Hotel Plaza Zacatecas

Chill on a Hill

by Jetgirly

Zacatecas is already a million metres above sea level (okay, maybe only a hundred thousand...) , so what better way to spend a few hours than going even higher? Rising above the city to the east is Cerro de la Bufa, a hill that can be accessed by hike (it ain't no lovely stoll), vehicle or cable car (called the teleferico). On top you'll find the cute Capilla del Patronicinio, a little church, as well as statues honoring Pancho Villa, food and souvenir stalls, and "Northern Mexico's longest zipline" (which looked pretty unsafe to me, judging by the beer cans strewn all around). The views of the city from up here are fantastic, and there are cheap telescopes that you can use to zoom in on life below.

Visit a Pink Church

by Jetgirly

Basilica Fatima's pink spires tower above Zacatecas, and it's worth the short walk to see the beautiful pink church up close. Although the chuch is only a few decades old, the colors are magnificent and the stained glass windows are beautiful. It's a great place to take photos, so don't forget your camera!

Zacatecas

by jungles

"Colonial charm"

Zacatecas is a beautiful little colonial town in the Bajio region of northern Mexico. It's filled with Spanish colonial churches and narrow cobblestone lanes. Zacatecas is a pictueresque city but is not very tourisy as it's too far from anywhere to be a major tourist town.

Mexican Market Guide for Dummies

by Gatopardo

"What is a mercado*(warning, needs grammar review)"

Let's first talk about what is a "mercado" or market as it is more commonly known in english. A mexican mercado is the equal of a farmers market in the U.S. and I'm going to quote wikipedia.org about it:

"In economics, the concept of a market is any structure that allows buyers and sellers to exchange any goods, services and information...A marketplace is a location where goods and services are exchanged. The traditional market square is a city square where traders set up stalls and buyers browse the merchandise." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketplace)

Mercados in Mexico are an important part of the economics of the country, it's the place where small vendors can iniciate their business and it's the place where consumers can find lowers prices for a wide variety of products, they also are part of native history: Trading and social interaction.

Mercados are also called Tianguis or Fayuca. Fayuca handles more goods than food, people calls fayuca to products or equipment brought from the U.S. and sold cheaper, most of them used goods. A tianguis can be a mix of a mercado and a fayuca.

Almost every town has mercados. Sometimes there is a day where people decide to sell their goods, or they are set up every Sunday (maybe not local holidays), sometimes there is a specific and well known building and sometimes it's just as small as a mercadito, formed by many "hawkers" (http://www.dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=25179&dict=S&lang=S)

Almost every Mexican had a mother or grandmother who brought you to the mercado to shop for fruit, vegetables or just tortillas.

Most of the mercados in Mexico are weather exposed, don't expect air conditioning.

"Who shops in a mexican mercado?"

Almost every mexican!

There's a sociocultural side on it. It's most commonly use by the working classes. There are actually items that are very fresh and they are hardly found on modern supermarkets, so the mercado can be visited by whoever who can stand its motion.

This picture shows that a market can be very close from the street, with very little protection, you must be very skilled in moving within crowds.

"What do you find in a mercado?"

Food mostly (corn products as tortillas and corn dough, vegetables, fruit, candy, beverages, seeds, condiments, beef, pork, chicken or insect products, and small restaurants).

However, you can find movies and music cds (mostly piracy), toilteries, clothing (used and new), school supplies, used/new hardware, shoes, animals (birds or fish), magazzines, second hand books, appliances, and "yerbas" dried plants, small furniture, cars for sale, baskets, artcraft, handbags, make up, toys, holistic medicine, honey bee producers, etc.

The picture shows a vendor selling hand made products.

"Things that happen because mercados."

One of the consecuences of a mercado is noise, another is trash, crowds, poor hygiene, too many heavy bags to carry stuff and traffic. Also, no restrooms in the most of the cases and a very good adventure to find parking if you are driving a car. A sindicate can either be a good side of a mercado, or a the dark side actually.

On the other hand, if a mercado is carefully well organized, trash would be picked up, neighboors wouldn't complain about the noise by having schedules. Since the mercado stimulates local producers againts the big supermarkets as Walmart, it also approaches products at even cheaper prices and maybe even better quality for a better price. Parking would be availble and most of the times, there's a local transportation available just by a stone's thrown.

Another interesting thing happening is blending with the local folclore. Finding very unique items, as "indigenous" artcraft that you can't find elsewhere.

One more that comes to my mind is health related, is not about those magic weeds that are dried, it's more about eating there, only local and seasonal fruits and vegetables are found, which they must be washed before eating, except of cases as bananas or avocado, they have hard skins and have to be peeled. Fruit as strawberries or any with foliage in example, must be washed and rinsed. Foliage in particular needs to be desinfected with a couple drops of chlorine or similar liquids. Make sure you rinse after the chlorine.

If you were blessed and your family always procured taking care of your meals and never were exposed to stomach infections, avoid places where there is a high exposure to street food or unbottled unpurified water. Our organism knows and is inmune to the bacterias we are exposed to, then later you don't get sick easily. It's not that mexican food is fully contaminated, however, a few precautions might change your experience. Lastly, my husband is a living prove of having a strong exposed digestive system. He has never gotten sick in Mexico and we eat out in markets a lot. Let's ilustrate this idea better, if you drank fresh unpasteurized raw milk like my husband did, there were two chances, you either got a strong organism or you got sick more when little. My husband got a strong digestive flora, let's call them antibodies.

This picture shows a street vendor selling prickley pear fruit, which is delicious and needs a skilled hand to remove the skin. Prickley pear fruit grows in a variety of the cactus family, specifically the case of the Opuntia, not all prickley pear give this fruit we call "tuna". Most of the prickley pear's leave are edible, they are better if juicy and not very dry or thin. There is a very good selection of dishes in the mexican cuisin for this yummi "nopales".

Candy like these in the picture is made by crystalizing fruit. It's very tasty, however because the amount of sugar used, it contains a high number of calories.

Bees will be visiting candy like these.

I wish I had revealed this picture earlier! I got messed up! This was taken in the backside of a very old and traditional market in Merida, Yucatan. People in the markets need to move quickly, it can be to carry crates, helping ladies with their shopping, you name it. This is their parking. In Mexico we call this carts "diablitos"

Diablito's parking sign.

We talked about restaurants in Mercados, if they are operating in a building, they will be open longer hours, even after the mercado is off. That will depend on the location. This picture shows a Taco restaurant, but restaurants are always different, it can be just a lady selling tamales to go, as a small shade with picnic tables selling gorditas, burritos, pozole, soups, menudo, carnita, tortas, enchiladas, the food will depend on what the market sells, what is available and what are the local recipes that people like eating or traditional consume in a specific place.

Tacos are any beef or pork meat, fried or cooked , served on top of a corn tortilla and seasoned with cilantro and onion toppings. Salsa is served at the end. People make them different.

Most of mexicans eat tacos, specially at night and on the weekends.