We arrived in Guanajuato with a bit of a drama, the toll roads really aren’t very direct but you do get there eventually but that wasn’t the problem, the roads were really steep and Peggy just didn’t seem to be responding so well.
We couldn’t decide wether she was just going so slowly due to the level of the climb but it was painful. Guanajuato’s elevation is 7,ooo feet and cramped in the bottom of a ravine…so to get there you had to get INTO the ravine! It was a long way up! The toll’s were getting more and more expensive the nearer we got to Mexico city and our budget is rapidly vanishing on tolls, fuel and accomodation before we have even done anything.
That aside we had decided that we would treat ourselves to a hotel for the night. It was Friday night, we had had a long few days on the road, we had not had access to a shower since Sayulita and the main reason was so that we could get online. Typically the only time we NEEDED to be online the only campsite in Guanajuato was both closed and clearly without wifi and I NEEDED to get online to watch my baby sister get married! Hayleys wedding was going to be streamed live so I could be there virtually for her big day. I had already had tears at not being there so the hotel was going to be the saving grace.
The wedding was at 11am UK time which was 4am Mexico time so we decided it was the best way, we could recoup, crash out and then get up to watch the ‘show’!
We drove around for a little while but couldn’t find anywhere to stay. We decided to use the GPS, typed in hotel and set off on the 4 mile road to comfort and relaxation.
The description of Guanajuato in the RV book is as follows…
“The town is a maze of crooked little streets, alleys and even tunnels…has a great deal of charm and so much to see…popular with tourists…but do not take a large RV anywhere near central Guanajuato”.
We are not in a large RV. We are in a 16 foot van. Nor are we intending to head into the centre of Guanajuato, we are just going to a hotel! We decided we would be fine!
Then we started the ascent!
It was pretty steep and after Peggy’s already long, slow, painful day we crawled along at a snails pace. She seemed to have lost all power! We looked at the GPS and with only 3 miles to go to get to the hotel we decided it surely couldn’t be that bad…it was worse.
We got so far up and Peggy completely gave in. She even stalled trying to reverse up a curb as we tried to turn around to avoid the hill ahead.
The way we had come up was a one way street so we had to follow the arrows to get out of this trap we found ourselves in, we couldn’t get up any further and couldn’t find a way down.
It was already dark but we remained calm and finally followed the GPS which was apparently leading us back down to the flat part of town. We turned down the extremely narrow alley and got around a tight bend to see a sheer drop in front of us. We had already gone downhill too much to back Peggy out so we had to go with it!

Peggy’s nose was literally teetering on the edge of a hill like a cliff face! The shiny cobbles under her wheels meant she could slip and if she did we would hit the house at the bottom of the hill. Yup, at the bottom of this drop was a 90 degree turn with the side of a house facing us. You have no idea how scary it was but there was no other way out, we had looked!
We went for it and made it down the hill but took Peggys back wheel arch off on the way around the ‘S’ bend. The adrenalin had kicked in before we even saw the next hill. Again with a 90 degree angle facing us, the hugest tope you have ever seen at the bottom and facing an actual brick wall we had to decide if she would make it down. We stopped to catch our breath and as we did people started coming out of their houses down this tiny little alley and waving their hands at us and gabbling in Spanish. They were telling us we could not get down and to go back. The way out at the bottom was too narrow for us! There was no way we could get through. The saying ‘stuck between a rock and a hard place’ has never been so true. We were at the bottom of a steep hill, around 2 90 degree angles with yet another steep hill on front of us and no power! What were we going to do?
One man came to the window who could speak a little English and told us to go down the hill, where, by doing a 15 point turn we could get Peggy turned around and drive her back out. We tried to explain we had no power and she wouldn’t make it but we had no other choice. I walked down the hill and looked at the narrow alley that was stopping us making it out of this terrible street. It was at least 3 feet too narrow for Peggy!

We had no other option but to do as the friendly Mexican said. We made it down the hill and over the tope and turned Peggy around with the help of 6 Mexicans whistling and directing us a tiny fairy step at a time, I swear they could do with a mechanical platform that turns you around down there…but there wasnt enough room! It was so tight we had to be touching the walls with Peggy’s back end or front end to even stand a chance.
Once she was facing back up the hill, the sweat was pouring off Alex and I was shaking with the adrenalin and the worry we would never get her out.
Everyone ushered Alex on to try to drive her up. The tope was huge and Peggy just couldnt do it. She was exhausted! The neighbour kicked Alex out of the drivers seat and he had a go at getting her up but no chance. The next plan was to push her over the tope, so all the boys got behind Peggys 3 tonne chasis and proceeded to try to push her over a tope as high as my shins and up a 45 degree angle!
Amazingly they got her over the tope but she just couldn’t make it any further. The put blocks under her wheels to hold her there and tried again when they had regained some puff.
It was no good. She rolled back to the bottom of her hill. Even if they had gotten her up the first hill the bends in the street were so tight and the next hill even steeper, there was no other way but to call a tow truck.
I had serious doubts that a tow truck would get far enough down to get us out but an hour and a half later he backed around the severe bend as far as he could.
The boys pushed Peggy back over the tope and half way up the hill, blocked her feet and the tow men fastened her front axel to their pulley.
She whined and the pulley squealed and then she moved. Little by little they dragged her up the first hill and by some miracle of goodness knows who she made it around the first bend with a hairs breadth between her nose and the wall as the tow truck swung her around it at speed with her front wheels off the floor.

I could barely watch. I peeped through my fingers like you do when you watch a horror movie! She had such a sad look on her face!

It took them an hour to get her out and back to the top of the hill. We waved goodbye to everyone who had helped us out and enjoyed their evenings entertainment and followed the tow truck down yet another back street just wide enough for us and he led us to the square where we squared up the 1000 peso’s with him (it was £50!!!!!!!)…and that is where we stayed. It was midnight and we were starving, exhausted, we had nowhere to stay, no internet connection and no inclination to try putting any other addresses into the GPS. We quite literally gave up!
We had a tin of soup for supper and went to bed devastated to be missing the wedding.
We had had enough and Peggy had really had enough for one day too.

Find out what happens next on our traveling wedding adventure!