Taxco

Very early the fourth day we headed back to the autopista taking it all the way to the major city  of Toluca which is northwest of Mexico City.  Finding our way through Toluca and finding the southern road that leads to Ixtapan de La Sal was a challenge.  The map showed it to be a lot easier to find than we did, but with only one wrong turn, we did make it out of town and continued on until we arrive in Taxco.  Our main reason for this large side trip was that old draw of precious metal, mainly silver.  Located in the Guerrero Mountains, Taxco is known for its silver jewelry; in fact, most all silver shops through out Mexico will advertise Taxco silver. The town sits on top of a mountain, 2,300m above sea level.  The streets are so narrow, that a walking tourist might need to jump into an open doorway to let a car pass on the street, and the streets are two way!   Once we got into town, we put the rental car in a covered garage and did not get it out for three days. Hotel Los Arcos  www.hotellosarcos.net We stayed in the Hotel Los Arcos, which was just a few streets off the main town square. It was old and beautiful and the price was right with clean rooms, but the bedspreads were rather thread bare, sheets scratching and the pillows like rocks.

 Points of Interest

Taxis in this town are VW Bugs and there are a ton of them.  Buses are older VW vans, some with out a sliding door.   One of the main attractions is Santa Prisca cathedral, which was paid for by a successful mine owner, Don Jose de la Borda, who in donating the cathedral to the Catholic church demanded complete control of the construction. It took 8 years to build the pink church with its twin towers and an eclectic collection of hewn angels, saints, and shells.  It is done in the baroque style and some how reminds you of a castle that you might build at the seashore.  Inside, gold leaf is everywhere!  We visited the Museum of Guillermo Spratling, a leading silver designer of the 50s, the silver museum, and many silver shops.  One of the leading shops is the Castillo shop where we went to visit their factory out of town.  They use wax molds and pride them selves of keeping some of Guillermo Spratling’s designs alive. We spent Friday learning as much as possible about silver, for the main draw is the Saturday Silver market which covers blocks of venders who set up early in the morning and tear down their booth by late afternoon.  The legitimate shops warn you to be careful for there are no quality control and if you have a problem you will not be able to get your jewelry back to the vender from which you purchased it.  We got up early and started walking down the hill toward the main bus stop, soon we were seeing vender after vender selling all types of silver jewelry.  We browsed to get a feel of the place, questioned venders, ate pan dolce, drank orange juice and finally got serious about purchasing a few things.  We spent 4 hours looking at silver jewelry and finally we couldn’t do it any longer. It just becomes too much and so much of it was alike.