Taxco

Well it didn't take long for me to remember why Taxco just may be my favorite place in Mexico. I went back to my favorite restaurant with my friend John (video below) and had some delicious queso cilantro with some chips and warm tortillas. Our view was incredible on a beautiful sunny day with a breeze in the air. The beautiful pink church behind us, Santa Prisca, was built by Jose de La Borda with the money he made from the famed local silver mines in the 18th century and is a great example of Baroque architecture from the period. The deal he made with the Vatican was that if he built the church, his son Manuel would be the first priest. Manuel was, in fact, the first priest of Santa Prisca and went on to build the Jardin Borda (Borda Gardens) in Cuernavaca, later a summer home to Hapsburg Emperor Maximillian in the mid 1800s.

Taxco is a trip back in time and has alot of European influence, with its cobblestone streets that twist and meander all through the mountainside on which the city was founded. You will not find any streetlights due to local ordinances, and the white stucco and terracotta tile roofs, also code, help preserve the city's charm and history.

That's Adriana, her little sister Lupe, and Marcos. They were quite the salespeople with their cute faces and multicolored Chicklets for a peso. They were kind enough to pose for a pic while standing in the doorway of the south entrance to Santa Prisca. The doors, by the way, not only of this church, but of so many of the places we have visited, are themselves beautiful pieces of art that have withstood hundreds of years of the elements, and still function perfectly with their hand-wrought iron hinges, bolts, locks, and handles. If you don't stop to look at the door you just passed through, you could miss these beautiful pieces of history, too, that are also great testaments to the skills of the carpenters and masons of the time. "They just don't make 'em like they used to" comes to mind.

Another picture shows a young girl selling chicharrones (pork grinds) and more outside her house on one of the many tiny alleys tht just never end and are almost never sraight. Work starts at a young age here in Mexico, and you notice it as soon as you leave the airport and everywhere you go. Speaking of the people, its long overdue that I mention how incredibly nice and hospitable the people of Mexico are. As John an i walk along one of the streets, now deep into their neighborhhods and away from the crowds and tourists, you can here the tone and genuine warmth of the man on my right as I say good afternoon to him. And that's how it is with everyone, everywhere, no exaggeration. I'll have to do an entire entry on the people of Mexico separate from the entries on the places we visit. It simply warrants it.

The last thing I'll mention is the silver. All of it is mined locally here in Taxco, and their are three mines still open today, though currently they are on strike as the "leader" of the mines, according to the locals, took off with their money and hasn't been seen in months. The silver, though, is all (if you go the right places) .925 purity or above, and is very reasonably priced. More noteworthy, though, is the uniqueness of the designs and craftmanship of each piece in each store. Even Frida wore a necklace from here as seen in one of the shops' photos. The pieces are almost as beautiful as the city they can be found in.