Mysteries of Guanajuato

Like any good travel destination, Guanajuato does not reveal all of its charms at once, preferring to retain that certain air of mystery to keep the traveler is intrigued. There are at several mysteries of Guanajuato which continue to keep this particular visitor baffled. Here are two:

1. The bells.

Mexico is a Catholic country, and there are plenty of churches here in the city. Each equipped with a belfry. The mystery is what possible benighted schedule, if any, governs the sounding of the bells. On a typical evening, 8 o'clock will come and go, with barely a tintinnabulation (or whatever it is that bells do) to mark the occasion. Then, for no apparent reason, completely out of nowhere, 8:15 comes and every church in town goes crazy. It can take 5 minutes for the assorted pealing to come to an end.

Not that it's the same every night. That would be far too simple. Some evenings the eruption might be at 8:45. Or there might be two, one at 7:45, another at 8:30. The only consistency appears to be that the full campanological power is rarely unleashed directly on the hour. Because that would seem altogether far too reasonable.

2. The hotel furniture.

I've had two weeks to ponder this, and it still has me beat. Did they have a contest? Did someone actually come up with a competition to see who could design the worst furniture ever? I'm not talking aesthetics here (though God knows some of it is pretty ugly). I'm just talking in terms of actual - you know - function. Because most of the furniture in my hotel room is actually completely useless. Bulky. But useless.

Unless, of course, you happen to be paraplegic. Or a midget. Or both.

You doubt me? You want photographic documentation? Be my guest:



Not actually usable by anyone who has, you know, knees.



Useful if you were thinking of entertaining a couple of the seven dwarves, maybe.



This almost hits the trifecta. It's bulky, hideously ugly, but is not completely useless, I suppose.