Taxco, Plaza Cortes

On Saturday, we rode the bus (similar to a Greyhound) to Taxco.  The driver showed a movie both there and back but I was more interested in the scenery.  I definitely saw a different side of Mexico.  Among the rolling green hills (pic) were tin-roofed shacks, some without walls and all with earthen floors.  Families were lined up along the two-lane highway, each member with something different to sell in their hands.  Some of the families had roadside stands with cold beverages and an assortment of other things to sell.  The bus driver stopped twice to let someone on who tried to sell cookies and lotion to the bus riders.

Taxco (pic) is a beautiful town (pueblo) with it's colonial ambiance still intact due to a law requiring that any old building be restored that way and any new building be built in the same fashion.  Even the Oxxo (our 7-11) looked colonial!  It is the silver mecca of Mexico and one of the oldest silver mining sites in the Americas.  We walked the narrow streets for hours and passed many of the 50+ stores selling incredible amounts of silver, much of them had the same items but each had a little something different as well.  After awhile my head was spinning and I didn't even know what I was looking for or wanted!  In the end I bought a hammock chair (in a silver mecca!) for our front porch, go figure!   Apparently, Don Jose de la Borda (Sound familiar? He was the man who built the Jardin Borda that I mentioned in my previous blog.) discovered the silver when his horse stumbled on a rock.  When he became over extended and left his mines, many churches were built by other successful miners. We saw some of those beautiful churches (there are 12 in all in this small town), the most fantastic was the Santa Prisca Catherdral (pics).  WOW!  We had another great meal at a restaurant, approached constantly by street vendors selling everything from paintings to belts.  We arrived back at our house at 10pm--long day! 

The next day we went into centro Cuernavaca to the Plaza Cortes, built in the 1530's.  Now it is a museum with displays of the history of the Cuernavaca area.  Lucky for

 me, they had most of the events translated into English so I was able to really      enjoy it.  (On a side note:  Something that I am struggling with is missing out on things because I don't understand what is being said or what I am reading.  Reed helps a lot but I feel bad asking her all the time.  It has been an interesting and huge part of this whole adventure!  I know it will get better with time but it's a little frustrating now, at times.)  Continuing...as with most history, death of the people and destruction of buildings come at the hands of the 

people with wealth, power and/ or religion.  So it goes with the struggle in Mexico.  One of the most impressive things at this museum is a HUGE mural (pic) painted on three walls by Diego Rivera that was a chronological depiction of the struggles in this region.

Coming soon:

Regina goes into centro by herself!  :o)

Regina starts Spanish classes at the Chac Mool Institute!  :o)