Taxco, Guererro

We drove to the city of Taxco yesterday. It was a cloudy day and not great for picture taking. In fact, it was spitting with rain for the section from Valle de Bravo to Toluca. Our friend Paco met us in Toluca and guided us through the city to the highway heading south. Thanks Paco!

Uneventful drive. You'll see by the map that it's not a very direct route because the Toluca Volcano is in the way and the roads to the south aren't even suited to the little blue car.

223 kms (138 miles) took us almost 4 hours!

That's why we didn't want to do the drive to Acapulco all in once day. So we decided that we wanted to visit Taxco since we had read that the streets are not motorhome friendly so we had avoided visiting when we had Sherman with us. It turns out, that even with the little blue car the streets are not friendly!

These are the little combi vans that people use as public transport in Taxco. (pop 75,000). The streets are not suitable for regular type buses.

We had made arrangements with a couchsurfing host for the night, and managed to find the street that Efrain lives on. But there's a lack of parking. I had actually parked at a hotel at the top of the street and asked if I could stay parked there overnight but they wanted 10 pesos per hour, and no discount on a days rate.

This is the steepest street that the little blue car has ever driven down. I think he was a little nervous, but he pulled through!

I noticed across the narrow street from Efrain's house that there was a nice clean gated property with a sign advertising car wash and brake service. Hmmm. The little blue car needed a bath badly, and even though I had looked at the brakes a month ago, I thought it might be good to get a second opinion. So I went and spoke to the guys...a father and son team. They said sure, they would clean the car, and inspect the brakes. 

We went and wandered around and found Efrain at the cafe he owns. We had a late lunch there...great huge chicken salad that we shared between the two of us for 60 pesos ($4.80).

Our couchsurfing host Efrain, at his little cafe.

While we were eating, a couple of guys walked into the small cafe. Turned out that they were also couchsurfing at Efrain's place. Clint and Adam are a father and son from Wisconsin. So we got acquainted with them, and they ended up having some lunch as well.

This is the house we're staying in. It's a big family home that Efrain's parents also live in.

We walked back to the mechanic place and they had finished washing and cleaning the little blue car. Personally, I would have checked the brakes first in case it needed parts, but whatever. So we said we would stop back again later.

This is the main street leading through the city. What a zoo of traffic!

Other than the main street, the rest of the city is almost all narrow cobbled one way streets. Filled with combi vans and VW bug taxis.

The main church, Templo de Santa Prisca was built between 1751 and 1758.

Pretty detailed stuff.

Rare for a church in Mexico, this one has a wood floor.

Fancy interior too.

The organ.

The dome.

We walked back down to check on the little blue car again. This time, they had the front end up in the air and explained that the brakes are fine. That's what I thought. But the car has around 175,000 kms (110,000 miles) on it now, and these are still the original brakes. Good to have a second opinion though. I asked if we could leave it parked there until morning and I would pay a little extra. Sure. Total price of the car wash, interior clean, brake inspection, and overnight parking? 150 pesos ($12.00).

Then, we headed uphill to get a view of the city.

The city of Taxco.

We had read about a teleferico that would take you up to another section for a view. We got there, but decided the 75 pesos ($6.00) each for the return trip was too much money. We saw a road that went up there and decided to hike up the road. We made it about 3/4 of the way in order to get another photo and then headed back down.

Another view of Taxco.

We met up with the other couchsurfers Clint and Adam and went to another cafe downtown that Efrain owns (he's an entrepreneurial kid of a guy!) and shared a plate of enchiladas and a few drinks. We had done a ton of walking yesterday and were pretty tired. Slept great.

Now, we're off to Acapulco. Just have to make our way through the zoo of streets here to a gas station and then we're on our way. Should be walking on the beach at sunset this evening!