Livin' La Vida Loca: Taxco: City of Silver

So one of the perks of my study abroad program in Mexico is that the staff arranges several day-trips each year where they give us starry-eyed gringo students the chance to immerse ourselves even more in the culture and history of Mexico. This last Saturday I had the chance to make it on over to the silver mine city Taxco, a fairytale-like town situated in the mountains of western Guerrero. It was really cool that as our Ibero van weaved through the vomit-inducing roads, out of nowhere appeared the white-washed walls and red roofs of Taxco in the distance. It seriously looks like some twister picked up an Italian town and dropped it harmlessly onto the mountains of Mexico.

Taxco (tass-co), Guerrero

Besides the silver for which they're world-renowned, this city (Pop. 50,000) also boosts a beautiful baroque church downtown known as the Templo de Santa Prisca, which among the many nearly identical white and red buildings, stands out in a beautiful contrast with its tall and colorful facade and dome.

The inside was equally impressive.

I still find baroque style to be overwhelming. I couldn't imagine building/designing a church with this style, let alone cleaning it. After the church, we hit up the main silver market where people come from all over to get a good deal.

Taxco silver market

I don't know if the low cost of living here in Mexican has made me more frugal, but I don't think that the prices there were all that great, especially since we were supposedly at the source of all this silver, though one shop owner told me that the silver reserves there are almost exhausted and that the price of gasoline have made the price of silver go up. With that said, I still bought a few items (only after haggling). After shopping and an ungodly amount of food, we set off back for our simple lives in Puebla. Here a few of my favorites that should be filed under miscellaneous: