Callejoneadas: Traditional Night Walking Tour with Tamborazo and Mezcal

The callejoneada is one of Zacatecas' most distinctive living traditions, an evening walking party through the city's colonial alleyways that traces its roots to the Saturday nights when mine workers, freshly paid, took to the streets with music, jokes and mezcal after a week underground. Modern callejoneadas follow the same basic pattern: a tamborazo brass band leads a walking crowd from the Plaza de Armas through the most emblematic streets and passageways of the historic centre, tunnels and stepped alleyways framed by pink quarry-stone colonial buildings, making stops in smaller plazas and gardens along the way before finishing at the Alameda.

Mezcal is central to the experience, traditionally served from small clay jugs carried by vendors or by a decorated burro accompanying the procession, and dancing with a mannequin figure known as la burrita is a recurring feature of the walk. Tours generally run Thursday through Saturday evenings starting around 7:00 PM and last about two hours, organised by independent groups and tour organisers based in the historic centre rather than a single citywide operator, with tickets often including entry to the group and a clay mezcal jug as a keepsake.

The pace is unhurried and the terrain is entirely on paved historic-centre streets, some with a gentle slope or short stepped sections, making the activity accessible to most visitors regardless of fitness. Because it moves through some of the same alleyways prized for night photography, a callejoneada makes a natural pairing with an evening spent photographing the illuminated cathedral and Palacio de Gobierno beforehand. Groups can be boisterous, and mezcal is served generously, so pacing consumption and staying with the group are the main practical considerations for a comfortable evening.