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Hidalgo Statue

The statue at right is of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla(1753-1811), after whom the city is named. The leader of the movement to free Mexico from Spanish rule, his profile and face are as common in Mexico as is George Washington's in the USA.

Our first visit to Parral in April was somewhat of an accident and lasted less than a day. We had intended to drive from Torreon to the city of Chihuahua but got lost looking for the non-toll highway and ended up at the junction with the road to Parral and so went there first!

On arrival, we drove through town with no map to guide us (sadly, LPM does not include maps of every city) and after crossing and recrossing the dry river three times, each time it seemed on a different bridge, we settled on a hotel just down from the main square. We spent only one night and so apart from the essential visit to the Cathedral, we did little of tourist note. Jan had a haircut and we did find an Internet cafe that we visited twice and we walked the streets of the center of town.

When we got back to Parral in September, we felt as though we were coming home. We ended up in the same Moreira Hotel having looked at and rejected several others. We very much liked being in the center of town and although the room was small, the price was small too, so all in all we were happy enough to stay three nights.

Pancho Villa Museum

On our second visit, we did get to see the Pancho Villa museum, which of the many we have seen is probably the best. Located in a house that Villa used to stay in towards the end of his life and close to which he was assassinated, it has two large rooms on two floors filled with grainy photographs (of course), and various physical memorabilia such as guns owned by the General, and school desks from the elementary school he ran on his hacienda toward the end of his life.

On this visit, we also got to see the La Negrita mine which overlooks the city from the Cerro de la Prieta. We enjoyed the visit even though we didn't get to go down into any of the shafts. We were lucky enough to have a guide to ourselves and although she tended to speak too quickly for us, she was patient with our repeated requests to say things again. We learned that the mine had been open to tourists ever since mining operations ceased back in the sixties, but visits to the mine shafts either had never been allowed, or had recently been stopped for safety reasons. We were told that work was going on right now, to make visits possible to at least one level of the multi-level mine. An interesting side ere was owned and operated by ASARCO, the mining company that employed Gerry's brother as a computer system administrator for several years in Omaha and Tucson.

Palacio Alvarado

Another interesting museum that we got to visit was the Palacio Alvarado. We had seen it from the outside in April, but didn't know then that it was being refurbished as a museum. As we learned during our tour, it was purchased by the city in the year 2000 and opened to the public for the first time on May 30, 2003. The former home of a rich mining magnate, the house is a blend of architectural styles that range from the neo-classical through baroque to art-deco. The result is actually very pleasant, but alas, the no photography rule means that we can't show you anything of the inside. Only a handful of rooms can be visited as the process of refurbishing it is not yet complete. Built around a very lovely roofless courtyard with columns, arches, and balconies, the building reminded us of another "palace" this time in Spittal, Austria, home of Jan's college friend Jane. The upstairs gallery walls are covered with art-deco paintings, but the rooms themselves are rather Victorian in style with lots of velvet draperies and gilded cornices. A lovely place.

Nuestra Señora de las Reyes

And last but not least, no visit to a Mexican city can be considered complete without visiting its churches. In Parral, we liked this parish church dedicated to Nuestra Señora de las Reyes.