While Starbucks dukes it out for control of Tully's in Seattle and battles for new business in India, its store in Zacatecas, Mexico is no match for Patricia and Rosita Torres' Panificadora tucked into a cozy storefront near the pink-stone cathedral in the historical center. Zacatecas is a former silver mining town in the Mexican high sierras. Everything feels and tastes a little differently at 8,000 feet, including the coffee. We were happy to find ours' here, along with delicious homemade pastries baked daily by Patricia (working the espresso machine in the back), who trained in San Francisco. She and her sister-in-law, Rosita, opened the cafe seven months ago, installing wooden cabinets for their pastries, restoring stone archways, adding brass chandeliers and a few tables.
I liked the cups with the spoons attached, something I've not seen at Starbucks. Most customers come in and order the Mexican way, picking up a pan and a pair of tongs and choosing their own selections from the cases. We sat down and lingered over a cheese empanada, danish with apricot, a Chai and Americano - all for around $6. It was a great start to our first morning in Zacatecas after arriving by bus from Guadalajara. The ride took about five hours on a first-class bus, with just two stops, one at a town along the way, and another a security checkpoint where everyone was asked to get out while dogs sniffed around the baggage hold. Bus security is interesting. Women are asked to open their purses before boarding. Men are frisked.
Zacatecas is a World Heritage Site, with heaps of preserved colonial buildings, churches and museums to explore in a narrow valley flanked by steep, winding streets and alleys and lots of stairs. Many of the building facades are made from elaborately carved pink quarry stone. Above is the Templo de Santo Domingo,
a baroque church built by the Jesuits in the 1700s. Notice the carved, gold gild work surrounding the statues. It's unusual to hear sounds while inside a church, but I noticed the wooden floor creaking and a faint, low howling sound. At 8,000 feet, Zacatecas is a Windy city and often chilly, even this time of the year.
A 16th century ex-convent is the home of a museum housing a collection of Mexican folk art that belonged to artist Rafael Coronel, the son-in-law of Diego Rivera. The garden and grounds resemble well-kept Roman ruins.
Inside, the highlight is a collection of more than 3,000 masks from around the world. Zacatecas has done a really nice job of repurposing its historical buildings as museums. We spent some time in a historical museum inside the former mint, and later a couple of hours inside a contemporary art museum that was once a seminary and later a prison. Most of what's on exhibit there is the work of Zacatecas abstract artist Manuel Felguerez whose paintings and sculptures are displayed on walls along steel catwalks and in former cells.
Most of the Mexican people we've met mention Obama. They love him, especially the people of Zacatecas. He visited last year and toured the Eden Mine, a silver, gold, zinc and copper mine opened in 1586. There are still many working mines around Zacatecas, but this one closed in 1966. We toured the third and fourth of seven levels, entering by elevator and leaving by miniature train. There were just three of us, so Daisy, an English-speaking guide, gave us what amounted to a private tour. We regretted not timing our visit to a weekend when the mine turns into Club Mina, a nightclub that holds 400. Patrons line up to go underground by train and drink and dance the night away until 3 a.m.
The wind stopped long enough for us to take us cable car to a top of a mountain called Cerro de la Bufa, the Basque word for wineskin, according to Lonely Planet, which is what the mountain is supposed to resemble.
The fanciest hotel in town is the Quinta Real, built around the city's former bullring, with views of an ancient aqueduct. We wandered in looking for a quiet place for an afternoon snack. The bar was closed (tables are set in niches that were the bull pens), but a waiter invited us to sit on the terrace where we were the only customers at 3 p.m. He brought us two beers and a plate of fresh guacamole, and we had the place to ourselves for about an hour, quite a contrast to the days when there were thousands of fans gathered here to watch the bullfights. This is a five-star hotel, so we expected five-star prices. Surprisingly, the bill came only to around $10, about what we'd paid for the same snack at a busy corner cafe in town the day before.
Wet your appetites. Travel Portland has come up with a winter/spring deal inspired by the Rose City's growing reputation among foodies.
Book and stay in a Portland hotel before April 1, and the tourism bureau will throw in a passport good for snacking your way around town for free.
The passport includes:
*One 10-piece meatball plate at IKEA
*One hour-long brewery tour, tasting and tulip beer glass at Widmer Brothers.
*One single scoop of ice cream in a waffle cone at Salt & Straw.
*One Portland Cream doughnut from Voodoo Doughnuts
*One basket of buttermilk biscuits from The Country Cat.
*One cheeseburger with meat or veggie patty from Brunch Box food cart.
*One meat or chocolate salami from Olympic Provisions.
*One cup of seafood chowder from Salty's on the Columbia
Reservations must be made through Travel Portland between Jan. 14 and March 31.
If you book a Portland Perks hotel (listed in your search results on the website), you'll also get free parking and breakfast.
It looks like Sea-Tac and other U.S. airports with controversial “backscatter’’ body scanners at security checkpoints will be replacing them in coming months.
Passenger rights groups have been pushing the Transportation Security Administration to replace the “backscatter’’ scanners with less invasive and presumably safer millimeter-wave machines that don’t emit radiation and feature privacy software that produces a generic rather than real nude image of passengers’ bodies.
Friday, TSA announced it had ended its contract with the company making the backscatter machines in the face of a June deadline from Congress for modifying the realistic imaging.
Local port officials had started to weigh in on the subject, including Seattle Port Commission Vice President John Creighton, as I report on this Sunday's TravelWise column in The Seattle Times.
“Fifteen million people a year go thru @SeaTacAirport,” Creighton pointed out in a recent tweet. “It’s time we urge feds to replace scanners at SEA as well.”
Giving into concerns about health and privacy, TSA had already been replacing the backscatter machines at many airports, but not yet at Sea-Tac, the nation’s 16th busiest airport, putting it in company with other, mostly smaller airports where there are 170 X-ray machines (Sea-Tac has 14) in place compared to 655 millimeter wave scanners. See a list here.
Creighton hoped to gain the support of fellow port commissioners for an official motion urging the TSA to replace the backscatter scanners, though that looks like a moot point now. Airport officials were already scheduled to meet with TSA on the subject in mid-February.
“I have gotten a number of emails on the body scanner issue over the last couple years and have a personal perspective as well,” Creighton explained in an email. “My mom and sisters refuse to go through the body scanners out of concern regarding long-term health impacts and all opt for pat-down searches.”
“The more people opting for pat-downs, the more the security process is delayed, so I think Sea-Tac would have a reasonable argument that moving onto the new technology now would save costs in the long run,” said Creighton.
Amen.
Using Alaska miles on Emirates
Members of Alaska Airlines’ mileage-award program can now use their Alaska miles to book award travel on Emirates airline.
Ever since Alaska began its mileage partnership with Emirates last March, Alaska frequent fliers had been able to earn miles when flying on Emirates, but not redeem them for award travel, a major disappointment given the airlines’ buildup of their partnership announced in January, 2012.
That changed as of Jan.16. An award chart published on Alaska’s website says frequent fliers will need to use 85,000 Alaska miles for an Emirates round-trip coach seat between North America and India or the Middle East. That beats mileage requirements for British Airways and Cathay Pacific (100,000 miles) and compares favorably with Delta and Air France/KLM (80,000 miles).
Alaska said it would award mileage plan members extra miles for travel on Emirates between Seattle and Dubai between Feb. 1 and April 30, depending on the fare level (triple miles for first or business-class travel, double miles for economy-flex travel and 2,500 bonus miles each way for economy-saver travel).
Scoring high on walking
Who isn’t interested in driving less and walking more when they visit other cities?
WalkScore, a Seattle-based company with a free iPhone app and website, gives business and leisure travelers a literal leg up when it comes to exploring travel destinations around the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
The site scores the “walkability’’ of cities and specific neighborhoods, with a place for photos and comments by locals who are urged to identify walkability trouble spots as well as favorite cafes, restaurants and parks. For more, click here to my TravelWise column in The Seattle Times.
Hotel discounts, dining-out deals and fewer tourists make the winter months ideal times for a budget-friendly Northwest getaway.
On my calendar are reminders to take advantage of a midweek lodging special at the White Pass ski area and a free Amtrak Cascades companion-fare coupon for train travel to Portland or Vancouver, B.C.
Sun and sand are always welcome, but when a trip to Hawaii or Mexico isn’t in the budget, a fireplace, a book and a glass of wine will help you warm up to winter. For some suggestions, see this week's Travel Wise column in The Seattle Times.
