Yes, you read right! They look like Cornish Pasties, and some even have traditional fillings like meat and potato, but others have Mexican fillings such as red mole and green mole - a chocolate and chili sauce pronounced mole-ay; so no, it isn't an underground animal!

The pasties were actually brought to this area by miners from Cornwall, so we felt obliged to go down into one of the mines and have a look at the conditions in which they used to work, to extract copper, silver and gold. After this, we hiked from the riverside mine to a viewpoint at 2850m, collecting pasties in the town for lunch.

It was great to get off the city tour and experience a smaller settlement, and here we have also had our best culinary experience so far. We spent a whole evening in a family run restaurant specialising in locally caught trout. Not only was the food amazing, but the real log fire and Christmas tree added perfectly to the ambiance. We haven't met any other English people travelling in Mexico so far and the reception and genuine interest in our culture was typical here. We really felt we were dining in a Mexican home.

It was here too that I discovered "michelada" - half a glass of spicy salsa and beer, with a salted rim. It sounds like it shouldn't work, but it does. I wouldn't recommend more than one though!

Posted from Mexico City, 25th December 2015