Pachuca...... The bride of the wind

Independence Square

Pachuca, also known as the "beautiful windy city" or "the bride of the wind" because of the strong winds that hit the city, is the capital of the state of Hidalgo, is not as popular as other cities but it certainly has its charm.

The Victory of the wind

You just need to drive for less than an hour all the way of the 85 highway to reach this city, a straight highway easy to drive, that eventually breaks into the barley fields of Hidalgo.

Pachuca had it's blaze of glory in the mid of nineteen century when the British came to the mines to extract silver, this resulted, in the inclusion of football in Mexican society of the late nineteenth century, that's why another nickname of this city is "the cradle of football", honor that shares with the city of Orizaba.

the current territory of the Hidalgo capital city was occupied by the Otomi tribes, for the year 1821, these tribes gave the name of Njünthe (watermill), later, was dominated by the chichimecas, that gave the name of Pachoacan (place of government), there is not any archaeological site belonging to these tribes in this area, only found arrowheads and obsidian objects in the Sierra de Pachuca, in the end, this territory came under the control of the Mexicas when they materialize the triple alliance.

Prosperity of this city came to the year 1552 with the discovery of the mines and when Bartolome de Medina, implemented for the first time in the industrial field, the system of amalgamation that came to revolutionize metallurgy.

Once consummate independence of Mexico, colonial practices of production and distribution of wealth did not changed, The third Count of Regla, held a lease in 1824 and came to Pachuca the first English to exploit the mines until 1848, when his possessions were sold to Mackintoch, Escandon Beistegui and John Rule. An example of this was a rebellion in 1766 when Pedro Romero de Terrenos,  attempt to suppress wages and increasing workloads twice, this resulted in a strike and the assassination of Mayor Jose Ramon Coca.

the Mexican Revolution, was a difficult period for the Hidalgo population, there was too much hunger and poverty, it is said that the mining companies, they issued small cards with values ​​of 10 to 50 cents, to which the population named parrots and pigeons.

The city welcomes us with objects of the era of the mining boom, that adorning the entrance of Pachuca, for now we'll skip the downtown, for personal reasons, the first point to visit is the old cementery of the city, construction that belongs to the Porfiriato era, highlight the sculptures of the façade, Faith, Hope and Charity, which were made in marble from Carrara, Italy. At the top is Charity, which is formed by a standing woman having a baby in her arms and two others beside her, one of them is invalid. There are also two letters of the Greek alphabet: Alpha and Omega: that means life and death, respectively.

Now we're heading to a neighboring municipality, Actopan (Moist and fertile land) to visit the former convent and temple of Saint Nicolas de Tolentino, it's an amazing building!! Its architecture brings together virtually every style of the colonial era in Mexico, shows a combination of styles Plateresco, Morisco, Mudéjar, Gothic, Romanesque and Renaissance.

We returned to Pachuca to visit the Christ, sculpture built by a promise made by a group of miners who had been trapped when the winch broke down, the sculpture reaches 33 meters high.

on the way to the downtown we found a building from the XVIII century, that now belongs to the University of Hidalgo.

We leave the car in the parking lot to take a walk through the downtown, and there we found the main symbol of the city, its monumental clock, built to commemorate the centennial of Mexico's independence, the machinery of this clock is the same production of Big Ben in London, In a tower of four bodies, neoclassical style, with a kick of copper manufactured in Monterrey, was built in white quarry, with a height of 40 meters, medium body, has four beautiful female sculptures in Carrara marble which symbolize the Reform, Liberty, Independence and Constitution.

Local Cuisine

two blocks ahead, we found the house of Count Rulé, another interesting examples of the architecture of the Porfirian era, built in the last decade of the nineteenth century. The property belonged to the wealthy English Francisco Rule, which was benefited by the rich bonanza mines of the region. today it houses town hall.

two blocks ahead, from this house, is the Constitution square builded in 1820, we kept walking and we found the building of the Royal Treasury,where miners paid their taxes to the Spanish crown.

On the way to the Independence square, we saw another beautiful building, The methodist church of the Divine Savior, a neo gothic construction from the XIX century.

we left the downtown, and we're heading to see the temple of Saint Francisco, now houses the National Museum of Photography and the Cultural center of Hidalgo.

our penultimate stop in Pachuca is to visit the Hidalgo Stadium, also called Hurricane, home of the Pachuca Gophers, five times winner of the Mexican League.

Match between Pachuca Gophers vs Pumas UNAM

now, for those that love the football, we have to visit the Hall of Fame of this sport, builded in 2011.

we took the highway to return to Mexico City, but on the way I saw a signaling about a convent, so I took the detour, and yes eight miles ahead we arrived to Villa de Tezontenpec, there is an old Augustinian convent, in this village you may find several leather garments and a tasteful liquor made of nopal

Now it's time to make our way home!

Thank for read this blog

See you up the road!!

Tepotzotlan..... The viceroyalty route

Tepotzotlan

Hey guys, this time I want to show you the viceroyalty route, the beginning of the Royal road of the Interior land or the old way to Santa Fe, that was the old commercial route since the middle of the XVI century until the XIX century, the Spanish, had used this road to trade with silver and the mercury all the way to Albuquerque.

Located just forty minutes away from the city of Mexico, this town stores the art of the colonial era, inside the ancient jesuit college of saint Martin and saint Francisco Javier, now named National museum of the Viceroyalty.

But first we had time to wander around by another municipality owned by the state of Mexico, and I mean Tlalnepantla de Baz.

Hidden within the urban area, it seems that it has nothing to show, Tlalnepantla that means, "in between the land" in the old nahuatl language, is best known for being an industrial area, in addition to being marked by the tragedy of 1984, where thousand of people were killed by a gas explosion that was originated in the facilities of a governmental company.

Founded in the late of the XII century by the chichimecas and their leader, Xolotl, the city of Tenayuca (place surrounded by walls) was the main place of the political power, still we can see the remains of the pyramid, you may reach this place, driving down through the Mario Colin avenue, in 1914 a group of archaeologist discovered a square basement with twin temples, one for Quetzalcoatl, and the other one for Tlaloc, this pyramid is surrounded by snakeheads, petroglyphs and two xiuhcoatls (snakes of fire). These xiuhcoatls were the most powerful weapon of Huitzilopochtli, the warrior god associated with the sun, the legend says that he was conceived when his mother Coatlicue kept a ball of feathers that fell from the sky when she was sweeping the temples in the Sierra of Tollan, his four hundred brothers when they noticed that their mother was pregnant, they tried to hide the disgrace, murdering the newborn, instigated by their sister Coyolxauhqui, but at that moment, he was born, killing most of their brothers, Huitzilopochtli took the xiuhcoatls as an axe and destroyed her sister, she was dismembered when she fell through the hills.

Xiuhcoatl

Two kilometers ahead we found another pyramid, Acatitlan (reedbed), in the village of Saint Cecilia, also founded by the chichimecas who settled in the Sierra of Guadalupe, this pyramid was used as a ceremonial center. You may visit the center of Tlalnepantla and the Corpus Christi Cathedral, now we continue our way to Tepotzotlan.

We arrived to Tepotzotlan twenty minutes later, but by now, we will skip the center, and we continue down the road to visit the arches of Xalpa, a monumental aqueduct from the colonial era, early in the century XVIII, builded by the jesuit community to brought the water from the sierra to the ranch of Xalpa, has a lenght of 400 meters and a height of 62 meters, was conditioned as a ecotourism park, where you may find suspension bridges, grills and a zip line.

We return to the center of Tepotzotlan and the mandatory stop is the national museum of the viceroyalty, the visitor should take the time to see the facade of this temple, the architecture is completely baroque, from the period churrigueresque, but this is just the beginning, inside there's a chapel made of sheet coated with 23 carat gold, is awesome, but to me, I really don't know what to think, on one hand I will always admire the work of the mexican artisans, on the other, as the Spanish rock band Mägo de Oz said, gold that does not serve to feed the hungry mouths, there has always been poverty, and the churches have always been full of gold, but that's another issue. sometimes the INAH use this chapel for concerts, we continue walking through the halls of this museum, until we reach the gardens. We left the museum and we walked through the village.

Tepotzotlan means in between the hunchbacks, I guess is because of the shape of the hills that surrounds the town, on the main square is the olive garden, just outside the museum, on the street there's to many vendors that offers local garments, breads made of cheese and walnut, very tasteful, the main handcraft is the wrought iron.

Tepotzotlan it's also known by the traditional pastorelas, a musical performance that narrates the adventures of the virgin Mary and Saint Joseph on their way to Bethlehem, sometimes in October a medieval fest is held.

now it's time to come back, but not before dinner in the monastery hostelry

Thanks for your time