Tuesday Market - Trip To Atotonilco

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Yesterday was another busy one.  I still get up early but we don't seem to get out of the house until 9:30.  We're relaxing and I enjoy watching the news, reading, and using the internet.  Tuesday market at the top of the hill is a gringo day as well as locals.  It's much bigger than the Sunday market but what makes it different is all the characters that show up.   I don't know if they flock to SMA because they're different, odd or interesting but I usually don't see these people in the U.S. unless I'm never in the right place at the right time.  People watching is fun and I could do it all day.

We had a light breakfast there with a quesadilla topped with a bit of asado de puerco.  It was delicious.  Just enough to get in a good walk around the market, pick up and look at stuff and then put it back down.  That's what people do when they shop.   The used clothes market is really something.  There are tables for 10, 20 and 30 pesos per item and now I see quite a bit of Chinese imports that sell from 1 to 10 pesos.  1 peso?  I mean really, people will buy anything.

Heading out to Atotonilco, I remembered we had gone as a group with Norma, Croft, Claudia, and P.J. several years ago.   Atotonilco was established over 300 years ago.  A Padre Neri claimed to have seen a vision of Christ telling him to build a place for penance and meditation.  Another version says that the terrain around Guanajuato looked similar to those lands around Jerusalem, I am assuming he had read about it in his studies or had seen drawing and painting of the Holy Land.

The church in Atotonilco is also known as the Sistine Chapel of the Americas.   It took the artist 30 years to paint the interior.   This was also the first stop for Hidalgo on his march for Independence in 1810.  The church underwent restoration in 2010 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Independence.  Several major issues were discovered and they all had to do with humidity and minerals that were being absorbed by the walls from the aquifer that flows below it.  This is the water that goes to La Gruta where they have thermal water pools.   So not only are there minerals that affected the structure also the steam from the naturally heated water did its job as well.  Walls were sealed, paintings restored and sealed and an addition added in the last 100 years was torn down as it blocked sunlight from entering and keeping the walls dry.  Atotonilco is listed on the World Monuments list.  Well worth seeing.