Cuernavaca (day 3)

Well, we actually made it into the city of Cuernavaca yesterday. But first, we walked a km each way to the lavandaria carrying our laundry. This is a decent RV park, but there are no laundry facilities!

Our laundry cost 100 pesos ($8.00) and we can pick it up this morning.

Then, we walked about 1.5 kms into the town of Chiconcuac where we saw a bus marked Cuernavaca. We asked the driver if he goes to "el centro", but he said he only goes to "el mercado". However, he said we could walk to the central plaza from the market.

So, we hopped on the bus. Cost was 11 pesos (88 cents). If you took a direct route, it was only 21 kms (13 miles) away, but this bus was not taking a direct route! It took us an hour and a half to get downtown. This bus went on all the little narrow streets through old neighbourhoods...it was a great tour for 88 cents! And the driver was one talented guy....driving an old standard transmission bus on these narrow streets...better him than me!

We made it to the local bus station at the mercado...what a zoo! I wish I could have got a picture that accurately described the chaos. The driver said we could get the bus back to Chiconcuac from the same location...if we could find it!

We walked about 10 minutes to the plaza.

The Palacio de Cortez (now the Regional Museum).

We didn't go into the palace because we figured we simply didn't have time. Plus, we'll be doing some museums in Mexico City. The palace is the oldest conserved colonial structure in the Americas, built in 1526 it has been in continuous use for almost 500 years. 

The government palace on the opposite side of the plaza. The central plaza in Cuernavaca is the ONLY main plaza in all of Mexico that does not have a church overlooking it.

However, Cuernavaca does have a main cathedral, and it is fascinating. First of all, it's absolutely huge, and it's also really old, built in stages between 1529 and 1574. Yesterday, there was some kind of high society wedding taking place, so that made it even more interesting. Here are some photos...

Check out the design above the entranceway...

We had stopped at the tourist office earlier and asked about getting to the El Salto San Anton waterfall. They said it was complicated and we were better off getting a taxi, but we had a map and decided to try and walk it. After staring at the amazing cathedral from several different angles, we made our way to the waterfall. The city of Cuernavaca is built over seven different ravines so the streets are fairly complicated and don't have any sort of grid structure. But, we made it to the waterfall, and it wasn't really that difficult.

This is actually the sidewalk! Lots of pottery and potted plants and flowers for sale.

The 100 ft El Salto San Anton waterfall.

Then, we walked back towards the plaza and stopped in at the Jardin Borda, a botanical garden of sorts, but for the 30 pesos ($2.40) each admission fee, we didn't think it was worth it.

This tree had flowers similar to the ones on Whiskey's bottle brush tree, but they were round!

We found our way back to the bus station, and had the same driver...too funny! Made it back to Sherman shortly after 6:00pm...a bit of a long day, but we had fun!

On another note, we have booked a "vacation" to Las Vegas. Leaving Guadalajara March 21, returning March 28 for only $275 each for the flight, taxes included!