Real del Monte

Real de Monte, another one of Mexico's Pueblos Mágicos, situated in the state of Hidalgo, approx. 15 minutes away from the capital Pachuca de Soto, is known as the highest city within the country. It lies between 2,200 and 3,100 meters over sea level. I visited this little town twice, the first time with Valentine from France and Oli from Canada and the second time with my hosts Maria and Manni.

Real de Monte was once a mining town. Since the miners preferred short ways to the mines, the city developed, contrary to many other cities, from the mountain to the valley. Gold and silver were discovered by the Spanish conquerors in the 1520s, in the region of Pachuca the mining began in the 16th century and continued until the 1720s when the mines were suffering from flooding. The mines in the district are conservatively estimated to have produced 1.2 billion Troy ounces of silver and 6.2 million ounces of gold. This is approx. six percent of the silver mined throughout the world during the last five centuries. Some of the mines have continued limited production until the present day.

Real del Monte is a home of the paste (kind of empanada) in Mexico. A little larger than cocktail pasties common to the UK, the Mexican-made versions are widely varied including: meat and potato, shredded chicken with red or green mole, etc., plus a range of sweet pasties including pineapple, apple with cinnamon, strawberry, rice pudding or blackberry with cheese. There also exists a museum of pastes within the town where you can attend a course to learn how to make pastes. By the way, people living within the region do know the filling of the paste only by seeing how it is designed outside.