Thursday, 3/14 - Taxco, City of Silver

 Got downstairs for an early start to a long day.  We set off on a toll road (advertised to be much safer than more-local roads) which took us to Chilpancingo, the capital city of Guerrero, in about an hour.  There's a huge statue of Vicente Guerrero Saldaña (1783–1831) who took part in the independence movement, was Mexico's second President, and who hailed from the area.  The state ultimately adopted his name as its own -- nice!

We stopped there for breakfast; enchiladas verde and an egg dish rich with chorizo.  We were about a third of the way to Taxco, so we didn't linger.

Shortly, the road became very local and narrowed to two lanes.  We were driving through the Sierra Madre on very mountainous terrain; at one point, police were directing traffic alternately on ONE lane as a downhill-bound truck had overturned right into the mountainside.  Ears popping and water bottles occasionally leaking due to the altitude changes, we drove on until the road got too narrow to even have two yellow lines between the lanes.  Yikes!!

Then we arrived in Taxco.  It's a charming place, built when streets needed only to accommodate an oxcart or two.  There are patterns laid into the cobblestones to help keep traffic and pedestrians separate, but when bicycles and scooters are added to the mix ... well, it's interesting.

Taxco is noted for its elegant and creative silver work, and the first shop we stopped at seemed to be the cream of the crop.  The owner supplies Nieman-Marcus and Tiffany, and has exclusive arrangements with a number of local artisans.  The offerings ranged from the predictable necklace chains up through silver-decorated porcelain and Statement Pieces worthy of Freda Kahloe.  Freda, by the way, lived in the town for a good while with Diego Rivera, and several shops showed beautiful replicas of pieces that she's shown wearing in old photographs.

An interesting side note on this shop ... the first floor was primarily devoted to items handcrafted by men.  The mezzanine was devoted entirely to women artists who, we were told, never duplicate an item.  It would have been easy to say "one of each!" but we restrained ourselves to JUST A LITTLE damage there.  At another shop, we saw a replica of a silver mine ... tours are unavailable for two reasons.  Generally, no one can tour because the miners have been on strike for some five years now.  For us personally, no tour would have been available in ANY case as it's "bad luck to have women in the mine."  Growf!  At a third shop, there was an astonishingly-detailed version of a crucifix, showing the arms and the long hair hanging down.  Each hair is a fine silver wire individually placed.  The piece was intended as a gift to Pope John Paul II during his visit, but sadly was not completed in time to be presented.

We then were introduced to our driver's cousin, who's a Taxco native and took us on a walking tour of the town.  It's built right on the hillside, so lots of up-and-down terrain.  We saw the house where Freda & Diego lived here, and a beautiful church right in the center of town.  It had some sad features -- a separate door and chapel for the native Indians to enter for worship; large portraits of important Church leaders -- those with long noses were the ones involved in the evil Inquisition.

On a happier note, in several places, an image of a poinsettia is embedded in the stonework comprising the roadway, as that flower is native to this area.  All the gazillions of poinsettias grown for holiday season originated here long ago!

It was time for a late lunch, a little off the main square in an upstairs room of one of the local hotels.  Enchiladas verde turned out to be enchiladas rote, but tasted fine; thin-cut marinated pork chops were flanked with nicely done carrots and a mold of rice pilaf.

Now to decide how to round out our time there ... we elected to drive up to the 50-foot-or-higher statue of a crucifix which overlooks the town from a high bluff.  We had seen it from below, but the road up to it was ... shall we say, a trip??  One actual lane, but 2-way traffic.  Schoolkids all over the place as it was mid-afternoon.  Scooters, old-style VW Bugs, and regular cars vied for precedence.  (We were in a full-sized SUV ... things got a little TIGHT from time to time!).

At a point, we saw a brick-lined road rise sharply to our right, but our driver passed it and we breathed a sigh of relief.  WRONG-O!  He pulls a 180 to access the road from the other side so the car doesn't fall OVER, and up we go.  At the end of this trek, there are several flights of stone stairs down to the statue and a small plaza with a panoramic (and slightly vertiginous) view of the town.  It was fun to be able to retrace our steps somewhat, as the church was a commanding presence.

Knowing we had another 3-hour drive back to the hotel, we opted to end our Taxco experience there.  Going home, we again passed Zumpango del Ria, home of Dr. Rodolfo Neri Vela who flew on the Space Shuttle crew of STS-61B Atlantis (November 26 to December 3, 1985).  The town is renaming itself Zumpango del Neri in his honor!

And it's nice to see, if roadside advertising is required, at least a creative presentation:

As we retraced our steps, we rehearsed these historical points and also various land forms we had passed.  There were long stretches of road beside a wide, dry arroyo which often floods the road in the rainy season.  Then, in an exceptionally rare event this time of year ... it actually started RAINING!  Our driver was disbelieving, but ultimately did put on the windshield wipers.

Back home, we were ready for the sack, though we DID need to stretch our legs again after all that riding.  A long, but interesting and informative day!