Colonial Cities

>Aguascalientes >Puebla > Guanajuato >Zacatecas >Queretaro >Taxco >Guadalajara >Merida >San Cristobal de las Casas >Tlaxcala >Michoacan >Veracruz

In Mexico you can find architecture and customs of the colonial period throughout the country, from Rio Grande to Chiapas and from the Pacific coast to the Caribbean . Guanajuato retains the facades of their houses and alleys where you can still listen to Estudiantinas singing to the balconies, in Veracruz you can enjoy delicious chocolate doughnuts as was done in Spain . The Spanish Baroque is present in many cathedrals and churches throughout the country like the Cathedral of Guadalajara or places such as Merida that reminds us a province of Spain .

The so-called " White City ", Merida , because of the color of their houses, is the best example of the colonial presence in Yucatan . This city is visited by thousands of people annually, in addition to its colonial beauty and its climate that is always warm, you can enjoy museums, typical dances and malls. The tourist can enjoy a calm atmosphere and visit because of its proximity, the Maya ceremonial centers of Chichen Itza and Uxmal . The typical food of this region like cochinita pibil, motuleños eggs and panuchos surrounded by an atmosphere where the music of marimbas, the men with guayaberas and women dressed in brightly colored tunics transfer us to the Colonial Mexico. When traveling to Merida you can not miss visiting the Museum of Archaeology , the Government House, the House and Boulevard Montejo (Paseo Montejo) with its old and former residences and the House of Culture. But without a doubt the best thing is to take a walk by its streets , visit their markets and visit the old haciendas in the surrounding area that once lived from the exploitation of henequen, a plant that is still use to make popular hats and to manufacture articles of this material as well as the famous "hammocks" that can be achieved in all sizes and colors.

Another colonial city is Puebla, it was founded in 1531 to protect the road from Mexico to Veracruz port where the ships went to Spain carrying large amounts of silver or came to the New Spain with articles from China and Japan like silks, Loza or precious woods. In Puebla you must visit the cathedral, one of the largest in the country, the Palafoxiana Library built in the sixteenth century, it is regarded as the best in Hispano-America for antique books, the church of San Francisco , whose facade covered with tiles made according to the Toledo technique, or the house of Alfechique that has a Churrigueresque style.

Around the camps of the Spanish military and religious missions emerged in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, cities such as Morelia , Cuernavaca , Queretaro and Guadalajara , capital of the exuberant Baroque and mestizo. In them the customs are purely Spanish and simultaneously the more typically Mexican, as the rodeo or charro suit in Jalisco, that is the Creole and exaggerated version of the suit of the cattle dealers of the field charro of Salamanca .

The cities of Guanajuato, Zacatecas and Taxco appeared around the mines where silver was mined primarily, are known as "cities of silver" and even today still live in mine. In Taxco silver can be purchased by weight, into ingots or sheets and all around the streets there are silver jewelry shops appreciated worldwide. Here is also the church of Santa Prisca one of the most beautiful baroque churches of Mexico .

Guanajuato is a picturesque spot with its alleys and tunnels, here every year is celebrated the Cervantino Festival filling the entire city of plays, music, dance, painting, sculpture. When visiting this city is not due to lose to visit the Museum of the Momias , where you will find the bodies of many inhabitants of this city who were buried in a cemetery whose soil "mummify" in a natural way.

In Zacatecas it also emphasizes the cathedral, one of the colonial masterpieces, and the mine the Edén, that can be crossed in a small train. In Cuernavaca not miss to visit the Palacio de Cortes, ancient fortress of medieval style in which you will find the Cuauhnáhuac Museum and the Cathedral of the Assumption one of the oldest in Mexico .