Aristos Zacatecas

... from New Zealand and winemakers he opened some special bottles. He also invited us out to his Hacienda to meet an Alaskan couple who were living there and also making wine. He was busy that day as he had arranged for three doctors and twelve nurses to come and he was giving the public free medical care and medicine. He drew us a map and also pointed out a few areas of interest in the town. We wandered around the town and had some food from a curbside ...

... are getting the "Virgin of Guadalupe" thrown in as an added bonus. Like so much in life, it is all in the perception and often our perceptions are wrong. Nevertheless they make up an integral part of life that can lead us into happiness or misery. In this case it was happiness. So I guess in that sense the "Virgin of Guadalupe" spread some more of her good vibes to us. That felt pretty good, as we believed we had arrived at a ...

... us." --------------------------------------- --------------------- Our second day in Zacatecas started with much anticipation for on our agenda was an ascent to the top of Cerro de la Bufa - the peak that overlooks Zacatecas. As we left our hotel room we were greeted by another sunny day (so far they have all been sunny) and the sight of a group of cyclists heading down the calle Angel in front of our hotel. Their ...

... to find an old church and a museum. Like other parts of this town, it was a pleasure just walking to get there and enjoying the warm intimate feeling that this town projects. It was thus that we came upon the massive ruins of the former church - Ex Templo de San Augustin - now roofless and overrun with shrubbery but beautiful nonetheless. Right next to it is the Ex Convento de San Francisco which now houses the Museo Rafael Coronel. "It is a collection ...

... but all had reading lamps and plenty of blankets for the cold winter nights. The upper level has a kitchen, seating area and a terrace that offered fine views across the town. Downstairs is a pool table, cable TV, DVD player and internet. The current rates were 80 peso in a six bed dorm, or 120 + 160 peso for 1 or 2 persons in a private room with shared bathroom. This was ...

... tend to be cheaper in the shared dorms , are cleaner , and have more facilities geared up to the backpacker community´s needs. Looked around the town in the first afternoon there with some other travellers to get my orientation ... Zacatecas is quite a small town with two main streets so was pretty easy to find the way around. On the second day I went down an old silver mine "El Eden" - Zacatecas was built on the wealth created by the silver ...

... in Mexico. It was started in 1586 and mined up until 1966; originally the digging for the hoards of silver, gold, iron, copper and zinc was carried out by the enslaved indigenous people. They had to work for up to 18 hours a day, this time being spent either using a pick and shovel or carrying baskets of ore, weighing up to 80 kilograms, up steps made from tree trunks for a height of 300 metre. The conditions ...

... the airport and checked in. We needed to do some check-in mix and matching to reduce the weight of Tomas' box. After we put some stuff into my bag, we were golden and were on our way. Everyone including the airlines always recommends to arrive at the Airport at least 3 hours before the flight. This is silly because you always wait for at least one hour. So we took our flight and were on our way to Zacatecas, Mexico. The flight was fine, but hit a bump ...

... gun fast and most of his tactics were lost in translation. I decided just to slot into midfield and take it from there. Then Bobo mentioned el toro. Alberta Bill looked real worried and then el toro got another mention and the alarm bells started ringing for me. Seeing the lack of comprehension in our faces, the clown indicated one set of 'posts' and enunciated the word 'g-o-l' in the manner of someone addressing a gathering of the educationally subnormal. With a grand ...

... town. The mining lifts dotted around the ridgelines stood guard over hidden wealth therein. Most of the mines had actually long since stopped producing but a couple were still in operation, yielding the silver that was the key to Sombrerete's prosperity. Silver first brought the conquistadores in the sixteenth century. The Franciscans, the Augustinians and the Jesuits arrived in their wake and silver financed the churches required to spead the word to the natives ...