Angels of Independence.....

Mexico has been celebrating 200 years of Independence in style this week, and local artist Jorge Marin has been giving all chilangos (citizens of Mexico City) the chance to become an Angel of Independence. His sculpture on Reforma entitled "Alas de la Ciudad" (wings of the city) has quickly become the most popular posing spot in the city....

Angels, it appears, can come in all shapes, sizes, genders, ages, and poses....

Mexican artist Jorge Marin was born in Uruapan, Michoacan and has soon made a name for himself with large strong bronze sculptures of beaked winged male creatures...

Here is the artist himself....

And here, of course, further along Reforma is the real Angel of Independence - the city's winged victory and iconic landmark which truly symbolises Mexico City's two hundred years of Independence - Viva Mexico!!

For more global glimpses this week check out My World Tuesday by clicking here.

Shadow Shot Sunday 69 - Pachuca pretty in pink and pistachio...

Colour and light here in Mexico are impossible to ignore, thus check out these shadow shots from the mining towns of Pachuca and Real de Monte - both rich in British history hence the legacy of the Cornish pasty in these parts brought by the Cornish miners...

With the one-storey cottages and corrugated iron roofs, the British influenced architecture may be more prosaic than the Spanish colonial of recent posts, but don't you just love the bright colours and the patterns of the tangle of overhead cables, wires, and telegraph poles...

For more fun with shadow patterns this week, check out Tracy's meme Shadow Shot Sunday by clicking here. Enjoy!

Treasures of Tranquil Tlaxcala....

Just 32km North of the much better known city of Puebla, the small state capital of Tlaxcala is an architectural gem, a treasure house of colonial architecture - and largely unvisited.......

Edging the plaza are some of the most elegant and best preserved colonial buildings to be seen anywhere in Mexico. Step inside the Palacio de Justicia and you will be treated to this feast of murals documenting important events in Mexico's history...

Ascend a steep and shady winding path and you will reach the Ex-Convento Franciscano de la Asuncion and its wonderfully peaceful courtyards and tranquil atmosphere....

Ascend 1 km in a different direction and you will come across one of Mexico's most spectacular churches - Santuario de la Virgen Ocotlan which is a very important pilgrimage site ever since the belief that the Virgin appeared here in 1541...

The classic facade with white stucco "wedding cake" decorations contrasting with the plain red tiles creates an imposing and impressive first impression. The architectural details of this church plus the wealth of others in the town make Tlaxcala a must for those interested in colonial architecture...

For accomodation there is a range of small homely posadas, but the most atmospheric place to stay in town is the renovated 19thc mansion on the south side of the zocalo namely the Posada San Francisco....

However, at only 122km east of Mexico City which translates into a two hour bus journey from TAPO, Tlaxcala is perfectly reachable for a day trip. If you like peaceful and tranquil places for a day's wandering and meandering then don't miss this town!! For more travelling around the world this week check out the My World Tuesday postings by clicking here... Don't you just love how Tlaxcala is placed as the centre of the world in this signpost??

Magic Villages of Mexico...

In 2001 Mexico's Secretariat of Tourism launched its "Programa Pueblos Magicos" to promote a series of towns and villages which could offer visitors a "magical experience". By 2007 thirty seven villages had been designated as places special for their outstanding natural beauty, cultural traditions, colonial architecture, historical significance or rich heritage. Real de Monte is a magic village rich in English tradition and heritage as a British company owned the tin and silver mines here, and shipped out miners from Cornwall - who brought with them not only their labour, but also the game of football to Mexican soil and the great Cornish pasty as a gastronomic treat!!

Today the architecture is still dominated by single storey Cornish cottages with red roofs and corrugated iron....

The English heritage in the architecture is very distinctive and unmissable..

Wandering the narrow lanes and cobbled streets the mining past is clear on every corner......

As are the Cornish pasty shops which translates into Spanish as "pastes"....

The village is also very strongly a traditional Mexican town with colonial churches and houses, a central plaza and bandstand, a mercado and many tasty Mexican restaurants, so it is an interesting mixture of English, Spanish and Mexican cultural influences, but one last resting place is specifically English. Make sure you track down the English cemetery up on the hill in a beautifully peaceful pine forest with all the graves of the Cornish miners and their families....

I have so far visited 14 of the 37 magic villages here in Mexico and can't wait to track down the rest if they are all as charming and fascinating as Real de Monte...plus it is only an hour away from Mexico City close to the town of Pachuca.

Shadow Shot Sunday 61 - Real de Monte

Strolling around the cobbled streets of Real de Monte last weekend, I suddenly noticed in the early evening that the longest shadows I had ever seen were being thrown....

Of course the shadows of the children were considerably shorter than mine, but check out old longshanks below....

More postings on the fascinating magic village of Real de Monte to follow. In the meantime for more fun with shadows, check out Shadow Shot Sunday by clicking here

Some corner of a foreign field forever England.....

Rupert Brooke's immortal words imagined his own death on the World War 1 battlefields of France, but high up in the mountains north of Mexico City there is another corner which is forever England....

This is the English cemetery established in 1851, on top of the hill overlooking Real de Monte in a beautiful pine forest, to house the graves of the Cornish tin miners who came out from England to work the tin and silver mines for a British mining company in the 19th century. The site is incredibly tranquil with the scent of pine trees wafting in the breeze, a scattering of pine cones on the ground, and both butterflies and birds enjoying the peace and quiet..

It could indeed be any English country churchyard with its smattering of English names such as Brown, Pratt, Carter, Phillips, Dodd, Collins and Waters as well as the more distinctive Cornish names from Pengelly and Polcase to Trevethan and Trelease. Most seemed to live to a ripe old age although there were also tragic tales of accidents in the mines...

William Sobey died in an accident in the Santa Gertrudis mine just before his 17th birthday and William Stoneman was another casualty at the age of 26. Place names from Cornwall also abound on the headstones from Camborn to Saint Agnes to Bolenowe....

There are 750 graves in total and all face England except for one awkward character whose dying wish was to be buried NOT facing the homeland, thus the grave of Richard Bell ,the clown, is the only one to lie crossways...

Be equally awkward, if like me after a 25 minute climb uphill from Real de Monte, you find the gates locked. I knocked on every door in the vicinity until I found the lady with the keys to let me in, and make sure she shows you the plan she has on her wall of all the names and corresponding graves...

If like me you find these tiny forgotten corners of history fascinating, then be sure to read an enchanting fictional representation of this slice of history in Anita Desai's novella "The Zig-Zag Way", and if you are wondering what the English left behind in this part of Mexico, the answer is simple - Cornish pasties and football!! Apparently the first game of football on Mexican soil took place in a field near this cemetery in the 19th Century - maybe this was also the origin of that well know terrace chant "Who ate all the pies!!" and very pertinent on the eve of the World Cup warm-up friendly Mexico v England. For more glimpses around the globe this week check out the My World Tuesday postings.... More postings on Real de Monte and Pachuca and this fascinating corner of Mexico's mining industry to follow shortly...

Shadow Shot Sunday 60 - Amecameca

Amecameca is a sleepy little Mexican town full of bicitaxis like the one shown above with its nice sharp shadow presented like a crisp mirror image. Why visit this tiny little town?? Only an hour away from Mexico City, it is the best and closest place to view the twin volcanoes of Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, and when there is heavy snow on the summits what could prove to be a more magnificent vista than this??

And a close up of the summit of Smoking Popo reveals that he is sporting a few nice shadows of his own.......Check out more shadowy shots at Shadow Shot Sunday!!

Shadow Shot Sunday 52 - Texcoco

Not hard to work out where I have been visiting!! The answer, my friend, is not blowing in the wind, but clearly written on the ground. Don't you just love shadow writing??

Do you have any good examples of shadow writing to post?? I would love to see them. In the meantime check out the fun at Shadow Shot Sunday by clicking here.....

Carnival in Catarina.....

Ash Wednesday was February 17th signalling end of Carnival and beginning of Lent - right?? Tell that to the revellers high in the hills in the tiny, remote village of Santa Catarina who were still happily in the middle of Mardi Gras on Sunday February 21st....

It's very hard to call a halt to fiestas here in Mexico especially if it involves costumes! Mexicans adore dressing up, masks and masquerades - any excuse!!

Half the men were dressed up in lavishly lurid costumes that mocked the Spanish Conquistadors who had dared to invade their land...

Check out the white masks, pointy beards, top hats, suits, ties, gloves and colourful umbrellas which were just so wonderful for twirling....

The other half were in drag (real women were sadly only specatators) with some making much better women than others. Mexican men seem to adore getting in touch with their "feminine" side and sexuality can be very fluid...

Check out some of the burly biceps here...... and it was this masked"guy" on the right who had somewhat alarmed us earlier in the day by suddenly popping up in the middle of a field as we were driving by oblivious that a carnival was afoot...

It was such a wonderful scene to stumble across completely by accident - another reminder that Mexico indeed is the Land of Magic Realism - serendipitous surrealism!! My two favourite images of the day are this guy in drag who began it all, and this little guy on his first carnival outing...

I also liked the fact that the very few Mexicans who had cameras were all asking to take photos of us (an unmasked Brit and a Canadian not in costume) as obviously we were the real oddities of the day!! A day that had all started out oh so normally with the Priest welcoming all the villagers to church...

For more gorgeous glimpses around the world this week, check out My World Tuesday posts by clicking here... Enjoy!

Mannequin Mania in Mexico - Chiconcuac

Take a trip to the textile market in the little village of Chiconcuac near Texcoco and you get an authentic Mexican experience so much more than you bargained for. True you can buy a whole array of jumpers, jeans, ponchos, blankets, dresses, scarves, football shirts from the miles and miles of tianguis (temporary stalls under tarpaulins), but check out the mannequins upon which the goods are displayed.......

From romantic frat boys to freaky kids to cool cowboys, Raj ladies to Stepford wives to prim airhostesses ...have you ever seen such a wonderful variety of mannequins??.....

It became more and more difficult to concentrate on the clothes being sold, as my fascination grew and grew....

Has anyone seen such an interesting and stunning collection anywhere else in the world??...

I should give you more of a flavour of the market itself with its bright tarpaulins billowing against the blue sky, hectic, bustling atmosphere with crowds thronging the narrow alleys, food carts and quesadilla stalls, plus the range of bright coloured clothes for sale.....

But the final word goes to those mannequins that are ubiquitous throughout Mexico and very much part of the culture here. The final shot is of a mannequin shop where you can buy whatever model you desire....

Texcoco is easily reachable in 45 minutes from TAPO bus station DF for 27 pesos, and Chiconcuac is about another fifteen minutes up into the surrounding hills. For more glimpses of the world this week, click here for My World Tuesday...Enjoy!!