December 19th
I booked into the hotel Posada and Spa and the owner instructed me that it would be best to take a taxi from the bus station to his hotel which turned out to be a very good idea. Taxco Is a very hilly town. There is not one single square meter that lies flat so although the hotel was not really very far from the bus station. It was up an incredibly steep and cobblestone Street. It would have been a nightmare to drag my suitcase up there. In fact, it was a strenuous experience just to walk up that hill. It made walking up to Eze seem like a stroll in the garden.
The hotel Posada was really a completely different experience. Unlike the very modern furnished rooms in my prior hotels, this was clearly an individual passion project. The owner told me that it had been an orphanage and that he had grown up in the orphanage and left to make his fortune elsewhere before returning buying the dilapidated building and fixing it up. It was so unique and there was so much to look at in every corner of the hotel. I loved it and really liked the owner who spoke English fluently and couldn’t have been more friendly and helpful.
So that first day I decided to walk up to the Zocalo. Wasn’t that evident how to get up there and it turned out to be incredibly steep with many, many, many stairs because somehow I found myself going up through the market rather than the street I should have taken. Anyway, I arrived a little out of breath but I got there. It was a very beautiful Square filled with Holiday makers since this is a favorite destination of Mexican people to go during the Christmas holidays. There was a lot of colonial architecture on these steep and winding cobblestone streets that led up to the Zocalo. I was approached by a guide who offered to show me around the incredible Saint Priscilla and Saint Sebastian Church up there that had been built by the Spanish when this was an important mining town. The church was absolutely gorgeous. Made out of pink Stone with a lot of paintings on the inside from the Spanish artist. Francisco Cabrera. Church was quite busy. Mexicans take the religion a lot more seriously than Europeans do, but the church was an excellent example of Spanish baroque. Pointed out a bunch of features to me, including the fact that pinkish hue of the church came from the rocks that were quarried nearby. Of course, the guide ended up insisting on taking me into a silver shop.
Taxco is known for silver which is the main reason that I made this a stop on my journey. I pretty much figured that the silver shops all around. Zocolo were going to be more expensive because it is really the center of the tourist industry in Taxco. But I used the opportunity to ask some questions. Look at some styles and start to figure out what I wanted. The owner of the hotel Posada had already informed me that I should wait until Saturday morning because there was a silver market in the center of town and that I would get the best deals there. So I did that but at least I thought well I come prepared.
I went back to the hotel for dinner but first I decided to take a look at the sunset that was clearly appreciated from the terrace roof of the hotel. It was so peaceful and relaxing, especially in contrast to the incessant cores and buses and mini buses and vans that clog the streets of Taxco. It was gorgeous. I watched sun gradually set and the lights go on in the hills of Taxco across the way.
The church is clearly visible in the center and the monumental Christ statue is in the distance.
The owner had prepared a special drink for me, a local specialty that involved mezcal and some lemon or lime juice and honey. It was great.
Then I went down to dinner and it was absolutely excellent. The owner prepared me a mole rossa which is a concoction involving an assortment of nuts mixed with white chocolate and an array of spices which he served me over salmon even though it’s usually served over chicken. It was the best meal I’d had so far in Mexico and it was delightful talking to the owner, Efren.
The following day I got serious and headed to the silver market which I thought was only going to last the course of the morning but in fact took up almost the entire day. I couldn’t believe the variety the workmanship of all of the silver makers there there was Booth after Booth after Booth of rings and necklaces, earrings and pendants bracelets. And what have you. The highlight was a necklace made of silver and turquoise in an Aztec Style using their traditional design that they placed upon their Shields. I loved it. As soon as I saw it and the seller told me that he had been working on it for 20 years. I had no problem believing it. In my opinion, it’s a work of art and I was proud to buy it.
In general I would say the silver was about 10% of what you would pay in Europe which is what made it so hard to leave that silver market ! Now I won’t have to buy jewelry for the rest of my life !
Eventually I staggered back to the hotel after grabbing a bite to eat in town, but the owner had prepared a type of cactus stewed and grilled called nopale which he served over beans.
The following day he recommended that I take a taxi ride to see the cascades, to see the Christ statue looming over town and to see the hotel Mission which provided entrance to a now unused silver mine. This didn’t work out well. I somehow had the idea that I was going to be able to see all of that in 1 hour on the taxi ride. So I got in. We went to the cascades which were very nice
Then he asked me if I wanted to see the Posadas azulas which were blue pools. The photo looked very nice so I said sure but I didn’t realize just how far it was. He was a great Drive across the countryside but it was about in about an hour out of the way.
The pools were very nice and well set up for vacationers but it wasn’t really what I expected and I was kind of annoyed that the 1 hour taxi ride for 11 euros that I was going to pay had turned into a 2-hour taxi ride and I still hadn’t seen things that the owner said were were highlights. So there was some kind of misunderstanding. The taxi driver said there would have been no way to see these sites that he listed in an hour anyway so I don’t know what was going on but that was nice to get out of traffic clogged Taxco.
I like the town mainly because of the silver without silver buying. I think a one-night stay would have been fine to just see the zocolo and the architecture and so forth. But the town was just really way too busy and clogged with cars. So I was ready to leave at 3:30 and take my bus to Puebla.
The 3-hour bus ride to Puebla wove through the Mexican countryside and the scenery was quite dramatic passing from mountains to fields to farms. Mexican buses are very comfortable by the way. Everything is extremely well organized the seats recline there’s air conditioning generally enjoyable experience.
Artes for the Art Deco architecture.
But I made it and the church was well worth it. I had never seen a church interior quite like it and I’ve seen a LOT of churches! I can understand why it was a major pilgrimage site.
