Cerro de Sirena

Cerro de Sirena

From Cafe Tal (the one on Sangre de Christo, near Santo Cafe and Bar Fly), walk up Callejon Temezcuitate through the colorful neighborhood to Panoramica. Follow it to the left until the buildings largely end and you reach a ruined church on a hairpin turn. Dive right onto the trail before the church. Go up through a river valley and around the end of a hill. At the top, follow the trail to the right. From there, it is fairly easy going across high, dry hills with stunning views, eventually passing the cross high on the hill to your left, with the city to your right. You can choose to take a spur to the left (follow red blazes) up to the high cross; this part is steeper and tougher going, and can be skipped, although it is worth it for the views and sense of accomplishment. After this spur, when you return to the main trail, you will swing around the right side of another hill with a cross, then follow the horse trials down until you come out into a group of buildings just above Panoramica. From Camino de Mulas, instead of following it onto Guijas and down to Panoramica, it would have been better to turn right onto Calle Plateros, and would have brought us onto to Panoramica not far from where we first hit it. As it was, we knew we had overshot; instead of going right onto and staying on Panoramica for just a little longer than we did, we dove off of it the first chance we got; it brought us out near the baseball stadium. This is not bad, because you can go to the market at Embajadores for fresh-squeezed orange juice and crackling pork rinds, a well-deserved treat, before heading back along Sangre de Cristo to the starting point at Cafe Tal. All in all, a lovely hike, with many peaceful, windswept views of beautiful Guanajuato. A few mules, a couple of horses who politely let us use their trail, and many dogs (all friendly) completed the day.