Day 13

Day 13

As I mentioned before, in Cuernavaca I was given a room with a bathroom and shower so on Friday Morning the first thing I did was take a shower. I had not taken a shower in the past 13 days so I think I over indulge in staying under the shower. I heard noises in the kitchen so I decided to go down and find out what was going on.

To my surprise the table was set with a succulent breakfast. Orange juice, strawberry yogurt, sweet Mexican bread, coffee, bacon, fried eggs, and the list goes on and on. One by one everybody must have smelled the coffee because in no time that table was full of people. Louie and his whole family made sure we had a good time.

The plan for the day was to take us to The Borda Gardens. You may remember that Jose de la Borda was a very rich man that had a big influence in Taxco and apparently in Cuernavaca too. The gardens are a paradise for plant lovers, they are beautifully kept and you can easy spend a couple of hours there walking around over and under the bridges, it's a serene and relaxing place that once was home to the emperor Maximiliano and his wife Carlota.














For a better view click on the images to enlarge, you'll discover how much detail is in those gardens.

Across Morelos Street from the cathedral lies the Jardín Borda (Borda Gardens). José de la Borda, the Taxco silver magnate, ordered a sumptuous vacation house built here in the late 1700s. When he died in 1778, his son Manuel inherited the land and transformed it into a botanical garden. The large enclosed garden next to the house was a huge private park, laid out in Andalusian style, with kiosks and an artificial pond. Maximilian took it over as his private summer house in 1865. He and Empress Carlota entertained lavishly in the gardens and held frequent concerts by the lake.

The gardens were completely restored and reopened in 1987 as the Jardín Borda Centro de Artes. In the gateway buildings, several galleries hold changing exhibits and large paintings showing scenes from the life of Maximilian and from the history of the Borda Gardens. One portrays the initial meeting between Maximilian and La India Bonita, a local maiden who became his lover.

A note to Wanda and Chris, if I spent a couple of hours there you two would easily spend double that time.

After that we took a tour of the city, it takes a long time to travel a small distance because the traffic there is the worst. The streets are small and very narrow and the population keeps growing by the day. It was interesting to see the different areas. Louie took us to some of the nicer neighborhoods where very rich Americans such as Mohamed Ali have homes there. Cuernavaca is also a mecca for over the hill Mexican actors, and retired citizens.


As you can see, I am not kiddin' when I say the streets are narrow, I got this one at one of those rare moments where there was not traffic.

He took us to a church that is a the top of a hill where you can have a 180 degree view of the city.


We, got home and I was pretty tired. Remember that up to this point it has been non stop since we left Phoenix on May 26. Again, another delicious dinner was cooked for us, this time it was something simple and yet it was one of the best meals. He cooked chilaquiles con chile. We were supposed to go out to a karaoke bar later that night but I plain chickened out as I was tired and we opted for staying in and using their karaoke at home. It was a small set up with an OK sound but we didn't care, we stayed singing until we had no more voice left. We had a total good time and then we retired for the night.

We were told that the next morning we were to have breakfast at this charming restaurant that served a pretty good buffet. So, we only had a few hours to go to sleep. All in all we had another great day.