Zacatecas (one of our favourite places so far)

Out the window of the bus going from Creel to Chihuahua.

Zacatecas, Day 1:

Our first night in Zacatecas we were treated to a free outdoor concert by Spain's very own Ana Belén and Víctor Manuel; the Spanish versions of Céline Dion and Neil Diamond. While it was not a concert we would have payed money to see it was a neat experience and they were very popular with the crowd. Speaking of the crowd, as you can tell from their attire Zacatecas does not boast stereotypical coastal Mexican weather in October. Zacatecas is located 2496 m (8050 ft) above sea level and the climate is more typical of Victoria.

A facade of one of the many churches in Zacatecas

Zacatecas, Day 2:

Guard Dog

The Cathedral

While we were in Zacatecas a classic rally car tour came through for a day. The drivers were of many nationalities and they were just about to commence their final leg across Mexico.

Zacatecas was a Spanish mining city founded in 1546. During the mine's peak operation apparently 8 workers died every day. The mine is now open to tours. It also is home to the El Eden night club which claims to be the worlds only 'Discotheque' which is located 300 m below ground in an old silver mine.

Mina El Eden

Josh and Laura at their new job in the mines

We caught a cable car up over the city to a mission on one of the surrounding hills. This was a nice way to see the city from a distance and watch an incredible sunset.








































Some enchilladas, homemade cornchips and guacamole at one of our favourite restaurants in Zacatecas.

Creel

The Casa Margarita and neighbouring church

inside the hostel

Josh seems to be having trouble with a lot of doorways here.

Jesus walking on balloons

We rented bikes to cycle around the "Valley of the Mushrooms" and "Valley of the Monks"

Valley of the Mushrooms

Valley of the Monks

a Tarahumara girl selling bracelets, belts, and tiny dolls

Our cycling party

Polo and Miranda

We had seen an ad for tours to the "tallest single stream waterfall in North America" in our hostel, and though it looked pretty far away on the little bike map we were given, we decided we had enough daylight left to get there. It turned out to be very far away indeed (a lot of up and down hills...mostly down...not so promising for the ride back). We also managed to somehow lose Polo and Miranda along the way, and thought maybe they had turned back towards the town, since it was getting late. We finally made it to the entrance gate to the waterfall, only to be greeted by a further 3km that had to be hiked on foot. And here is North America's tallest single stream waterfall:

Unfortunately, North America's tallest waterfall was not what we had cycled to...

Here is the waterfall we found:

We were then worried that we were going to be stuck riding our bikes back a very long way in the dark, but luckily Miranda and Polo showed up (after having taken a much longer route to the waterfall) and had already negotiated with a Tarahumara man to drive us back into Creel!

They were not so impressed by the waterfall either...

And this is how to fit 6 bikes into the back of a Ford van (plus the five of us, and the man and his wife, and a couple of coolers, a loom, five boxes of handmade bracelets and dolls....).