We hadn't really planned to do any other trips over the xmas holidays and were just going to stay in San Luis, but on the recommendations of several of my friends we decided to have an overnight trip to Zacatecas, another mexican silver mining town about 3 hours from SLP. We left on a Sunday morning after a party at our house and arrived early afternoon. We had been driving through the desert and as we went round the corner of a mountain there was this big colourful city: Zacatecas.
We found a very cheap hotel (with no windows) and as it was a beautiful sunny day we headed straight for the cable car. There was a long queue to go up to Cerro de la Bufa, the big hill which dominates the town, but it was worth the wait for the spectacular views of the city from the cable car and the top of the hill. There was also a pretty little church up there, some stautes, lots of souvenir shops and fast food stalls and we enjoyed just wandering around admiring the views as the sun started to set. We decided to walk back down into the town down a slightly slippery footpath. We walked right into the centre of Zacatecas which is a very pretty and colourful town.
We spent ages trying to find somewhere to have dinner and finally found a bit of a hidden gem. It looked like a standard mexican restaurant - slightly upscale tacos, quesadillas, gorditas etc, from the outside, but when we got in there we discovered a little italian restaurant with delicious bruchetta, pasta and salad! A real treat! After dinner it was quite a chilly night and as the nightclub in the mine wasn't open on sundays to our disappoinment we headed bac to the dingy hotel to drink coconut liquer. (We plan to return to Zacatecas on a night when the club in the mine is open as apparantly it has a glass dance floor that looks down the mine shaft into oblivion and also has state of the art lighting and sound systems!)
The next day we got up and headed for the mine, stopping at a little garden to have breakfast on the way. The mine was great fun and totally worth what we paid to go in. It was really nicely done. First there was a little mine train that took you into the mine, then we had a wander about the underground museum which had rocks and crystals from mines all over mexico. Then we had a peek into the nightclub and then a tour though the mine. We tried hard to understand what our guide was telling us, and it seemed interesting from what we got of it.
After the mine we walked back into ton, got some lunch and did a bit of shopping before going back to the bus station and travelling through the desert back to SLP.
