Ghosts are a very real part of Mexican culture, and as we are here in November, just after the Day of the Dead celebrations, their presence lingers. Decorative skeletons and skulls are on display at many houses and hotels, nowhere more so than at a fantastic little hotel we discover at mother must-stop on the silver town trail, the state capital Guanajuato, a picture-perfect colonial gem, full of partying students, craft markets and mariachi bands.

The Casa de Espirilus Alegres (house of happy spirits) in Marfil, a village just outside, was a silver-processing hacienda in the 1700s, and is now a bizarre and magical hotel so full of folk art it' s practically a museum. Since the 1950s it has been cared for by artists, including, since 1979, present owner Carol Summers, from California.

As soon as we open the Secret Garden-like door into the overgrown courtyard I feel like I’ ve entered a fairground ghost house. Every inch is covered in grinning wooden skeletons, intricately painted tiles, patterned rugs and giant animal figures.

Even the breakfast table, where we eat freshly baked chocolate-chip bread off crazily painted ceramics, is covered in skeleton fabric. There’ s an artist’ s workshop in the basement, a help-yourself bar in a Rajasthani tent in a garden full of sculptures, and monstrous carved ceremonial masks on every wall. All pre-Hispanic communities had a mask-maker, whose pieces were worn for ritual “evil dances” . Mask-makers sprinkled a tree with blood or mezcal before cutting wood for the mask, and some used hallucinogenic herbs and mushrooms before carving.