Travel

Travel – Cuernavaca, the city of eternal spring
By Nancy Seeley

If you’re longing for that big city atmosphere – but don’t think you’re quite ready for the teeming mega-metropolis of Mexico City – try Cuernavaca.

This “city of eternal spring” is an easy 8-hour overnight bus ride northeast of Zihuatanejo via a first class Estrella de Oro bus. At $328 pesos a ticket, some might consider it less hassle than driving there yourself at today’s gas prices and paying the rather stiff tolls along the autopista. Besides that, the scenery is worth looking at – something we found out on our daytime journey back. One of our travelers was glued to the window virtually all the way from Cuernavaca to Acapulco enjoying the ever-changing landscape of valleys sweeping into mountainous curves, the occasional lake in the distance, and crops scattered along the route.

It’s hard to pack all the sights Cuernavaca has to offer into only a couple of days, but the inviting temperatures, clear blue skies, and 5,000-foot altitude…so different from Zihua… may prompt a repeat visit to the State of Morelos’ capital city, home to about a million people during the week – and double that on the weekends (a handy thing to keep in mind when planning a trip). As Mexico City becomes increasingly polluted, literally swarms of its residents drive about 1-1/2 hours to the other side of the mountain for weekends, drawn by the warmth, a generous selection of nearby balnearios (bathing resorts and medicinal spas), numerous ecological preserves, and the charm of the colonial city itself.

On weekends, tour buses looking much like San Francisco trolley cars give 75-minute guided tours in Spanish to a number of the principal attractions in and around the historic center of town for about $35 pesos. If you’re there during the less-crowded workweek, however, it’s really not much of a chore to hoof it.

For starters, head over to Cortés Palace ($33 pesos entry fee) next to the zócalo. Built for Spanish conqueror Hernán Cortés beginning in the 1520s or 1530s (depending on whose version of the story you believe), it was his summer residence for a time. Now it serves as the Cuauhnáhuac Regional Museum, housing an impressive collection of pre-Hispanic and colonial pieces, some fabulous Diego Rivera murals and much more. Afterwards, eat dinner at Casa Hidalgo across the street around sunset for a picture postcard view combined with an extensive medium-priced menu.

Walk around the Borda Gardens ($30 pesos) and think about what it must have been like to boat around the property with Emperor Maximilian Von Hapsburg and Empress Carlotta around 1865 when the place served as the favorite watering hole of the Imperial Court. Besides the carefully tended flora displayed advantageously on spacious grounds, the site has a restaurant and hosts frequent concerts and art exhibitions throughout the year.

The Brady House ($35 pesos) is a must for art lovers with its 1,300 pieces ranging from African masks and New Guinea sculptures to colonial Mexican furniture and popular ceramics, from paintings by Frida Kahlo and Iowa-born Robert Brady himself to photos of the owner with numerous international celebrities. You can spend hours visiting and re-visiting the 14 rooms open to the public. Brady fell in love with Cuernavaca at first sight in 1961, bought the house the same year, and stayed in the dwelling that bears his name until he died there in 1986.

Just down the street from the Brady House is the Cathedral (free), which is actually a 16th century complex of buildings including several chapels, a couple of temples, and the Franciscan Convent of La Asunción. After visiting here, eat on the terrace of the Marco Polo Restaurant across the street if you’re in the mood for pasta, pizza or other Italian food, also priced for a modest pocketbook.

Being a nature lover, one of my favorite attractions is the Barranca de Amanalco (free), which boasts a 3-kilometer walkway along – and up and down – a wooded ravine with panoramic overlooks, gardens, pedestrian bridges and endless nooks and crannies where you can while away an afternoon reading or just admiring the surroundings. The tour bus mentioned earlier makes a lengthy stop here, but it’s not a long walk from downtown. It’s listed on most of the city maps available from the tourist information booths. Be sure to wear comfy shoes with good tread to combat the often-slippery paths, which are frequently doused with spray from trickling waterfalls caught by a transient breeze.

Another nature site perhaps a mile from the zócalo is the Salto de San Antón (free). When I was there, the main staircase for viewing the main attraction, a 100-foot waterfall, was closed for repairs, but another access route allowing for a less spectacular view was open, and even that one’s worth the hike.

My most recent Cuernavaca visit yielded an unexpected bonus. Salomón Pérez Hernández, the proprietor of a downtown coffee shop called “Cafetto,” remembered me from an earlier visit and volunteered to take our group of four – including my partner Nick Dubeski and his godparents, Canadians Alma and Bill Jennings – to the ruins at Xochicalco ($38 pesos), which means “in the place of the house of the flowers.” Although not restored to the extent of the archaeological treasures found at Palenque and Chichen Itza, for example, it is nevertheless worthwhile for the panoramic 360-degree views it offers, a Ceremonial Plaza featuring a Feathered Serpent Pyramid with intricate carved bas relief, and an astronomical observatory where the movement of the sun was observed and recorded from a tiny spot in a cave with an even tinier hole in its “roof.” For many Mexicans, this spot is considered sacred, and many – including our guide Salomón – feel it fills its visitors with energy. For this side trip, a car makes things much easier. Xochicalco is about 37 km. from Cuernavaca on a side road off Highway 95, which leads to Acapulco.

As we left Xochicalco, Salomón said we simply must see Las Grutas de Cacahuamilpa ($40 pesos), an enormous group of caverns halfway between Cuernavaca and Taxco. The stalagmites and stalactites are enchanting – with names like the Hunchback, the Silk Shawl, the Chicken and the Asparagus, the Champagne Bottle, the Elephant’s Trunk…well, I could go on and on. Once again, the 2-hour guided tours are in Spanish, but it’s not difficult to appreciate the beauty of this place if your expertise in the language doesn’t extend past “gracias.” The route takes you from the mouth of the caverns 2 km. inside them along a wide concrete path with NO side rails. DO be careful, as one of our group fell over the edge and landed 3 feet below the path while the rest of us held our collective breath hoping this wouldn’t end up to be a tragedy. Fortunately, our stalwart compatriot wasn’t hurt except for a skinned knee and wounded pride. The path ends with about 150 steps up to a viewing ledge…all of which must be descended while retracing your way back to the entrance at your own pace.

Sports enthusiasts might be interested in Cuernavaca’s upcoming 3rd Maratón Internacional Morelos, scheduled for July 24, 2005. The course is point-to-point, starting in Cuernavaca and ending at Las Estacas, a water/nature park 26 miles south which features swimming, camping, a waterfall, mini-golf, and a variety of other sports. Folklore has it that parts of the first “Tarzan” movie were filmed here, but who knows for sure. Nick ran the race last year and found the course challenging and scenic, with Mexico’s most famous volcano, Popocatépetl (“Popo”) dominating views at the halfway point of the route. Sports-minded gringos familiar with marathon entry fees in the U.S. and Canada will love the fact that this race sets you back a paltry $200 pesos.

There’s so many more things we didn’t have a chance to take in: numerous museums; the balnearios mentioned earlier; nearby Tepoztlán, named by Mexico’s Secretary of Tourism as one of 17 “pueblos mágicos” located throughout the country; Tequesquitengo Lake; the “Route of the Volcanoes”; and – in a similar vein – another route which takes in many of the 36 haciendas formerly owned by only 17 families whose stranglehold on sugar cane production sparked, in large part, the revolution headed by Emiliano Zapata in 1910 and resulted in the death of many Spanish landowners. On a tamer note, you could stay a while and enroll in one of the 50-plus language schools flourishing in the area.

Where to stay? We opted for the Hotel Colonial (01-777-318-6414), a small and modest establishment conveniently situated near the heart of things at 104 Calle Aragón y León. It cost us $220 pesos per night for a double and was worth every centavo what with the clean rooms, always-hot water, downstairs courtyard area, helpful staff, and cable TV as a bonus. What more could you want? But if you seek more amenities, an abundance of choices is only a “Google” search away on your computer.

Besides the two restaurants I already mentioned, there’s Las Mañanitas if you’re out to impress somebody. Prepare to part with at least a couple of the larger denomination bills in Mexican currency (the ones nobody in the market ever has change for…you know, the $500-peso notes) if two of you have a leisurely dinner with a few adult beverages. On the other hand, the city abounds in roast chicken joints, taquerias, torta shops and “comida corrida” storefronts where you can eat cheap and save your money for another trip.

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