Days 86 Through 89: Zacatecas

With the three amigos back together again, we took the opportunity to be super-tourists together, wreaking havoc on Zacatecas.  Okay, not quite wreaking havoc, but it felt good having Emmanuel back in the mix.  We ended up spending an extra day touristing together due to torrential rains resulting in the flooding of Zacatecas...

Look, I was at a mine!

They made us wear these dorky hair nets under our helmets.  Emmanuel is clearly overjoyed with his hairnet.

The mine tour started with a short single gauge train ride into the mine.

Geologically, this mine was much more interesting than the mine in Parral, but the tour guide kinda sucked.  We wandered off as much as we could without getting yelled at too much.  You can't really tell from the picture, but this is a part where you can see the lower levels of the mine from above.

The cable car to La Bufa.

Fun with reflections while we wait.

Sure, the cable car is a bit cheesy, but the views can't be beat.

Mausoleum of the "illustrious men" of Zacatecas.

Walking down an alleyway from La Bufa reminded me so much of the streets of Spain.

The Hostal Villa Colonial is the first place we have stayed that has the relaxed hostal community atmosphere that I remember from my European-style backpacking days during law school.  With an atmospheric rooftop terrace, a shared kitchen, and a little alcove with couches, it's easy to meet other travelers and lose hours over random conversations.  We met Pierre, who just finished up a semester studying in Guanajuato, over breakfast and he invited us to head out to see the archeological ruins of La Quemada.  Although we had intended to spend the day hitting the local museums, we made a spur-of-the-moment decision to save the museums for the next day.

La Quemada gets its name because, well, it burnt to a crisp at some point a long time ago.  Archeologists don't really know what La Quemada was, it could have been the mythical Chicomoztoc, a Caxcan site, a Teotihuacán fortress, a Tarascan center, a fort against Chichimecans, or a Toltec trading post.  Regardless of its historical importance, it was a fun to explore.

The infamous columns at La Quemada.

Gorgeous views from the base of the ruins.

We climbed to the tippy top of that.

Obligatory ruins shot.

Emmanuel scales super steep steps up the ruins.

Temple and lake from halfway up.  The tiny spec to the right of the temple is Gonzalo.

Pierre takes in the view.

A rare sight... Gonzalo and Emmanuel at a bus stop.  Our Hostal Villa Colonial delegation waits for a bus back to town.

We got on the bus just in time to watch the skies open up and flood the city.  The bus driver kindly stopped to let me take a picture.

After waiting out the rain for a while at the bus station, we made a mad dash to find food and ended up making it back to the hostal a bit damp, but otherwise no worse for the wear.  The rains continued most of the night and into the next day, but that didn't stop us from heading out to the Rafael Coronel museum and the aquaduct.  Rafael Coronel was the son-in-law of Diego Rivera, one of the leading definitive representatives of new Mexican expressionism in painting, and an avid collector of pre-colonial pieces.  The museum feels like it has enough pieces and variety for five different museums and took the large part of a day to explore.

The Rafael Coronel museum is housed in the restored Convent of San Francisco, which dates back to the 1500s, and is worth visiting just to see the ruins.

Emmanuel inspects one of the over 5000 pre-colonial masks housed in the museum.

One of my favorite masks.

My favorite mask room... the devil room.

The convent ruins make for a stunning background for this collection.

The curator had a little too much fun with these terra cotta pre-Colonial pieces.

I saw an aquaduct.  There is also a cheeky pigeon hanging out on the tip of the spear on the statue.

A few travel notes:

• A good way to spend a full day is to walk to the western entrance of the mine to do the mine tour, then connect that the do the cable car to La Bufa.  While you can do the mine tour from either the western or eastern entrance, if you end the mine tour at the eastern entrance, it's a 100 meter walk to get to the cable car.  

• To avoid pricey tours to La Quemada, head to the Plaza Bicentenario, cross to the other side, and ask for the bus to La Quemada.  It should be a bus generally heading towards Guadalajara.  It only costs 25 pesos. 

• By far the best tip we got for good homemade cheap eats was to head to Callejón Quijano just off Plaza Zamora to La Guadalupana.  Breakfast is just 35 pesos for eggs to order, chilaquiles, coffee, and juice, and lunch is just 50 pesos for soup, entree (your choice of various typical dishes such as cochinita pibil, chile relleno, carne asada, enchiladas, puerco) with refried beans, rice, and salad, a jug of agua fresca, and a dessert.