Things To Do: Eat Ice Cream in Dolores Hidalgo's Main Plaza

Several vendors set up large carts on the corners of Dolores Hidalgo's Main Plaza every morning. Each vendor has a wide variety of flavors from which to choose. Each vendor calls out to passersby to come for a taste...hoping, of course, the passersby will buy! Each vendor claims his or her ice cream is the best.

All the vendors have flavors one would expect to find in any ice cream store....chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. Though these flavors sound mundane, one bite is enough to show you that this is no mass-produced ice cream found in cardboard containers in your grocer's freezer.

The ice cream is made fresh every day by the vendor and the vendor's family. They use only fresh and top-of-the-line ingredients. No emulsifiers, no artificial colors or flavors, no preservatives. Just rich, creamy ice cream full of fat and calories.

Ok, that sounds good, but not so good that you want to make a special trip to Dolores Hidalgo just to eat ice cream.

So, why do people always tell you to be sure to try the ice cream when they hear you are visiting Dolores Hidalgo?

The reason is that the vendors don't stop with the normal choices of chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla. These vendors can and do take nearly any food you can imagine and turn it into a dessert.

There are fruit flavors....pineapple, mango, lemon, papaya, and guava.

There are alcoholic drink flavors...piña colada, strawberry daquiri, whiskey, tequila, rum, pulque, and beer.

There are flavors like mint chocolate, strawberries and cream, rice pudding, cajeta (a caramel confections made with goat's milk), and cheesecake.

Then, there are the more exotic flavors....fried pork rinds, corn, mole (a spicy-sweet chocolate sauce usually poured over chicken or pork), avocado, shrimp, and octopus.

Yes, I'm not kidding! Octopus ice cream. I can't imagine eating it, but someone must find it appetizing!

Transportation: Transportation in Dolores Hidalgo

Getting TO/AROUND: Dolores Hidalgo is a small town of around 55,000 people. The streets are laid out in a grid and are fairly flat. The only thing you need to get to most of the attractions is a good pair of walking shoes.

The museums as well as many of the parks and churches are located in the center of town within easy walking distance of each other. There are also several artisan shops in the blocks around the parish church (Our Lady of Sorrows) and the main park.

There are also a number of artisan shops located on Avenida José Alfredo Jimenez, about five blocks west of the center of town. If your feet are too tired to make the walk, taxis are plentiful and inexpensive (around $20 pesos) or you can take a city bus for about $4 pesos.

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