January 2011 - the year end and the new year begins



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Our 20th anniversary



Laura and Noah with us for the last week of 2010



We celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary on Dec 30th - going out to dinner to "El Tomate" and then a very different New Years Eve than our many past ones - usually we celebrate with friends at the beach - often a quiet night. This year we had big fireworks at the "jardin" to bring in the new year. It was the finale to a big December with guests every day which was wonderful but I would by lying if I did not admit that I was quite tired by the end.

We left early on January 1st in a rental car to the town of Xilitla, MX which was about a 6 hour drive through windy mountain roads from San Miguel. We went with our friends Bob and Marybeth Bates and both hombres did the driving. Though it was a rough ride for the stomach - it was SO very worth it for the sights both along the way of the mountain scenery and for the final destination - Las Pozas which is outside the town of Xilitla.

(From Wikipedia) Las Pozas ("the Pools") is a sculpture garden built by Edward James, more than 2,000 feet above sea level, in a tropical rain forest in the mountains of Mexico. It includes more than 80 acres of natural waterfalls and pools interlaced with towering Surrealist sculptures in concrete.


Las Pozas is near the village of Xilitla, San Luis Potosí, a seven-hour drive north of Mexico City. In the early 1940s, James went to Los Angeles, and then decided that he "wanted a Garden of Eden set up . . . and I saw that Mexico was far more romantic” and had "far more room than there is in crowded Southern California”. In Hollywood in 1941, his lifetime friend and cousin from Paris, British born Magic Realist painter Bridget Bate Tichenor encouraged him to search for a surreal location in Mexico to express his diverse esoteric knowledge. In Cuernavaca, he hired Plutarco Gastelum, then a young manager of a telegraph office, as a guide. The two found Xilitla in November 1945. (We stayed at the hotel which is owned and managed by the daughter of Plutarco.)

Between 1949 and 1984, James built thirty-six concrete follies - palaces, temples and pagodas, including the House on Three Floors Which Will in Fact Have Five or Four or Six, the House with a Roof like a Whale, and the Staircase to Heaven.There were also plantings and beds full of tropical plants, including orchids - there were, apparently, 29,000 at Las Pozas at one time - and a variety of small casas (homes), niches, and pens that held exotic birds and wild animals from the world over. Massive sculptures up to four stories tall punctuate the site. The many trails throughout the garden site are composed of steps, ramps, bridges and narrow, winding walkways that traverse the valley walls. Construction of Las Pozas cost more than $5 million. To pay for it, James sold his collection of Surrealist art at auction. James was a friend of Dali, Magritte and other surrealists. I have included several pictures of our time at Las Pozas and have many more for those who wish to see them.

 



"The Wedding Ring"

 

These hands are about 6 feet high




The Necktie door



At our hotel - La Capilla



Our friends whom we traveled with - Robert and Marybeth



Now we are winding down our time here and getting ready for our travels to Ecuador. We leave on Jan 23rd for Mexico City and then on to Cuenca, Ecuador. This month is filled with spanish study, especially for me. I figure that I should cram as much into my brain as possible before I start my immersion experience.

I suppose that my next post will come to you from Ecuador....will have to change the title of our blog to something else during those upcoming 7 weeks!

Happy New Year to all and much love.