Pinos

Pinos is a wonderful and odd little town (and municipality) far in the southeast of Zacatecas. 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), which 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 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 a false start in the late 18th 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. tribe, whose name means "red head." Its natural attractions include the Giant Biznaga Trail and the Sierra de Pinos mountain range. Among its cultural and historical attractions are the Sierra de Pinos, the underground passage, the Museum of Sacred Art, the Hacienda La Pendencia, and the IV Centenario Community Museum. In terms of crafts, the jars and pottery made in family workshops are famous.

In terms of cuisine, the most representative dishes are rabbit with pine nut sauce, condoches (a type of soup), gordas de horno (a type of bread), patoles blancos (a type of drink), prickly pear cheese, panela cheese, melcocha (a type of candy), aguamiel (a type of drink), pulque, and mezcal.