Balconies and Back Streets

There is a street in Guanajuato that is so narrow, from one of its balconies you could reach over and shake hands with someone on the other side. Of course this is by no means unique, but in this instance one of the addresses was a craft shop, which extended up to the first floor. From here I stepped out onto the balcony and gazed several inches across at the bedroom over the way.

It would, I reflected make a perfect setting for a film set based around the theme of illicit young lovers. Shakespeare would have been impressed.

And if the craft shop owner ever felt like making a few extra Pesos, I am sure if he had a kind word with the people from opposite, they could strike a business deal, whereby courting couples, on payment of a fee to the establishments could lean over across the two balconies and grasp hands, whilst being photographed from down below. It felt like a missed opportunity.

There are also many streets in the old part of Guanajuato, where the footpaths are so narrow as to make even single file walking a bit of an achievement, and where as lorries emitting exhaust fumes pass through, the olde world charm is somewhat lost.

It reminded me of a satirical postcard I once saw of a dilapidated cobbled back street in northern England. The 1930s photograph showed shabbily dressed shoeless kids sat on the doorstep of a terraced house. One of them clutched a football. Parked in the middle of the very narrow road was a Rolls Royce, which took up the whole width of the place. ‘Vote Conservative for wider streets’ was the caption on the card, which you understand had not been produced by the Conservative Party.