Taxco de Alarcón, the white city of silver

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We made it to Taxco on Wednesday afternoon after yet another long drive through the winding roads, this time with lots of bathroom stops (I think I have a kidney infection). There was another futbol game with Barcelona playing this afternoon - with Silvia here, we can't miss it! We didn't have time to drive downtown to catch the game, so we found a hotel near the road, which incidentally had an amazing view overlooking the city, and watched the game there. The keys to the rental car somehow got locked inside, so Pablo spent most of the game trying to find them, then waiting for someone to come and open the car to get them out. We left and headed towards the center of town, stopping for a late lunch at a tiny restaurant where we ate at a plank attached to the wall sitting on little stools. No more than five people could fit between the kitchen and the door. We walked around a little bit, then continued downtown, where we found parking in a lot.

Taxco, like Guanajuato, is a colonial silver mining town, but about half the size. It is hilly with a tangle of alleyways and streets through the stone streets lined with white houses and shops, but being small is easy to walk around. This is a beautiful and cozy town and is supported largely by tourism, both Mexican and International.

Pablo had heard of a cute hotel he wanted to see before we decided on a place to stay. It seemed nearly impossible to find! We asked someone working at a street stand in a busy alleyway market if she knew where it was. She did, but it was complicated, so she sent her son, age seven or so, to guide us there. We went through a maze of makeshift shops in the alley, then through a market, up and down steep hills and stairs, and finally we saw it nestled in with some other houses. It was cute and inexpensive, but how would we ever get everything from the car all the way here? It wasn't going to work. We did enjoy the birds on the patio though. Silvia saw her first ever hummingbird, and we talked to an amazon parrot in a cage on a table.

We found a hotel that had an entrance on the street, checked in, and brought in our bags. After a short nap we went out to see the city. We toured the church, then wandered the streets. We went into a courtyard of a nicer hotel and took fotos climbing the stairs. I saw a doctor at a pharmacy and was sent off with a diagnosis of a kidney infection and prescriptions to treat it. We looked through some of the many shops selling silver, and found a few nice pieces - a ring for my mom, a necklace for me.

Shopping: Although the big mines are closed, there is a lot of silver for sale everywhere. A few shops offer artistically designed pieces, but many look like cheap costume jewelery. Even so, there are treasures to be found by a careful eye and prices are good.

We ate our dinner on the roof of a tall building in the main square so that we could view the church and town at night. Silvia went back to sleep and Pablo and I shared a drink in a balcony of a bar overlooking the streets before heading to bed.

The hotel had left all the windows open in the rooms, and we found ourselves fighting off swarms of buzzing mosquitos all night. We changed rooms and blew the biting bugs out with a fan. It was a restless night. The only times I have encountered mosquitos in Mexico was here in Taxco, and in Cancun.

In the morning we headed to a famous jewelery gallery that was closed yesterday, but we were too early this morning as well. We walked around a bit more, packed up the car, and made our way back to the highway.

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