A Day trip to...Celaya, Guanajuato

Celaya Skyline in the city centre

OK, so this again is one of those towns where the locals of the city advise you to not visit. They say it is crime ridden, dirty, and not worthy of your time.  This, as usual, makes me wanna go all the more!  Now living in Queretaro, Mexico after moving from Guadalajara for a new job - it was the first of the new towns to explore.

Statue of Independence

The city is famous in Mexican history for an epic battle which took place in 1915..  Now it is mostly a quiet town renowned for its strawberries and raspberries (although I saw very little of either on my visit).    The town has quite a few oddities which will be of interest for a wandering tourist.  Firstly the city has the countries first statue of independence in the city centre and also features a large metal water container right next to the beautiful cathedral and historical buildings. Whether you feel that the water container is an eye sore or an interesting addition to the skyline is up to you.  I find it kind of awesome!  It really breaks the skyline up from being just another colonial style city with pretty buildings.

It would be super to have tours to access parts of the ball but heyho.  Nope,  You just have to admire it from underneath.

The city centre is reasonably small and after an hour or so on foot you can explore most of the side streets of the main part of the city.  I found the city museum (http://cultura-celaya.com/museo.html) really interesting and the displays were well managed and well presented.  Additionally on a Sunday the main plaza often has a band playing and on my visit was full of people dancing in the open air.  A pleasant and good way to spend a few hours people watching.

I would like to return to the city at night as there seemed to be some incredible looking cantinas - traditional and huge!  I will update when I have explored them!