As a side note: There seemed to be a mexican cowboy convention happening in Mexico City when we left. See picture below - there were more cowboy hats than you'd expect and they were all hanging outside hotels as if on the way somewhere - like, a bootscooting or gun-slinging seminar or something.
We took a tour to Taxco. Many are run as day trips from Mexico City. But we decided to stay the night as we didn't want to be restricted by tour bus timetables of 10.5 minutes in a location before getting back in the tour van.Taxco is set in the hills on the way to Acapulco and took about 2 hours to reach from Mexico City, with a stop in Cuernavaca (pronounced Korna-va-ka) on the way.
We stopped to check out the impressive cathedral - the Cathedral de Cuernavaca - which was previously a Franciscan monastery dating from the 1500's.
These girls were attending a wedding - they were so super cute in their fluro tuile skirts.
The first of the silver - I was pretty excited! I bought the ducky charm in the 4th row, second from the right.
It wouldn't be shopping in Mexico if you didn't celebrate EVERY purchase with a tequila. Wowzers - my head was spinning after a few. It was only about 1pm when we arrived at this stop/shop and hadn't yet had lunch.
Arriving in Taxco. Our hotel was super cute - reportedly at 1600's convent.
There was some slight confusion when we booked the hotel. It's oldschool and so you have to call to make the booking (as opposed to almost everything else, where you can book online). The address that was given to us on the phone was different from that in the guide book, which was in turn different to that in the online ratings guide (tripadvisor.com - check it out if you are planning any travel). We weren't sure if we would be turning up to Taxco, only to have booked a hotel in another city. All worked out well and we did indeed book the right (cute) little place.
The streets in Taxco are all cobble stones, the taxis are vw beetles or combis and all the houses are required to be white with red roofs. It is these elements which add to the charming character of the village set in the hills.
I spot 4 pieces of jewelry that I already own which I thought were unique. Apparently not! Ha. These were some of the more heavy-duty pieces of silver jewelry and the prices didn't differ too much from home (disappointingly).
I had fun trying on the really expensive artisan pieces. This one is the original design as worn by Frida Kahlo. I love Frida.
The 'Vista bonita' - I'm slowly adding to my spanish vocabulary.
We stopped off for an afternoon refresher. I ordered a strawberry smoothie - it came out like pink Quick with 'can-o-cream' all over the top. Not reaaaally what I had in mind. But pink drinks are fun all the same.
We visited an artisan store with some really nice jewelry - but you had to pay a price! I tried on pretty much everything in the whole store and didn't find anything I loved! This bracelet came close - HA. It is a prawn bracelet that bend's around the wrist.
We played at the weekend markets - not much silver to be seen here just rows upon rows of beads.
Ah, after a long day of sight seeing, silver jewel shopping and walking up steep roads around Taxco - we settled in for dinner at a rooftop restaurant next to our hotel. Guacamole (mandatory), spicy spicy salsa, Tortilla soup and mushroom tortillas. Nom!
The following morning we explored some more markets - these ones were more for the locals to get their weekly shopping. We tried many edible things from street vendors. My broken spanish and their non-existant english made from some funny/interesting exchanges.
Not quite sure what this is but we ate it. See plastic cup in the back ground - it was topped with fresh lime and chilli. The consistency is almost like passionfruit as the white in the red beads are hard/crunchy seeds.
This is the red fruit lady who was so lovely and explained how we were meant to season our fruit with chilli and lime.
We took a vw beetle taxi to the hill at the top of Taxco to check out the Christ statue. The ride up was an adventure in itself - not to mention the ride down. I have some very funny video footage of our driver navigating the narrowest streets i've ever seen, on a very steep gradient, with oncoming traffic and sharp hair pin turns around houses and shops. Our driver was amazing - very much a precision rally car driver.
Getting ready to head back to Mexico city - smiles on our faces and our bags only ever so slightly heavier with silver. All in all I was dissapointed with the lack of quality and variety of silver jewelry. Most of it was like that stocked in Tree of Life and for the same prices.
I asked this guy (in spanish) if I could take his picture. He willingly agreed, only I think I asked him if he would take my picture... hmmm.... need to work on the spanish a bit. Anyway he was super embarrassed to have is photo taken and his buddies around him were laughing. I then tried to ask him if he knew what 'dork' meant - he said 'no, no english' and tried to shoo us away to pacify the laughter of his buddies.
Our trip back to Mexico City in the local bus was fun. We watched Wolverine and a pixar animated film in spanish. The seats were super comfy and had a HUGE leg rest thing that tucked under your calves so it was almost like a recliner seat.The arrival at the Mexico City bus station and the subsequent taxi ride into the city was interesting (and a little scary/stressful) to say the least. There was a huge cultural gap evident and noone spoke english to be able to understand where we were going. I thought the taxi driver was going to dump us on the side of the road in Mexico City (only one of the most dangerous cities in the world) as we had to pay upfront. Anyway, my fears were allayed as soon as the taxi driver popped in his CD which started blaring out 'Our House' by Men at Work. It was just a little bit of Australia in Mexico. Coincidentally in a later taxi on the way to Mexico City airport 'We come from the land down under' was playing on a cd. Men at Work certainly have a cult following here in Mexico.
Adios Amigos. xx
i think the fruit is a pomegranate - usually they have red skin though... but your description of the seeds inside the little red nuggets is definitely pomegranate!
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