Zacatecas

Arriving in Zacatecas, I met up with my Couchsurfing host, Ben, at his place of work. Ben teaches French at a small school here.

While I was waiting for Ben to finish his class, I took some time to explore the city.

Mexico is the land of a million cathedrals. If you are lost in the city, just look for the cathedral and that will being you to the center of the city.

Zacatecas is also famous for it's "Plata" or silver mine. The mine was started in 1586 and was officially closed in the 1960's. On average according to the tour guide, 3 people died daily in this mine.

The train that takes you 500 meters below the surface

This is fountain to honor the dead in the mine.

The mine also has a mineral museum. There were minerals from all over the world on display here.

On one of the days while I was in Zacatecas, the Mini PanAm challenge was passing through. There were lots of cool racing cars and some famous racers here.

This was a funny park of sorts. "Bathroom for Men", but the gate was locked to I had to hold it until I found another bathroom. One thing about Mexico is that public bathrooms are attended. You pay 5 pesos on average. They are clean and nice. The people of Mexico take pride in everything that they do, whether a bathroom attendant or stock broker.

And this is Ben and Gabby. Gabby owns a boutique and does massage. Ben and Gabby were great and this was my first Couchsurfing experience.

This was at local eatery and this guy makes his own beer. And the beer was awesome!