Saturday Night Paseo

Last night, Mark and I had our first real Saturday night on the town in Guanajuato. We ate dinner on the plaza right next to the glorious Teatro Juarez, which proved to be prime seating for watching the evening paseo unfold.

A group of about 40 people gathered on the steps of the theater next to us and engaged a group of Estudiantinas to perform - They are a kind of minstrel group of men dressed in Shakespearean-like garb, who sing songs and wander through the streets of town to entertain people. They mingle around the plaza and beckon to passers-by, then sing songs and tell jokes and lead their audience on a tour through the streets.

After dinner, Mark and I joined the stream of people strolling around the Jardín de la Unión, Guanajuato's zócalo, or central plaza. It is a wedge-shaped plaza, and the center is filled with trees whose dense branches form a green ceiling over the area. Along the edges, tables spill onto the sidewalk from restaurants and cafes (and, I'm afraid to say, a Starbucks), and a few stores display ceramics and jewelry and T-shirts.

You can join Mark and I for the two minute walk as we circle around the entire plaza. It is 10 p.m., and the zócalo is full of people of all ages: chatting with friends, listening to music, eating dinner, taking photos. We pass a mariachi band (you'll hear the horns) playing for a group at one of the restaurants.

The music, really, is amazing: Within 100 meters and a few minutes, we watched the Estudiantinas perform traditional songs like "De Colores," we passed the flashy horns and accordions of a mariachi band, saw a ranchera band (decked out in white cowboy hats and perfect white pants with their guitars and amplifier), and then heard the driving rhythms of cumbia surge out of a corner bar.