Thursday evening. I am sitting in a conference room of an office building in Chicago patiently waiting for the plaintiff’s counsel to finish the examination of a witness and conclude the deposition that has been dragging on for too long. And then in what seems to be in the blink of an eye, it is Friday morning, and Julia and I are sitting in a rooftop restaurant overlooking an impressive Baroque church and multi-layered whitewashed houses clinging to a hill. Wait… what ….? Are we in southern Spain? And how did we get to Andalucía so fast?
It is not Spain. It is our beloved Mexico. We are in Taxco, the state of Guerrero.
One of the greatest travel hacks we unlocked through the years is that it is so easy to escape from Chicago to Mexico for a fun-filled weekend. With non-stop flights to Mexico City, Guadalajara, Morelia, and Guanajuato, the options for weekend diversions are truly endless. All you need is just to hop on a direct red-eye flight after work to find yourself in a completely new and exciting place just several hours later. The striking colonial architecture in many of these locations can easily fool your brain into believing that you have traveled to Spain or Italy rather than simply south of the border.
We have been eyeing Taxco for a long time. Back in 2008, when we took a bus from Mexico City to Acapulco, the road signs pointed to this charming pueblo magico hidden in the mountains. But we were short on time, so we had to table Taxco for the future trip. Eventually, after visiting Mexico City on many occasions and exploring other nearby towns, it was time to see it. The direct flight from Chicago delivered us to the Mexican capital early in the morning, and after a 2.5-hour comfortable bus ride, through which we mostly slept, we finally made it to the “Silver Capital of the World”.
Yes, for most people, Taxco is known for its silver. During the colonial era, it was one of the most important silver mining centers, along with Zacatecas, Guanajuato, and Real de Catorce, just to name a few. But unlike other towns, once the local mines dried out (as they often do), the reputation for silver in Taxco continued to live on due to the craftsmen who turned it into a silver artisanal center.
The person who was primarily responsible for Taxco’s continued association with silver is William Spratling, a U.S. jewelry designer who settled here in the 1930s. The workshop that he launched in Taxco became quite popular and attracted other artisans to town. The artists’ colony grew considerably and with it grew Taxco’s reputation as a silver hub. If Taxco ever decides to change its name (not that it needs to), Spratling would be a great choice. This American had a profound impact on the town, redefining it for the outside world and helping the local tourist industry to flourish. A pleasant surprise awaited us when we arrived at our Airbnb as it turned out Julia unknowingly booked us a room in Casa Spratling, an extensive housing compound overlooking the town center, where “the father of Mexican silver” used to live and work. In addition to the incredible restaurant on the premises (S Cafecito), the Airbnb was great because not only we woke up and went to bed with a view of the stunning towers of Santa Prisca church, but also because we had a chance to wander the same spaces and rooms as the legendary gringo who single-handedly put Taxco on a tourist map.
It comes as no surprise that there are plenty of silver-related activities in Taxco. The main thing to do here is to browse silver jewelry and decorations at numerous stalls at an open-air market and in stores. Of course, the quality of silver varies significantly, and you get what you pay for. We did not care much about shopping and probably were one of the few visitors who left Taxco without buying any silver products. Instead, we headed to the Spratling Museum displaying the exquisite silver designs by Spratling and his contemporaries. The works included pre-Columbian and Mesoamerican designs, as well as items reflecting Mexican and European artistic influences.
Another silver-related attraction in Taxco is located on the outskirts of town - a pre-Hispanic mine that has existed for over 500 years. We visited it on a Spanish-speaking tour, and my Spanish ran out when the tour guide dived into discussing the geological composite of the mine and the special tools used for excavating silver. But no explanation was needed as we were happy to just roam underground and explore the mine that was discovered by accident just several years prior.
If you are wondering whether there is more to Taxco than just learning about and hunting for silver, the answer is a resounding “yes”! Taxco’s colonial center is a perfect time capsule waiting to be explored on foot. The streets and alleys here are very atmospheric, albeit narrow, crooked, and at times, nearly vertical and defying gravity. A walking tour through Taxco certainly gives you a great leg day workout. Because the passages are so tight and steep, the most popular vehicle here is a white Volkswagen Beetle. Yet sometimes even these tiny cars fight for space and struggle to complete a turn without first backing up. We took a cab ride in one of these Beetles to the El Cristo monument overlooking the town, and in addition to the splendid views of Taxco, we also got an exhilarating ride to the top and back.
The center also has several small but fascinating museums, and something is always happening at the zocalo on weekends. The weekend when we visited, the town hosted a corn and tamale festival, and there were plenty of corn-related activities, from presentations on how to make certain dishes with corn to the tamale-eating contest that was won by a Chinese tourist who downed 14 tamales in the matter of several minutes.
The festivities took place in front of the crown jewel of Taxco-Santa Prisca church. This 18th-century church is one of the finest examples of Mexican Baroque and was the tallest building in Mexico at the time of construction. Its façade and twin ornate towers are made from pink sandstone and a massive dome is decorated with polychrome tiles. At dusk, with the sun setting, the church’s façade glows with a magnificent pinkish-golden color.
Speaking of pink color, it dominates not only the façade of Santa Prisca church but also the local plates. The most delicious dish we tried in Taxco was mole rosa (pink mole). Although we had mole poblano and mole oaxaqueño before going to Taxco, we did not know that the state of Guerrero, and Taxco specifically, has its own version of the famous Mexican sauce. Made from pink pine nuts, pomegranate, and beetroot, it has a distinct pink color and a subtle, sweet taste. Our first and last meals in Taxco were in restaurant Rosa Amaranto, from the rooftop of which we marveled at Taxco’s beauty and could not get enough of its pink mole, be it on delicious chilaquiles or enchiladas.
On Sunday evening, we took a bus back to Mexico City and then flew back to Chicago. On Monday morning, I was back in the office, reading through a legal brief at my paper-covered desk. The whole weekend of cobble-stone streets, colonial architecture, ornate silver artifacts, the sounds of mariachi playing at the tamale festival, and the taste of mole rosa, now seemed like a dream. But a wonderful thing about Taxco is that no matter how unreal this magical town seems, it’s always just a short flight away.
