Pinos

Pinos is a wonderful and odd little town (and municipality) far in the southeast ofZacatecas. The municipality is big and somehow manages to border three states: Jalisco, at its easternmost extension, Guanajuato to the very south, and San Luis Potosi to the east and north. The municipal seat dates from the time of the Camino Real Tierra Adentro, the royal road that connected the capital of New Spain to the entire north of the country. 

But this is only at the point that things start to get interesting. The Plaza Principal is bordered to the north, by the older Church of San Francisco. It's the site of a former monastery and dates from the early 17th century. It's also the home to a fantastic Black Christ of Esquipulas (the little town in Guatemala). This Black Christ came to be the patron saint of the Camino Real. It's been venerated by the faithful here for ages.

On the other side of the Plaza Principal is the rather squat Temple of San Matías. It gets all the fame because it's just that spectacular. The original church, built between 1682 and 1697, was later planned to serve merely as a first of three naves in a much bigger church. The other two naves still stand, in skeletal ruins, to the immediate east of the church, never finished after work quit already in the early 19th century. The collection of religious art is still, sometimes, open to the public, to the immediate west of the church.  

So, one of the most celebrated of the Camino Real silver towns actually was first land inhabited by Huachichil peoples. People come today to visit the the nearby giant biznaga cacti, in a sanctuary right in town. There are trails up into the Sierra de Pinos mountain range and some surrounding fascinating landscapes. There are tours of the abandoned mines, and some pretty outstanding abandoned haciendas. The Museum of Sacred Art and the IV Centenario Community Museum put it all together. It's a fantastic art scene, and the food is outstanding, try the rabbit with pine nut sauce, condoches soup, baked gordas, and the patole.

People come overwhelmingly from San Luis Potosí because it's only a little more than an hour away. Bus service from there is regular, and the same holds true for the capital of Zacatecas. It's about 1 hour and 45 minutes away. From Aguascalientes, the trip is about two hours and from the capital of Guanajuato, it's about three hours.