Taxco Takeover

Saturday was a perfect example of why I love living in Mexico City: something new and exciting is always just a 2.5-hour bus ride away.

As is usually the case during Mexican day trips, noone in our travel threesome got enough sleep the night before. I went to sleep at 3:30 a.m. and woke up at 6:45. Mano the Frenchie and I met up at Enzué la mexicana's house and set off at 8. Unfortunately, I've never been able to sleep well on cross-country buses, so the nearly 3 hour jaunt did little more than shake me around and force me to watch a dubbed version of Santa Clause 3. My Spanish is lamentably not as strong as I'd like it to be, and this bout of tiredness probably made it sound like half of my tongue was cut off. However, I spent the entire day speaking in Spanish, which hasn't happened since my study abroad in Spain in 2006.

First stop: Las Grutas, a series of huuuuuge caves standing more than 30 stories high (that's not a fact, that's I guess I made whilst staring up into the abyss). Most people go in groups of 20 or more, led around by the nails-on-chalkboard voice of a tour guide. The three of us, however, walked through the labyrinth by ourselves, so most of the 2 hour walk in the caves was very, very peaceful and calm. The entire path is smooth concrete and abuelo accessible, so there was no trolling through mud or bat feces for us.

Mano and Enzué also taught me how to change the ISO function on my camera. Despite the button labeled "ISO" on my camera controls, I'd never heard of it before. It allowed me to take majestic pictures like this -->

We emerged into the glaring white sunlight and hopped in a taxi to Taxco, a city mostly known for its impressive silver markets and beautiful, Tuscan-esque houses built into the side of a mountain. The cab ride was a 30 minute, twisty-turvy rollercoaster ride that made me fearful I might have the Gallucci vertigo strain in my DNA. Or it could be the fact that I was insanely tired...let's hope for that one.

Taxco is a gorgeous city, and I'm sad we only had a couple hours to give to it. All the narrow streets run up a hill, and the city is under some ordinance to keep the original colonial flavor to its architecture, so everything has simple, smooth white walls and terra cota roof shingles. We were nearly crippled with hunger by 4:30, as we hadn't eaten since our hurried bowl of cereal before take-off. We got lunch/dinner in the restaurant of a nice boutique hotel in the town's center square; I ordered chile poblano (green pepper, not too hot) stuffed with creamy white cheese and served with a side of refried beans and rice. A vanity photoshoot ensued soon after, which seems to be the theme of all of my weekend adventures here.

Concert in Taxco's central square.

We strolled up and down the town for a little while before stumbling on a woman selling pastries from giant, woven baskets. We settled on deliciously moist cheese pies (or pay, en español), had a proper photoshoot and took them into a nearby café to enjoy them with some caffeine. Our bus boarded at 8 p.m., so we hopped on and settled in for another horrible movie and the first 20 minutes of Dreamgirls.

After such a day, one might think we'd be content to relax and possibly sleep. But no. We made it into our respective homes at 11, showered, I scarfed reheated black beans and met up again at Enzué's. Last night was La Noche de Primavera, kicking off three months' worth of concerts, art shows and other events in the Centro Histórico. Despite arriving downtown at midnight, we still made it in time to see the singer of Putamayo shake her booty on the stage. But seriously, the jumbotron zoomed in on her butt as she swished it quickly back and forth.

The line for the dance party at Centro Cultural de España was way too long for our short attention spans, so we walked a couple doors over to a youth hostel, whose restaurant/bar is open to the public. We ordered a couple "cuahuamas" (40 ounces, but not a King Cobra "40"), squeezed in a few limes and added some salt: homemade micheladas. The other two danced while I worked on my knee bend, a move to show that I can hear the music, but that I'm also not going to dance to it. I finally made it back into bed by 3:30 a.m., bringing the Mexican hoedown full circle.