The past 2 days were spent in Zacatecas, a charming colonnial, ex-mining town and state capitol. Before I begin recounting my adventures I'd like to just make a quick advert for the hostel where I've been staying, which has to be the friendliest and most fun hostel I've ever stayed in (probably has something to do with my intake of beer and mezcal). It's run by a father and son (Ernesto and Ernesto) who are both incredibly helpful and make you feel right at home. So if anybody is planning to visit Zacatecas (which I would recommend) then you must stay at the Hostel Villa Colonial.
Well, that's enough of that. Yesterday I visited my first proper ruins in Mexico some 40km from town, called La Quemada (meaning "the burnt one"). The setting is absolutely spectacular: right in the middle of the desert on top of a series of hills, so you have a great view of the surrounding area. The ruins themselves were nice enough (although there didn't remain any really big structures) but what fascinated me more was the abundance of wildlife, especially insects and other various creepy crawlies (I even managed to get a few poisonous spiders crawling over my jumper but managed to brush them off).
Then today was spent looking around Zacatecas. I have begun to notice a rather annoying Mexican habit in town planning: they always seem to put their towns next to high, steep hills and put the youth hostels at the bottom, and anything I want to see at the top. Sometimes they outdo themselves by having 2 seperate hills on either side of the town, and such is the case with Zacatecas. But I must say I did have some fun climbing up the Cero de Bufa. (If you want to see some pictures have a look at the following site that I found from some people who visited a few years back.) Anyway, I'm leaving tonight and taking the night bus to Chihuahua, a place I've wanted to visit for years as it is filled with childhood dreams of packs of ravenous, yapping, midget dogs (probably not an accurate picture, but what the hell).
Well, that's enough of that. Yesterday I visited my first proper ruins in Mexico some 40km from town, called La Quemada (meaning "the burnt one"). The setting is absolutely spectacular: right in the middle of the desert on top of a series of hills, so you have a great view of the surrounding area. The ruins themselves were nice enough (although there didn't remain any really big structures) but what fascinated me more was the abundance of wildlife, especially insects and other various creepy crawlies (I even managed to get a few poisonous spiders crawling over my jumper but managed to brush them off).
Then today was spent looking around Zacatecas. I have begun to notice a rather annoying Mexican habit in town planning: they always seem to put their towns next to high, steep hills and put the youth hostels at the bottom, and anything I want to see at the top. Sometimes they outdo themselves by having 2 seperate hills on either side of the town, and such is the case with Zacatecas. But I must say I did have some fun climbing up the Cero de Bufa. (If you want to see some pictures have a look at the following site that I found from some people who visited a few years back.) Anyway, I'm leaving tonight and taking the night bus to Chihuahua, a place I've wanted to visit for years as it is filled with childhood dreams of packs of ravenous, yapping, midget dogs (probably not an accurate picture, but what the hell).
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