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Taxco and Puebla

Leaving Mexico City really marks the third (and final) phase of our Mexican adventures: The South.

First up was four nights in Taxco - the beautiful old silver town nestled into the side of a mountain. The streets are steep and windy, serviced by a fleet of old VW Beetle taxis which have the necessary grunt and are rear-wheel drive which means they have the requisite turning circle.

The walls are all white-washed with terracotta rooves and just about every restaurant has a terrace with a beautiful view of the surrounds.

I don't know why we decided to spend four nights there - it's not like there are a lot of sites to see or anything like that - but we were more than happy to just wander around for days.

The city is known for it's silver work. The US architect and silversmith William Spratling moved to Taxco in the 1920s and managed to exert enough influence that the city went from a silver mining town to a town that exports silverwear. Spratling himself mixed traditional Mexican motifs with an Art-Deco style to produce some really beautiful silverware that the rest of the population has been doing it's best to replicate since.

We then cut eastwards across the country over to Puebla where we spent a couple of nights. Puebla is a bit of a 'just another big city' and two nights was ample. It's most noteworthy for it's cathedrals. The Iglesia de Santo Domingo in particular has an astonishingly ornate gold-lined chapel that was almost certainly the best one we've seen in Mexico. It also features on their $200 (peso) note.

We're also moving south into Mole country which is proving to be considerably more diverse than I expected. We went to a restaurant one night in Puebla that had a Mole degustation with 5 different varieties.

We're now down in the Mole capital - Oaxaca where we're spending a week, but I'll update you on that then.

Taxco
Taxco
Taxco
Taxco
Taxco
Puebla

Taxco and Puebla
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