Sunday, March 1, 2009

Shadow Shot Sunday 3 : Real de Catorce

More colours from Mexico this week!! This shot was taken at a remote village up in the desert on the fringes of the Sierra Madre Oriental. It was a two hour hike along a desert trail out from the former ghost town of Real de Catorce which itself is remote enough. Real de Catorce used to be a rich silver-mining town until early last century, and for many years since it has been deserted; its cobbled streets lined with dilapidated and abandoned buildings.
Recently, however, it has been undergoing a Renaissance with artists, craftspeople, photographers, and film-makers all moving in to take advantage of the strong desert light and inspiring environment. The surrounding desert is also the spiritual homeland of the Huichol people who make an annual pilgrimage here to carry out rituals using the hallucinogenic cactus called peyote.
Like all truly wonderful places, it is fairly inaccessible and takes an effort to get here - four buses from Mexico City - the last through a one-way 2km tunnel which is the only route into town. If you make it this far, and it is well worth a visit, be sure to stay at the renovated 19th century bank called "Meson de Abundancia" which was once the Treasury of the Town - a sign of our times, too, it seems.
For more shadow shots click here for hey harriet

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

More top tips as always, it sounds like a magical place and one well worth the effort, it's now only a month til I get to Mexico and you're really helping me build excitement

Cecile/DreamCreateRepeat said...

Virginia is very pretty, but its house colors are VERY boring! This is beautiful...

Sylvia K said...

Love your soft shadows on the pink! I lived in San Miguel de Allende for a year after I retired and have lovely memories! Thanks for stopping by my blog!

The Summer Kitchen Girls said...

Ohhh...do love that color! Great shadows!!

Lisa's RetroStyle said...

Beautiful SS! I love the colors. And what a great story...really neat place to visit.

maryt/theteach said...

The colors are so lovely, Catherine! Very nice SSS! :)

dianasfaria.com said...

beautiful colors & shadows!

MyMaracas said...

What wonderful colors. Plus, you have a door AND shadows, two of my favorite things to photograph. I'm enjoying reading about Mexico, too!

Hey Harriet said...

That's so pretty! Love the colour combos. The location does indeed sound well worth the extra effort to get there. The extra travel time is probably a fun adventure anyway. Wonderful shadow shot!

Carletta said...

Eye popping colors and subtle colors. Very nice.

Anonymous said...

What a nice blue door - would have been good for Blue Monday too :)

You Can Call Me Jane said...

Catherine- thanks for your comment. I love just looking for a shadow. And, I love your blog - big taco indeed!

Catherine said...

Hi everyone..thanks for all your appreciative comments this week..I love reading them...and if you haven't visited mexico yet...what are you waiting for??

Carin said...

Great shadow shot!

pc said...

Hi Catherine,

Cool blog. Just wondering about Real de 14, I've heard its a pain to get to (which you allude to). I'd be coming from Coahuila, so our paths would I imagine be different, but what is the closest big or medium-sized city with bus service?

Thanks.

Anonymous said...

I love the colours. Such a pretty shadow shot :)

Anonymous said...

Just love the bright and vibrant colours - wish we had more colours in our neighbourhood. Shadows just look great against these colours.

jo said...

love to have a painted door like that to colour my life...very nice