Our trip to Taxco In September of 2002, I went with a group of four to Taxco Mexico, which we heard to be the "silver capital of the world". Our mission was to buy an inventory of handmade Mexican silver jewelry for our new online jewelry store, AlluringMoon. It was a very exciting trip, not without its trials, but we left with an impressive selection of unique Mexican jewelry, strong contacts with good honest silversmiths, and a love of Taxco that still calls us back to it today. We arrived in Zihuatenejo, a small beach town. The four of us stayed overnight in a dingy cliffside hotel in the hopes of driving to Taxco the next day. We planned on leaving around noon, but only after we packed the rental with our overstuffed luggage, we found that the car wouldn't start. By the time the new car arrived, we had lost too many hours of daylight to make it to Taxco. We decided to stay in Acapulco for the night, setting back our itinerary by a day. As we were an obvious pack of gringos, night driving was not an option. With that, and the fact that the only road to Taxco was 400 miles of topes (speed bumps) and potholes littered with pigs, donkeys, dogs, and chickens, our 8 hour drive become a 2-day adventure. We arrived just at sunset in Taxco - a beautiful, narrow colonial village situated on a mountainside deep in the Sierra Madres. Entering this town by car was a little more than we could handle. It was mentioned in the travel brochures that driving was not recommended, and 30 seconds inside Taxco was all it took to understand why. The streets are only wide enough to acommadate one small VW Beetle.The National Silver Fair was kicking off the same day as our arrival, making driving even more difficult. I quickly realized our Chevy Malibu was too large for the streets of Taxco. We were in the town but 10 minutes when I got the car wedged in a street corner, where the more we moved the farther we were from being dislodged. After what felt like hours of forwarding and reversing the car, and slipping on the steep cobblestone street, we attracted the help of some kind men who guided us out. Once we got out of the mess, having a scratched and slightly dented door, we decided to ditch the car and take a taxi. With people pouring in for the Silver Fair, Taxco's streets were flooded with pedestrians and Mexican silver jewelry vendors, contributing to a festive and chaotic atmosphere. We spent the next three days visiting hundreds of vendors, scouting out only the best handmade silver jewelry. At night we enjoyed live music and fireworks in the zocalo. Several fires broke out as a result of the fireworks, one in a building next to our hotel. Our first purchase was also where we got our first taste of true Mexican hospitality - which was very similar to tequila! I suppose after spending two hours with these men negotiating a price and the the details of our agreement, they felt obligated to make it official. While they didn't want to hear our refusal of shot #4, we had to leave. It was our last day in Taxco and we had only just begun. Luckily we didn't cross any more shops wanting to share some Mexican cheer. After an exhausting day, we did have enough Mexican silver jewelry and contacts to give AlluringMoon a good start. And so, on the fourth day we left Taxco. Again, we stayed an extra night in Acapulco and returned to Zihuatenejo with just enough time to spend the last 2 days of our trip recovering from our journey.
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