My new family , los Ortiz García, decided to take a family day trip of sorts last weekend to Taxco de Alarcón, a gorgeous, beautiful, charming, amazing little town in the mountains of the state of Guerrero. I had heard that it was beautiful, and expressed an interest in going before, so I was really excited. We got up nice and early, got all the water bottles in the cooler, all the little snacks in the back seat and vámonos! Passing Cuautla and later Cuernavaca, we made good time cutting through the oppressive heat. Due to its elevation, Puebla usually stays pretty cool, but in states like Morelos and Guerrero, even in closeby cities such as Atlixco, it's noticeably warmer and more humid. This was did not help the fact that we were all tired and wanted to take some nappies.
Driving through these places, I can't help but be amazed again at how lucky I am to be able to take a family road trip to such cool towns, and share it with a family. Lovely stuff. Getting closer to Taxco, the terrain gets really hilly, and without sounding condescending, Mexican driving etiquette doesn't tend towards staying in your lane and driving at a reasonable velocity. It comes with the experience, no? That made the experience all the more interesting, as my host dad either sped past or was sped passed by other cars on mountain highways with no guardrails. The closest experience that I had ever had was driving through West Virginia, and it's definitely comparable. Taxco is also part of the Méxican Secretary of Tourism's "pueblos mágicos", or magic towns, signifying that they form a part of the pueblo culture that is such a neat part of México. This program gives the towns funding to clean them up, superficially, like cleaning up the streets and painting builidings, to more intensive project like burying wires instead or them hanging around.
After about 4 hours of driving, we turned a curve and there it was! Taxco is gorgeous and amazing at first sight, I couldn't believe how beautiful it was at first. These pictures were taken from the balcony of a jewelry stire building, which will sound strange until I get to my next point. Taxco is all about silver, but not like anything you've seen before. When we were first driving through the main streets, which as you can see to the left, are about five people wide and always clogged (part of the charm, trust me), my dad said "Cullen, I want you to look at these stores and tell me what they are selling. In all seriousness, I would say that 8 of every 10, or 4 of every 5, sold silver. Silver is the main industry in Taxco, but by a long shot. The silver industry had always been around in Taxco, with the huge mines that are found there, but didn't really take off as a finishing industry until William Spratling of Sonyea, NY, settled down there and opened up a sort of apprenticeship with an experienced goldsmith from a nearby city. This humble injection of capital turned Taxco into the silver capital of México that it is today. Unbelievable, the place. You can see the tianguis (tent markets) behind my host brother, Rafa. Now tianguis are usually temporary things where bootleg clothing and things like that. However, these ones are all silver. A tent market where silver is sold. How awesome is that!
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