Another day, another side trip from Mexico City.

This time we were off to the ‘Silver Town’ of Taxco, famed for its silversmiths and the product they sell.

Welcome to Taxco!

Again we sought to do it our own way, so that meant another early morning trip to another of Mexico City’s bus terminals (they have four major terminals in all), this time it was Terminal Mexico DF Taxquena, the southern bus station.

A couple of hours later and we were approaching a town similar to both Zacatecas and Guanajuato in that clung to the sides of a mountain (or mountains).

This was Taxco.

At first glance this place was pretty cute.

An uphill walk from the bus station brought us to the towns main Zócalo (plaza) which was a hive of activity where the towns church was the grandest feature (in fact we’d used it as a landmark to guide us from the bus station).

By now we were ready for lunch, and Sarah had read up in advance that their was a pretty good sounding and reasonably priced restaurant nearby, so it was to there we headed.

But… our route was anything but direct.

The Mexican penchant for maze like streets with few street signs saw us wander steadily downhill, eventually finding ourselves in an artisans market.

No food to be found there!

Eventually we retraced our steps back to the square (a shortcut sounded so good at the time) and simply followed one major road where we found our destination in minutes!

And the food was truly delicious!

A delicious lunch of Rabbit in Garlic Sauce and Chicken in Mole Poblano

We shared the meals between us (we didn’t however share our beers), but unfortunately this delicious lunch at the Restaurante Santa Fe was probably our highlight of the town!

It was a difficult situation we found ourselves in, as we’d originally thought we might get Sarah some new silver to wear on the trip, but when things weren’t ugly, they either looked too delicate or too valuable to risk traipsing about the world with.

Beyond the silver shops, the place didn’t actual seem much more than a tourist trap, intent on trying to lure as many pesos out of the pockets of travellers as possible!

So what did we do for the rest of the afternoon?

Well with the buses back to the city only running every hour (on the half hour), we wandered.

Getting some art in…

We took in some art in a local gallery, wandered the cobbled streets and did a little people watching, before it was time to head down and catch a bus back to the big city.

Spying on 2 mischievous boys as they shake up a soda bottle…

Creatively using beer bottle caps to make a fly screen!

In the end, we did walk away with some cheap 40 peso silver earrings for Sarah, but it was hardly the haul, nor the day we had envisaged…

Notes:

* To reach Taxco, we took the metro to Autobus Terminal Sur (known as Mexico DF Taxquena) where we were able to get a direct bus for $185.00 pesos per person (one way ticket)

* Our delicious lunch was had at Restaurante Santa Fe on Hidalgo 2