Zacatecas

I left Guadalajara on Sunday which was definitely a bitter-sweet moment for me. But the promise of the open road, tyres kissing the highways of North America, and new cities to meet was a tantilising near-reality.

First stop, Zacatecas, which was established by the Spaniards as a silver mining centre. It was previous to this, inhabited by indigenous tribes, and upon the discovery of the silver mine, the logical choice for work fodder was the local population. One mine still operates, yet there was a time in the scarily recent past when working conditions were so horrendous that up to 5 miners a day were dying because of disease and exhaustion.

Another significant event occurred here during the Mexican Revolution of 1914 when Pancho Villa (the statue of the guy below), a popular revolutionary, captured Zacatecas in an incredibly bloody battle which effectively ended the totalitarian regime of the day. He was a freedom fighter who, in this country, has evolved into a sort of mexican Ned Kelly figure.

All in all, it's a wonderfully charming, easy-paced place where a lot of time could be well and hedonistically spent.