Day 3: Taxco, Mexico

Chinese Version / 中文版本

Yesterday I woke up too late that I missed the free breakfast provided by the hostel. Today I finally got the chance to try the breakfast, it was greater than expected with eggs and bread! After breakfast, I started off to go to Terminal del Sur by metro. From Hostel Amigos I needed to take the pink line first, and then changed for the blue line. The total metro ride was around 30 minutes. The metro in Mexico City is very interesting, there are many peddlers in the train, who sell snacks, toys and even pirated CD. They carry a special made backpack which has 2 speakers installed on the sides. And then they played the CD out loud  so that people can choose. (Seriously, people really buy it, and it costs 10 MXN each)

It was not hard to find the exit once I arrived at the final stop of the blue line, and I walked through a market to arrive at Terminal del Sur. There was once again bag inspection before getting on the bus, this bus company was too nice to provide free bottles of water to passengers, what a good service! 

When I got on the bus, I could see the flat TVs and the very comfortable seats. There was even bathroom in the back of the bus. Comparing to those buses in Turkey, it is tenfold more modern! The total bus ride is about 2 hours, but the bus drove along the winding mountain roads which inevitably made me have nausea again.

The scene of the bus station in Taxco was very complicated, there were many people and cars making a lot of noise. I took the photocopy of the map and climbed up on the hill on foot at once. The street scene of Taxco was very beautiful and reminded me so much of Sirince, Turkey. These two towns are both built along the hill. Sirince is famous for its wine when Taxco is famous for its silver. 

Actually, Taxco is one of the towns included in the Mexican travel plan - Pueblos Magicos (Magic Towns). The purpose of this plan is to offer a magical experience to tourists when they travel around Mexico! The only bad thing is the narrow pebble roads and there are many cars driving through these roads. People had to stick with the wall while walking up, it was quite dangerous sometimes!

 Saw this lady with LPG cylinder on the way to Zocalo

The scenery of Taxco is very pretty

Mexican colored flags were hung everywhere in Taxco

This girl's face was being painted

When I reached Zocalo, I saw a very beautiful church - Santa Prisca. I never thought that the church

in Mexico could compare with those in Europe. Although I am already immune to churches, I honestly will give a very good rate for this church.

Then I had lunch at a restaurant with balconies. The weather was very good, it was a pity I could not see the church nor Zocalo from the balcony. I ordered a dish of chicken to be my lunch and it turned out to be a piece of grilled chicken with 'mole' and my favorite tortilla chips. Personally I thought the taste of mole was very bizarre, the one I ordered was probably negro mole (black mole) and it tasted a bit sweet and a bit salty simultaneously, it did not quite match with the chicken. The rice was the total highlight of this dish. Though they only had one small scoop of rice, they added some chops of jalapeño inside, which made the icy rice taste much more delicious.

Santa Prisca

Grilled chicken with mole + tasty rice

Tortilla chips

The street scene in Taxco 

After lunch I decided to go up to Cristo, I hopped on the minibus on Zocalo but it had to go back to the final stop to drop off all passengers. I needed to wait on the minibus until it became full again. While waiting, a pair of mother and son got on the minibus. The mother continuously talked on the phone when the son was eating ice-cream by himself. Since the weather was hot and the ice-cream melted more quickly, the melted ice-cream flowed down on his hand and he even wiped it on the window and the internal wall of the minibus. 

The mother only handed him a piece of napkin and kept on talking on her phone. The ice-cream continued to melt at rocket speed, the son even licked the melted ice-cream on the window. Luckily the mother stopped him but he kept staining the minibus and himself. Eventually, the mother took out a shirt from her son's bag and let him clean himself with that shirt. I felt so shocked when I saw this happened in front of me. Firstly, the way of the son eating ice-cream was unbearable and he seriously needed to be scolded for making everything so dirty. Secondly, the mother took out the shirt to clean the ice-cream. If I stained my shirt, I would not be that dumb to bring out another clean shirt to just wipe the stains out of my old shirt. They are both genetically brainless, like mother like son!

This kid did not know how to eat ice-cream in a correct way

Finally the minibus started to ascend when it became full and did not make a stop. I could not believe that this old car could have enough force to run on the slope. The driver dropped me off at a desolated place. It took me 10 minutes to walk to the entrance of Cristo. 

There were actually many tourists, but they chose to take taxi up here instead. Up on the hill I could see the panoramic view of Taxco, yet the church and Zocalo became very tiny. When I decided to leave, I waited for the bus to come at the same place the driver dropped me off. However, there was no bus passing by nor people waiting for a long while. Therefore, I walked along the car lane to a snack store. The lady sitting there told me it was the place to wait for the minibus. When the minibus came, the lady was too nice to tell me to get on. Mexican people are indeed very helpful!

Cristo in close look

 The panoramic view from Cristo

A few minutes later a bunch of local people hopped on the minibus. Obviously the minibus was overloaded. I, once again, packed like a sardine in a bus with a bunch of Mexican people, what a local experience! 

I continued wandering the streets near Zocalo and passed by one small park. Many children gathered there to play Mexcian style of "Throwing Rainbow". The rainbows were made of some tin caps painted in various colors, numbers were written on them. Then the children would throw their coins on the rainbows, so as to win some prizes. I knew it was not an easy game as I saw many coins just bounced back when they touched the caps.

The arch where I passed for 10 times already

The interior of the church

This man wore too many sombrero on his head

The local people's shoes were being shined

El sol on the wall

 Mexican style of throwing-rainbow game

The stunning view I saw when I was having my afternoon tea

30 minutes before taking the bus back to Mexico City, I discovered I had not yet visited Galudelope to see the panoramic view of the church. Whereas the roads were all slopes, it was just an impossible mission to get there in 30 minutes. On the halfway, I already gasped my lung out but lucky to see an open-air restaurant with a sign of "Panoroma View", I immediately went inside to buy a coke. Then I could take the panoramic photos of the church and Zocalo. With only 8 MXN to save 30 minutes, what a deal!

Encountered another cool beetle

A very cool looking Mexican lady

I took the metro back to the hostel when I was back in Mexico City, I found that the metro doors closed so much faster at night! When I got off the metro station, I happened to see one street vendor selling Churros, I bought it without hesitation to end this hectic day!