks on, and they haven’t moved ever since.

Posted on November 25th, 2008 under Other. Tags: guanajuato, mexico, museums. Comments: 5

My first night in Mexico was spent at a hotel in Toluca. The next day I had meetings at Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México. After our meetings my colleagues (from Canada and New York) and I were taken to a local professor’s home in Metepec. The interior, pictured above, was amazingly beautiful I thought. Maybe it was just the high-quality tequila I was being served, but I remember being dazzled by the place.

The dinner table conversation was most unusual. Only one person there could only speak English (my colleague from New York). Several Mexicans could only speak Spanish. But most of us could speak two languages. The interesting thing is that those two languages weren’t English and Spanish. Three people could only speak French and Spanish. One (from Montreal) could only speak French and English. One Mexican could only speak Spanish and Japanese having lived in Japan for several years while in college. I can’t speak any Spanish. So there were two or three conversations going on in Spanish, two going on in French, one was happening in English, and mine was happening in Japanese. It was a wonderful meal and experience that I will never forget.

Posted on November 24th, 2008 under Other. Tags: mexico. Comments Off on Metepec, Mexico house