Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil
Papas on Juarez

We’re magnets to street food. Even if we’ve just eaten, we find ourselves drawn to the small stands selling various consumables for pocket change. Many days we took our snack to go, added an avocado, and called it lunch or dinner. On one lovely Saturday, we carried our camera along with us to document the … Read more

Guanajuato Sunrise

This is an installment in an ongoing post series detailing a typical day in one of our destinations. Not everything in this schedule might happen on any given day, but it should give you a good idea of our usual activities. 6:00AM – The first rays of sunlight start hitting the peaks across town out … Read more

Mezcal vs. Tequila

February 26th, 2013 | Posted by Ian in Food | Mexico | The Places We've Been - (7 Comments)
Bottle of Mezcal

It’s safe to say nearly everyone is familiar with tequila, even if they haven’t had any intimate experiences with it. The same can’t be said, however, for tequila’s cousin, mezcal. Let’s compare and contrast: Similarities Both are produced from the heart of the agave plant (though see below on how this is also a difference). … Read more

Museo Casa Diego Rivera

February 25th, 2013 | Posted by Brianna in Art | Mexico | The Places We've Been - (0 Comments)
Rivera's Grandma Looks Like Kenny Powers

There is a placard about 400 feet as the crow flies from our house in Guanajuato that reads, “Diego Rivera pintor magnifico nacio en esta casa el 8 de diciembre de 1886″ (which in English means Diego Rivera, magnificent painter, was born in this house on the 8th of December of 1886). Diego Rivera! Not … Read more

Quijote Painting

Even as we entered el Museo Iconográfico del Quijote, we didn’t really know what to expect. Quijote, Don Quijote that is, is a fictional character interacting with the world we live in through only the pages of a book. Then again, though neither of us have read of his escapades nor knew the extent of … Read more

Mercado Hidalgo

February 21st, 2013 | Posted by Ian in Mexico | The Places We've Been - (6 Comments)
Mercado Hidalgo in Guanajuato

Most decent sized Mexican towns have at least one mercado (market), where vendors come to sell foods and wares of a dizzying variety. Guanajuato is no exception. Mercado Hidalgo, which marks the unofficial eastern edge of the Centro, is a cavernous T-shaped building with an arched roof. Originally intended to be a train station (not … Read more

El Pípila and el Funicular

February 20th, 2013 | Posted by Ian in Mexico | The Places We've Been - (2 Comments)
View of el Centro de Guanajuato from El Pipila

As noted previously, El Pípila is Guanajuato’s favorite son. Born as Juan Jóse de los Reyes Martínez Amaro in 1782, his nickname is a Mexican Spanish word for turkey. According to lore, this arose either as a reference to his freckled face or to his laugh, which apparently sounded something like a turkey’s gobble. An … Read more

Universidad de Guanajuato

February 19th, 2013 | Posted by Brianna in Mexico | The Places We've Been - (2 Comments)
I Love College

The cityscape of Guanajuato is undeniably captivating. With the centro located in the bottom of a bowl whose walls are made of mountains, the rest of town seems to climb the surrounding hills, coloring the basin with brightly colored homes and colonial architecture without quite spilling over the top. The most evident and prevalent of … Read more

La Alhóndiga de Granaditas

February 18th, 2013 | Posted by Ian in Art | Mexico | The Places We've Been - (1 Comments)
Plaza de la Alhondiga de Granaditas

Though La Alhóndiga de Granaditas was originally designed and constructed to be nothing more than a place to store grain, it gained a few pages in every Mexican history book shortly after it opened its doors in 1809. Nearly square (72 meters by 68 meters), the exterior façade is simple and bare, with only a … Read more

Callejón del Beso

Mexican folklore tells a tragic story of two lovers in Guanajuato drawn closer to one another and then ultimately to their demise from their balconies across a callejón. Callejóns (ka-yay-hones) are a manner of connecting places in the city and walking them is often the primary method of transportation as very few roads passable by … Read more