Travel with Kevin and Ruth: Into the city of Pachuca for an overnight stay

Sunday, November 23, 2025

Into the city of Pachuca for an overnight stay

We ended up having to move Igor. Not a big deal, but it certainly would have been more convenient not to have to.

And then when we got to the new location a few minutes away, it wasn't the same guy and the price had gone up from 250 pesos to 280 pesos. Whatever. At least he's secure.

We sat and had breakfast and then packed up and walked up to the collectivos.

Igor, waiting for us to return.

There was a collectivo waiting to take people into the city of Pachuca (pop 693,000). We're lucky in that most people will be going in the opposite direction, so there were only three of us in the van. It cost 18 pesos ($1.37 CAD, $0.97 USD) for the half hour ride into the city.

We were dropped off right in the center. Our hotel is also right in the center so we headed there first even though we knew we couldn't check in until 3:00pm. But, they let us drop off our day packs so we wouldn't have to carry them around.

Part of the central area.

The clock tower in the central plaza.

The main highlight in the central plaza is the clock tower. Built between 1906 and 1910 by the British, its clock mechanism is made by the same company that made the one in London's Big ben.

We walked about 2 kms down to a viewpoint where you can see the colorful painted houses in what was once a poor and sketchy neighborhood. A community art group decided to sponsor the painting in 2015, and it's apparently really turned the neighborhood around.

The Cristo Rey statue overlooking the city.

We found a place to have a couple of delicious tacos for lunch and then headed back to the center along a busy shopping street.

Our hotel is the beige colored building in between the blue and green ones.

We came across a dance display.

And we still had some time to waste before we could get into our room, so we decided to take the local Turibus tour of the city. It cost 100 pesos ($7.60 CAD, $5.40 USD) and lasted almost two hours.

Inside the Turibus. It would end up to be a full bus!

The Grinch!

Except there really wasn't a lot to see! The guide of course was all in Spanish, and he spoke quickly, but we did get a lot of what he was talking about. It makes my brain hurt after a while because we really have to concentrate!

They brought us up to the Cristo Rey statue, but there are so many trees around that you really don't get much of a view.

There's our Turibus on the left.

Looking down on the central area.

The bus dropped us back downtown and we headed to our hotel. We're staying at the Hotel Ciros right on the central plaza. We got a good deal, at 833 pesos ($63 CAD, $45 USD) for the night.

Nice enough room.

The facilities.

We are on the top (5th) floor, so have a bit of a view.

Ruth's birthday is coming up on the 27th, but we don't know where we're going to be that day. So we figured we had better get out to a decent restaurant for dinner. And if there happens to be a decent restaurant nearby on the 27th, then we'll just have to go out for dinner then too!