More Magic Villages of Mexico - Coatepec

In my last Mexico post I introduced the Government Tourism programme of designated magic villages (Programa de Pueblos Magicos) and hoped that I would be able to track down as many as possible whilst living here - so far I have visited 14 out of 37. Coatepec is a magic village situated in the state of Veracruz only twenty minutes away from the university city of Jalapa...

Like so many beautiful Mexican towns it is characterised by colourful colonial streets, a spacious central plaza with an elegant bandstand and a tranquil, calm atmosphere. Veracruz is a lush, fertile and tropical state, so Coatepec also has a lovely natural setting with many gardens, patios and courtyards. Orchids actually grow in the zocalo...

It is also a prosperous coffee mountain town and the smell of coffee hangs over the town alongside the fresh, mountain air, and naturally the streets are crammed with cute cafes all serving the very freshest of ground coffee. It is also known for its misty morning mountaintops and verdant green plants and lush flowers at every turn. Local artist Iris Aburto perfectly captured this aspect of the town in her exhibition of paintings entitled "La Naturaleza"...

There is an abundance of lovely colonial hotels for accommodation, and I stayed at "El Meson del Alferez" (Jimenez del campillo, 47) in a double height colonial room for 800 pesos (70USD)complete with sitting room and a very elegant ensuite bathroom. Cafe 45 next door even offers waiter room service to the hotel if you don't feel like going out, and as you can see from the photographs below it is a gorgeous place to stay and soak up the atmosphere of Coatepec for a while....

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

Shadow Shot Sunday 67 - Painswick, Cotswolds

Whenever I am back in England for the summer, I always seem to succumb and feel the need to track down a notion of "Quintessential England" be it spending a lot of time in country churchyards, visiting Stately Homes, seeking out afternoon cream teas, reading the sunday newspapers, listening to Desert Island discs on Radio 4, taking long riverside walks, whiling away long afternoons in beautiful gardens - one always seems to recognise and hanker for the extreme representations of one's home country when living overseas. Anyway the fruit of this sentiment happens to be this photograph of a receding row of stately yew trees in the very beautiful churchyard of Painswick, in the Cotswolds. For more shadow shots check out Shadow Shot Sunday by clicking here.

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 66 - Malinalco

Malinalco is one of those magic villages just a few hours from Mexico City which makes for a wonderful weekend retreat when the city gets a little too much. With its own valley microclimate, tropical flowers and plants flourish to provide tranquil havens like this garden of the adobe boutique hotel Casa Mora (http://www.casamora.net/ ) run by an artist couple who occupy separate private wings (echos of Frida and Diego??) and rent out 5 beautifully decorated rooms.

Check out the following collages to see where you could be escaping to at the weekends if you live here in Mexico City....

Check out Shadow Shot Sunday for more shadowplay, and check out Weekend Reflections for more fun with reflections....Enjoy!

For more details and photos of the village of Malinalco itself click here.....

Shadow Shot Sunday 65 - New York

I am back from my six week summer break in London, UK and New York, and thought I would celebrate my return with a simple shadow shot taken on the streets of Brooklyn. I love the old walk up tenement buildings with their wrought iron fire escapes which throw such great geometric patterns on the walls making a very typical New York Street scene...... I look forward to catching up with your blogs today, and for lots more shadow photography be sure to visit http://www.heyharriet.blogspot.com/. Enjoy!!