Huichol Art

Huichol art broadly groups the most traditional and most recent innovations in the folk art and handcrafts produced by the Huichol people, who live in the states of Jalisco, Durango, Zacatecas and Nayarit in Mexico. The unifying factor of the work is the colourful decoration using symbols and designs which date back centuries. The most common and commercially successful products are 'yarn paintings' and objects decorated with small commercially produced beads. Yarn paintings consist of commercial yarn pressed into boards coated with wax and resin and are derived from a ceremonial tablet called a neirika. The Huichol have a long history of beading, making the beads from clay, shells, corals, seeds and more and using them to make jewelry and to decorate bowls and other items. The 'modern' beadwork usually consists of masks and wood sculptures covered in small, brightly coloured commercial beads fastened with wax and resin.  Wikipedia

 

Zacatecas Plaza

El Eden Mine in Zacatecas

The tour of El Eden Mine is approximately a mile long and features galleries, hanging bridges and tunnels, allowing one to imagine the complicated working conditions the miners had to suffer many years ago. The tour is enriched by an interesting and detailed explanation that describes the mining activity here, which was at its peak during the 17th and 18th centuries, with gold and silver being the main products extracted from the mine. It features a total of seven floors but the tour takes place on the fourth floor, from where you can see how flooded the lower levels of the mine still are.

Mining ended at 'El Eden' in 1960 and nowadays it is the most important tourist attraction in the state, where you can take a step back into the grandiose mining past of Zacatecas.

Not to be missed is the innovative El Malacate Discotheque which is located in a vault that was once used to grind the minerals and is now a state of the art nightclub. Access to the discotheque is via a small train through La Esperanza Cavern, a tunnel 656 yards long.