Gómez Palacio Travel Guide

During July, visit its Fair. Exhibits, expos, lots of stands, amusement park. Also famous cockfights. A cockring, where cockfights take place, is called Palenque. To know more about palenques and cockfights, click on local customs on this page and on my Aguascalientes page.

At any town in Mexico, during a Fair, cockfights are held daily, usually from 8:00 PM until midnight at the palenque (cockring). People often bet on which cocks are going to win (just like in horse races). After the fights, a famous artist sings. Your ticket includes the show (price depends on artist, ranging from 8 to 40 dollars). As some people don't like cockfighting, they enter the palenque after it, usually after midnight, to just see their favorite artist (sometimes mariachi, sometimes pop singers, and even rock stars!). Picture: Vicente Fernández, renowned ranchero style singer and actor, at the palenque in Gómez Palacio. (There is also a city called Palenque, Chiapas State. Do not get confused!)

As Torreón and Gómez Palacio are two different cities, there are two different bus stations. Foreign buses stop at both stations. So check carefuly wich station you are going and wich one you are in. If you get off the bus in the wrong station you may need to take a taxi, unnecessarily increasing your spending.

PICTURE: Parroquia de Guadalupe, Gómez Palacio.

La Zona del Silencio, The Silence Zone, where a magnetic irregularity of the Earth makes radio signals impossible to be transmitted or recieved. Also lots of desertic fauna, especially land turtles, linx, eagles. Tours available. Bring a lot of water and a hat. This desertic area is 2 hours to the north, near Mapimí, where 3 states meet: Durango, Chihuahua and Coahuila.

Favorite thing: Visit Pancho Villa monument at La Pila Hill (Cerro de la Pila), site of fierce combats during the Revolution. This famous man was head of the Northern Division, the army that dominated half the country. He has monuments in many northern cities. He and his men were nicknamed Los Centauros del Norte, the Centaurs of the North.