La Casa de Espiritus Alegres

See more B&B. Near to Irapuato (35.76 km) in Mexico.

Quirky, quixotic B&B crammed with folk art in historic ex-hacienda, 10 minutes from central Guanajuato

On the outskirts of Guanajuato, Marfil's fabulous stone haciendas were built 300 years ago to process silver from mines in upriver Valenciana. Ravaged by floods in 1906, it wasn't until the 1950's that they began to be restored. Californian artists Joan and Carol Summers bought 'La Trinidad', added a studio and terraces, and filled its eight bedrooms with folk art from their travels. It opened as the area’s first B&B in 1990, and it's still unique.

From every corner, figures peek at you - painted sculptures, Carol's own woodcut prints, a motley collection of benign skeletons. One, wearing a kimono over papier-mâché bones, grins a gold-toothed smile from beneath a baseball cap. An angel wheels over a headboard of painted flames; a psychadelic animal in gym shoes poses on the dining table; Mexican tiles clash boldly with Indian textiles. It's a charmingly chaotic, hallucinatory world, best enjoyed over one of their famous margaritas - for this, in every sense, is a 'House of Good Spirits'.