All night adventure at Hotel Guanajuato, in Llera de Canales, Tamaulipas, Mexico

Actually, on the night of September 29, 2006, I wanted to spend the night in Cd. Victoria, but my friend Rodolfo Rincón wanted to spend the night in Llera de Canales, as he wanted to show us the area, and he told Jerry and I that he knew of a great hotel in the town to spend the night, where a room for the night could be had at a very reasonable price. I would have been happier to stay in Cd. Victoria, but I was outvoted, as Jerry and Rodolfo wanted to drive to Llera de Canales, and stay at the Hotel Guanajuato. OK, when you're travelling with friends, the majority rules...

Photo: The morning after, Rodolfo and the boy hotel clerk pose for my digital camera. Note the park bench on the roof, directly above Rodolfo, and the lack of railings, or any other safety measures. Safety measures are not in place, as the building is still under construction, which is within the law in Mexico.

Our friend Rodolfo is a lifelong resident of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, and he knew a hotel in the small town of Llera de Canales, and, as he told us, it was a decent place to stay and the room rates were very reasonable. I have to admit that I am a fan of reasonable rates, and since Jerry and Rodolfo decided to spend the night in Llera, the Hotel Guanajuato seemed like a good option to me.

Photo: The check-in desk at the hotel.

Hotel Guanajuato is located on Calle Miguel Hidalgo, near the town square at Calle Hidalgo and Calle Servando Canales. The hotel is located near the center of town, but since the town is very small, everything is within walking distance. Hotel Guanajuato has a monolopy on lodging, as it is the only hotel in town. I find that ironic, as the city of Llera de Canales has a website that promotes tourism, yet they only have one hotel, and it is, as per the experience of the author, somewhat lacking in amenities. Roldolfo knew where the hotel was located, so Jerry and I were able to drive up to the place in the dark. The hotel was lighted, and the front door was open, and it appeared very inviting to me, as I was tired from the huge day that we'd had, including the wonderful tour of the Museo del Mescal, and the capital city of the state of Tamaulipas, Cd. Victoria. Basically, I was ready for bed.

We parked Jerry's truck in front of the hotel, on the narrow, dimly-lighted street, and walked to the front door of the hotel, and entered the hotel, under the painted sign marked "Entrada." Llera de Canales is a very small town, and the only people that seemed to be in the area were two ladies operating a taco cart across the street, but they didn't pay us any attention, as they seemed busy cleaning their taco carts and wrapping up business for another night. Anyway, we approached the desk of the hotel, and to no surprise, nobody was present. Noting a sing on the wall that read "Timbre de Noche" (night bell,) we pressed it, and withing seconds, we were greeted by a 12-year old boy, who appeared to be our night manager/desk clerk, who truly seemed up to the job of multitasking.

Photo: The steep, narrow stairs leading to the second story, and our penthouse suite.

Posted on a wall behind the desk, a sign gave the rates for rooms designed for 1, 2, or in our case, 3 persons. The sign read that a 3-person room rented for only MEX $250.00 a night, which translates in U.S. dollars to about $8.00 a night per person, which was a rate that we were very comfortable about. We were in luck, as they had room 15 vacant, which turned out to be a penthouse suite for the three of us. So we signed up for our room, and paid the kid our MEX $250.00, and were given directions to our room, which was up the stairs, then cross the patio, enter the second story building, and it's the first room to the right. Sounds good!

From the hotel lobby, which is decorated in cheery art deco pastel tones, you go up the narrow stairs to the right of the desk. I'm not kidding, but to go up one floor, the stairs, which are narrow and probably only 36" wide, have two turns. The kid/night manager, actually guided us up the stairs, across the "patio," and showed us our room. As you reach the "patio," you realize that this is just the roof of the building, as you're presented with a bird's eye view of the street, 25 feet below you to your right, without the luxuary of a railing, or anything to keep you falling to the street if you don't correctly judge your footing. The "patio" is actually the roof of the building, and to reach the penthouse, you'll need to walk about 40 feet straight ahead, dodging protruding rebar, and doing the "limbo" under no less than three clotheslines, full of drying clothes, to avoid the garrote obsticle presented just trying to negotiate the obsticle course in order to get to the room. Oh yes, the patio light is very "romantic," as the only light available is from the few dim streetlights outside, so you sort of have to gingerly fumble your way across the roof toward the penthouse, taking great care to avoid the obsticles.

Photo: We had to cross this unlighted roof to get to the door, near the center of the photo that led to our deluxe suite. Note the exposed rebar in the lower left of the photo and the clothes lines; a.k.a. garrote? We had to dodge these obsticales to reach our deluxe accomodations. The flash illuminates the roof and gives a false sense of light, but in reality, it was very dark; thank goodness for flashlights!

We entered the penthouse, and our room, number 15, was the first room to the right. The kid unlocked the door, and attempted to turn on the light, and surprise, surprise, the light didn't light. To make a long story short, he quickly determined that the light bulb on the ceiling-mounted fixture was blown out, and, of course, they didn't have any spares on-hand. He asked if it would be ok if we didn't have lights, but Rodolfo put his foot down on that issue and said that we needed lights. OK, the kid said he'd go to the local hardware store, wake up the owner, and get us a light bulb. We asked him how long this would take, and he replied with something like, "Who knows?" Remember Dorothy, you're not in Kansas anymore...

Since ¿Quién sabe? was the best that we could expect from our host, in regards to the time when we could acutally settle into our comfortable, deluxe suite, we decided to park Jerry's truck in the hotel parking garage. You have to know that most Mexican towns are built with a small footprint, unlike most American towns. So a small town like Llera de Canales, with a population of less then 5000 citizens, has a very small footprint, and is very compact, by U.S. standards. So in keeping with the small footprint, Hotel Guanajuato has a small "garage" under the building, which at the time, was occupied by a couple of cars, and a lot of discarded major household appliences, including sinks, washing machines and dryers. Anyway, we parked Jerry's truck in the garage, and dragged our suitcases and other stuff upstairs to our deluxe, penthouse suite. Since the kid had not returned with the lightbulb, we decided to take a tour of the town... Llera de Canales at Night can be seen by clicking on the hyperlink which will direct you to the fun, exciting Thursday night we spent wandering Llera de Canales, at night.

Photo: The white railing is from the staircase from the lobby, but watch out to the left, as there is no railing, and that's Calle Miguel Hidalgo, unprotected and twenty feet below!

After exploring the town for an hour or so, we decided that we'd return to the hotel, as the three of us were tired and we really needed to go to bed, as we had huge plans for the following day. Llera de Canales is very small, so it only took us about five minutes to walk back to the hotel, noting that the taco stand across the street was closed for the night. The kid was waiting at the desk, and said that the lights were on, and our room was ready, so we wished him a cheerful buenas noches, hiked up the stairs, picked our way across the dimly lit "patio," avoiding the rebar and the clotheslines in the process, and entered our penthouse suite. We flipped the light switch, and we had light!

Now maybe that wasn't such a good thing, as we could clearly see what we had purchased for the night, for the pauper's sum of a little over $8.00 each: Tile floor, pink walls, 1 chest-of-drawers with mirror, 3 beds with lumpy matresses and sparce bedding, and a metal and plastic chair, with a television set on it that received two, snowy channels, from Cd. Victoria. The room was air conditioned, well sort of, as the window-mounted air conditioner had two speeds: Off, or On HIGH! It was as loud as a Texas tornado and really pumped out the air, but it was merely pushing the warm, humid air from the outside into the inside of our deluxe suite, as the "conditioning" part of the air conditioner seemed to to work.

Photo: The morning after. Note the bench that faces Calle Hidalbo, which provides an excellent view of Tortilleria La Unica. Watch out, as there isn't a railing, and you could trip on the exposed rebar. Thanks to Jerry Flinn for the photo.

The room had three beds (at least I didn't have to share a bed with one of my buddies... yikes!) which consisted of two standard beds, with a single bed in the middle. Since your author is the smallest of the three, I was voted to get the single bed in the center; Jerry posistioned himself to the double bed closest to the air conditioner, and Rodolfo took the bed closest to the bathroom, which was fine with him, as the TV sat on the plastic and metal chair near the enterance to the bathroom. Such deluxe accomodations!

I prefer to shower and shave before I go to bed, so that is exactly what I prepared to do. I've been sort of building up to this point, as the bathroom at our deluxe penthouse suite was an experience in itself. Now mind you, I served 8 years in the Navy, so I'm used to communal bathrooms, and spartan living conditions, and modisty is not an issue, especially when I'm among friends. That being said, I got a HUGE laugh out of our room's bathroom, as it was beyond a joke! However, it wasn't that bad, as in Mexico, many hotel rooms don't have private bathrooms, so at least our bathroom was private.

Photo: Rodolfo is flopped, exhausted on his bed, and Jerry stands by the air conditioner that he'd been fiddling with, trying to get it to "condition" the air, which was a futile endevor, as I snap the photo. I was deligated to the middle bed, which was the smallest one in the room.

The bathroom consists of a sink, a toilet and a shower, and its all contained within. What that means is that when you turn the shower on to take a shower, the whole room, including sink and toilet, get sprayed with water, and it's be design, as the excess water drains through an outlet in the middle of the floor. Previous to the Hotel Guanajuato, I'd only seen one example of an arraingement like this, and it was back in the 1970's at a girlfriend's place in Thailand, during my Navy days... Nostalgic to be sure, but... If you're looking for a door to separate you from the hotel room, you're sure to be disappointed, as there was only a flimsy shower curtain hung on a round rod, that reached down to about 18" from the floor. We're all buddies and guys, so privacy wasn't an issue, but a door would have been a nice touch... for a few pesos more?

I didn't get a chance to try the toilet out, up-close and personal, as it didn't have a seat, and perhaps more disturbing, the bolts that normally hold a toilet to the floor were rusted out, so the toilet was basically just held to its plumbing by the wax gasket ring that I assumed was there, coupled between the toilet and the waste pipe. No seat and no bolts to the floor! That's a no-frills experience!

Photo: Jerry took a photo of the toilet, and I just had to publish it on this web site. Note the stingy toilet paper, the lack of bolts holding it to the floor and the non-existant seat. Talk about deluxe accomodations!

Prior to taking my shower, I wanted to shave, so in the morning, I'd at least look somewhat human. OK, to properly shave, hot water is almost mandatory, unless you want to cut your face, and get a very unsatisfactory shave. As in the U.S., the hot water tap in on the left, so I turned the left tap, and a squirt of brown, smelly water sputtered out of the tap, much to my amazement. Now, this is not good! I just let the water run for a few minutes, and eventually the water started to run faster, and gradually, the brown color turned to almost clear, but I could not get the water to become hot, so I had to shave my face using dubious, tepid water.

Shower? Same routine: Turn hot water on and receive brown water. Wait five minutes until water clears. Wait five minutes to see if it becomes hot, well, maybe warm? No. Take a shower in tepid, dubious water. While taking my shower, I had to remind myself that I was only paying about $8.00 for the privilege of staying at this fine hotel.

By the time that I'd finished my shower, it was time for bed. Jerry and Rodolfo were already asleep, and the room was dark, but the air conditioner was blowing warm air from the outside into our room, but at least the air was moving and it kept the bugs away. So now it was time to settle down into my inviting bed, between Jerry and Rodolfo. Ah for a good night's sleep!

Photo: My left leg, the morning after enjoying a fine night at Hotel Guanajuato in beautiful Llera de Canales. During my lifetime, I've stayed in a few tacky joints, but I've never been ravaged like this before... Well, at least by bugs...

After a somewhat, fitfull night's sleep, due to the "Texas Tornado" effect of the un-conditioned air blowing from the un-conditioned "air conditioner," I woke up a daylight, just as Rodolfo and Jerry were starting their morning routines. Yuck! I didn't want to witness two middle-age guys getting ready for the day, so I just rolled over and tried to adjust myself to the confines of my thin mattress, and to sheild my eyes from the morning specticale by utilizing the threadbare bedspread.

Intrestingly enough, as we left our deluxe penthouse suite, Jerry and Rodolfo both commented that the water for the shower was hot and clear, not tepid and discolored like the shower that I had experienced the night before. What gives with this? Once again, I had to remind myself that I only paid $8.00 for a night of dubious rest. Oh yes, during daylight hours, its much easier to find your way across the roof, a.k.a. "patio," as you have daylight so you can avoid the obsticles.

Photo: The boy desk clerk and Jerry enjoy a sunny moment on the bench in front of the hotel, with Jerry's awesome Dodge truck in the parking garage of the hotel.

I can't recommend staying at the Hotel Guanajuato, but since it's the only game in town, if you're visiting Llera de Canales, you'll probably end up staying in the hotel. As an aside, the next night, as we were staying at the Hotel Monterrey in Cd. Mante, I noticed red marks, all over my legs, which appeared to be insect bites. After conferring with Rodolfo and Jerry, I walked to the nearest hospital, which was only a block away, to get treated for insect bites. I was diagnosed and treated by a very friendly doctor, for the reasonable price of MEX $300.00, and then I spent about MEX $150.00 on medication after the fact. So after spending around $45.00 for everything, I discovered that I had been bitten by bed bugs, probably from my previous stay at the Hotel Guanajato, in Llera de Canales. Well, life gives you "firsts" on a regular basis, and at age 54, I have to admit, being ravaged by bed bugs was a "first" in my life. Only in Llera de Canales!

I can't recommend staying at Hotel Guanajuato, but our night spent there was an unforgettable experience, and it gave me something to write about on this web site.

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