Taxco and Bryan's Visit

Last weekend Bryan came to visit for a week. We started the weekend by taking a bus trip south to the town of Taxco. This is an old town built into a mountain where there were silver mines many years ago, thus the town is know for all of the silver shops. We checked into our hotel and found our room to be divine!!! It had a beautiful balcony where you could sit outside and look out at the view of the town, including the large cathedral situated in the zocalo (center of town). We thought to ourselves...wow, this doesnt get much better! This was a special weekend because it was Bryan's birthday and a very happy reunion as well.

We walked the two blocks into the zocalo, checked out the amazing interior of the church - all the statues, floweres, chandeliers, and all the gold baroque decor. We walked into about 5 silver shops and were silvered out by then. Everything started looking the same. So we focused on lunch!! We found a great vegetarian cafe with lots of hippy decor and a friendly dog named Miss Pinky who sat next to Bryan through the whole meal. We found out later from the owner, Sascha, that Miss Pinky is very choosey in her friends.

We explored the town some more with Bryan feeling very adventurous and getting us lost in the back streets where NO tourists go. As we delved in deeper into the neighborhoods, the streets became dirtier and the homes went from beautiful haciendas overlooking the mountains to shacks made of corrugated steel. Luckily we saw the tip of the cathedral in sight and made our way back to the hotel. Once inside our safe haven, we were pooped and took a long nap. We discovered while resting however, that the main thoroughfare into town was a big hill leading to the zocalo and it was right in front of our hotel. So, while napping, and all night long when trying to sleep later (after a romantic birthday dinner at an outdoor cafe with views of the city at night and a full moon), we heard cars reving their engines to get up the hill. I am of the belief that the people in Taxco never sleep because the cars never stopped!! But did I mention the view was amazing......?

The next morning, we put our climbing shoes back on and explored the city some more. And you know me....I've got to find the nitty gritty to this town. The place that the tourists don't go...and we found it in the Sunday market. We walked through stalls of fresh produce as well as everything a person may need to survive...including the best gorditas I've ever had. Mine had a mixture of potatoes and tomatoes with a green salsa verde while Bryan had his with green salsa verde, cheese, and cream. I will shamelessly admit that I have had the ones at Taco Hell and these blew them out of the water. I'm a gordita snob now - only the best will do.

We made our way back to Cuernavaca on Sunday where we befriended a Swiss man, Rene who checked into the school. Rene is really interesting. Not only is he lively in personality but has tons of interesting stories to tell from his world travels over the past 30+ years. He and Bryan quicky became friends and thank goodness, because while I was in school, he and Rene would hang out in the town. (Rene is fluent in Spanish and was only visiting his friends who owned the school).

I wished Bryan a Happy Valentines today and wished him un buen viaje back to the states. After his sendoff, I came to Coyoacan with two friends from the school, Katharina from Austria, and Brigit from Sweden. Coyoacan is a suberb of Mexico City (to the south). This place reminds me of LA with all the beautiful spanish style homes behind large ornate gates with bougainvilla blooming everywhere. We went to the Frida Kahlo museum today and I have become infatuated with her. The physical and emotional pain she went through in her life and the production of such intense paintings full of her grief....wow. And to see that actual bed that she laid in with the mirrow above it so she could paint her self portraits. Very cool.

After the museum, we traveled 10 minutes by taxi to the area of San Angel where every Saturday, there is an artists market in the park. We walked through a beautiful park checking out all kinds of cool paintings and photographs. It's a good thing I wasn't close to home or I would have been tempted to buy, buy, buy.....

Now, I'm back at the hostel, decompressing from the day and chatting with my friends about where to go for dinner. More later....