Taxco, Mexico December 29 - 31, 1978

Now seated in the cool of the evening on the roof of our little pension-hotel in Taxco.  What a delightful little town.  It reminds me of Israel with its narrow cobble-stone streets, twisting and threading their way through old colonial buildings.  Stone stair-streets climbing the many hills in the town – no access to cars, not even inviting to cyclists – a place to stroll.  The architecture here is colonial – many buildings of white adobe with red-tiled rooves, domes, spires.  Others constructed of pink and orange rock, giving off a lovely warm glow in the late afternoon sun.  Behind me now the central cathedral, a massive semi-baroque structure of pink granite, is ringing its bells.  There are plants and flowers everywhere – bougainvillea vines growing over walls, on the sides of buildings – huge poinsettia trees and palms in inner courtyards, potted flowers on window ledges, often red geraniums, their colours almost perfectly matching the red rooves above them.  And everything is so clean – the streets all swept and tidy.  Taxco is a proud city, a city that cares about its history and its environment.  

 

Taxco is known as the ‘Silver City’ because of the long history of silver mining.  So of course there are tourist shops everywhere, some very high-end, with silver – bracelets, necklaces, earrings, plates, bowls, cups, tea-sets – most beautifully engraved, and beautifully displayed behind expansive plate glass windows.  Others shops are more in the old-city style, little holes-in-the-wall, their wares spilling out onto the street.  Most of these sell silver too, but some carry more folk items – colourful embroidered shirts and dresses, woven hats and baskets, musical instruments, saddles and leather goods.   

 

Below Taxco’s newer, cleaner, smarter central plaza lies the zocalo, a real old-city market where the little streets overflow with fruit and vegetable vendors, juice stands, peanut-bar men, tortilla makers, hawkers and sellers of knick-knacks, children selling chiclets, toothpicks and matches, beggars, and mangy mongrels darting and prowling through the melee, searching through the trash for some small scrap of food.  The old market, where your eyes feast on an endless tapestry of colours and textures, items large and small, exotic and common, where your nose is tempted with smells both sweet and savoury, or repelled by odours decidedly noxious, and where your ears are assaulted with sellers’ cries, children’s shouts and all the clang and clatter of a busy commercial hub.   

  

Taxco’s the first place where I’ve heard authentic Mexican music instead of the blaring distorted disco music so prevalent in beach towns and other tourist spots. There are several mariachi bands, clad in wonderful costumes – mostly in tight black jackets and pants with embroidered edges, the pants sometimes decorated with shiny ‘buttons’ going from the top to the bottom of the outside leg.  They complete the costume with frilly white shirts, red bow-ties and cummerbunds, and wonderful big black hats.  Carrying their instruments – guitars, horns, an accordion – they wander the streets, stopping to play in parks or restaurants.  They’re fun and colourful additions to the street scene – and now I hear the familiar strains of ‘Guantanamera’, one of the oft requested tourist favourites.

Note: These photos are from a later trip, where the mariachis were clad in purple, with embroidered designs on the pant legs.  

 

I’ve enjoyed traipsing around Taxco, having a coffee and eating at a café or restaurant with tasty traditional fare, sitting in the plaza watching the world go by, admiring the architecture, going into some of the churches, and doing a little window shopping.  I haven’t bought anything other than a bit of fruit; I’m mindful of the fact that I’ve just started on this trip, and have many markets to go, and only so big a backpack to put things in... .  In any event, we’re heading out tomorrow as Ken’s gotta be back in California early in the new year.  I’ll miss him!  He’s a wonderful traveling companion, so relaxed and happy to go with the flow, and so interested in everything.  And... it’s been terrific to be able to travel by private car – to be able to go when and where we want, and stop whenever and wherever we feel like it.  What a luxury!