Why is our Mexican Tile Design store in Durango, Colorado?

Why a Mexican Tile store in Durango, Colorado?

 Because we LOVE it here!  Mexican Tile Designs.com is located in the southwest corner of Colorado, near the four corners where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado all come together.  This blog is about Durango, not about Mexican Tile and Talavera Tile, because we want you to also come visit our beautiful town and our store and see why our family-owned company is located here.

Durango is perfectly situated between three ecological/geologic zones: basin and Range, high desert, and mountain.  That means we get to explore and play in all three, depending on the weather and our mood!  Just south of us is the high desert of Taos and Santa Fe with ancient Puebloan ruins of Aztec Ruins and Chaco Canyon on the way.

Just to the West is Mesa Verde National Park, and Utah with amazing canyon country, Moab mountain biking, river rafting, Arches National Park and much more!

To the North and East of Durango are the San Juan mountains and the Rocky Mountains

All of that is outside of Durango, but the town itself is pretty amazing too!  It’s home to the Durango Silverton Narrow Gauge Railway, the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic, Fort Lewis College and a bunch of crazy, fun people like us who love living here!

So now you know why Mexican Tile Designs showroom is located in Durango, Colorado!  Come visit us at 700 E. Second Avenue next time you’re in town!

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Mexico Adventure Sourcing Tile and Murals: part II

We spent two days perusing a Mexican handicrafts trade show where we searched for hand-painted tiles and gorgeous murals for our store.

Of course we also had to equally explore the incredible food and drink, including sampling the regional specialty of Tamarind Margaritas.We all liked them but preferred the traditional lime (and green vs. brown color!) and also had to sample shots of all the varieties of great Mexican tequila. In fact, the state of Jalisco is known for being the birthplace of “tequila,” which is made from the blue agave plant, native to the area.

On the way out of town, we stopped for a brunch of gorditas muy ricas! and other street food in the giant street market in the little town of Tonalá.

Despite the four hour drive we still had to make to get to Guanajuato before dark, we dawdled way too long perusing the hundreds of vendors stalls selling all manner of ceramics and tiles.

Although we had detailed directions for driving into Guanajuato in the state of the same name, our trusty guide and amiga, Teresa shook her head when we arrived at the Glorieta statue at the entrance to the city, repeating the oft heard saying, “if you don’t get lost in Guanajuato, you haven’t really been to Guanajuato!” This is because most of the cities navigable streets are underground in a series of ancient man-made tunnels lined with hand made bricks. Soon after uttering those fateful words, we entered the subterranean warren of streets which are crisscrossed by narrow alleys too small for a car, and stairways by which pedestrians climb into and out of the streets. Although we thought we were faithfully following the directions, we were, in fact, hopelessly lost, until Andy called out—“there’s a little blue building” (among thousands of little blue buildings) but which actually, and nothing short of miraculously, turned out to be our destination: a fantastic little bed and breakfast called Villa Sueno Azul. The first thing Teresa and I did was get a luscious corn on the cob from a street stall!
More of our adventures soon!