The road from Guanajuato-Santa Cruz de Juventino at the 9 KM sign is the turn off for this park. It is listed in Church's book with more detail. The park is a large grassy area with power and water at each site, it has a dumping station in a separate location. The showers and washrooms are clean with hot water. The office for the park is in the restaurant next to the gate. If you need a ride into town, the owner will drive you in a 8 passenger van for 150 pesos. It is a nice quiet park with occasional dog and coyote barking at night. Todays rate: 170 pesos/night/rig.

Feb 14, 2009…Betty's notes

The road trip to Guanajuato was short….only 88 kms. We are now parked at the Bugamville RV Park, 9 km out of Guanajuato. We took the yellow secondary road from San Miquel de Allende. The road was scenic and was one of the best secondary roads we have taken so far. Big rigs would have no problem traveling on this road.

We are only here for four nights so once we got settled into our campsite we took two of our small cars and drove into town. Wow!!!! Although, San Miquel has its own uniqueness, Guanajuato is a treasure that we will never forget. The original village was built in the valley of several hills. The village kept growing into what is now a quagmire of homes, churches, and government buildings, as well as several university buildings. It is amazing how the buses and cars manage to traverse the narrow twisting and turning streets and tunnels.

We were a bit nervous driving in the town so we parked the car at the Mega store parking lot and took a cab. Our first stop was the Museo of the Mummies. We could have done without that point of interest. I still have nightmares. The whole museum was focused on exhumed and preserved dead bodies. I suppose some people would find this interesting. We did not stay too long. Good thing they gave us a senior's discount!!!

We took a cab back down to the Basilica Nuestra Senora de Guanajuato. It is a lovely and grand church that seems to loom over that section of town. Not far from there and up many steps is the main university building. Guanajuato is a university town. There are several thousand students attending the many annexed university buildings that are scattered throughout the town.

One of the main attractions at Guanajuato is the underground tunnel system. Because the town was built on a riverbed, the town would flood during the rainy season. The local authorities developed a system that rerouted the river. They built several tunnels that allowed traffic to flow easily from one side to the other. It was a neat experience to travel the tunnels.

On Thursday, seven of us hired a guide to do a tour of the city and surrounding area. He took us up in the hills overlooking the city. What a fantastic view. The panorama photo that Larry has inserted on the web page does not do it justice. One has to be there to really appreciate the view. It is like a photo out of "finding Mario". The guide also drove us through the downtown area that reminded us of an ant colony. People and vehicles were hustling and bustling everywhere, up and down narrow cobble-stoned streets, in and out tunnels.

Guanajuato is also declared a Mexican National Monument that dictates that all buildings must comply with the colonial theme. The guide also took us to do a quick tour of one of the silver mines. It was the discovery of silver in 1559 that gave birth to Guanajuato. There are several mines still in operation in the area.

Saturday is John and Sherry's 20th anniversary. We are taking them out for dinner to a lovely restaurant in the main square. It will be delightful to experience the romantic nightlife of Guanajuato. (And it was....the whole town was alive with many many people hustling about. There were vendors everywhere selling fresh flowers, balloons, crafts, etc. We had a great meal at the Restaurant Valadez which is located across the street from the Teatro Juarez. The service and meals were excellent. Some of us ordered steaks. They were the best beef we had tasted in all of our travels in Mexico and they were reasonably priced. We had a window seat which gave us a great view to people watch and to watch the street perfomers. Lynette had fun joking with the "Mime") We are sorry that this photo page is so large but we just could not get enough of Guanajuato!

Hotel Medrano is listed in Churches book and it appears nothing has changed much. There is good parking around the garden at the curb with full hookups at the curb. It has easy access off of Mex 45. Even though it is located almost downtown, the Mex 45 highway is a good double lane each way and no problem traveling on it. Current Rate: 150 pesos/night/rig.

Hotel Hacienda Del Bosque RV Park, Zacatecas is perfectly described in Church's book on Mexican Camping. It is close to a major highway and even though there is a 6 ft. solid fence you can hear the road noise. This year's rate is 350 pesos/night/rig, which is a bit high for parking in a parking lot. There is a small grass area behind your rig where the power hookups are, but not much good except for maybe walking a pet. The indoor swimming pool is very nice, excellent gym and the first class showers have a fresh sealed bar of soap in each, the bathrooms even have toilet paper! This is a first class hotel.