Inspired by the caricatures of lithographer Jose Guadalupe Posada, the elegant Catrina has her origins in Day of the Dead celebrations. Capula’s Catrinas arrived only recently. They stand in the doorways of this small quiet colonial town, Catrinas of every size and description decked out in flowered dresses and clenching flowers in their cratered teeth, plumed […]
Continue Reading
The paths are riddled with streams of water that exhale their sweet musty breath as they descend toward the river; the forest is bathed in a powerful mist, emboldened by its fragility where the thunder of rushing water courses through the consciousness of an eternal dawn. The moment you enter Cupatitzio Gorge National Park in […]
Continue Reading
David Santos Alonso massaged the clay flower pot as stinging smoke skulked from the wooden cooking area. Inside the kitchen, his wife Maria Lydia prepared tortillas on a comal over a brick fogon next to a pot of water. Cocuchas — tall clay jars crafed in the Michoacan town of Cocucho — rose from the concrete floor and opened into sensuous […]
Continue Reading
Martha López Luna gripped a fragment of hummingbird feather with tweezers and placed it delicately on her painting of the Isla de Janitzio rising over the lake. Pondering her arte plumaria — feather art — painting for a moment, she removed a small puff of raw umber feather from a jar and split the piece into tiny […]
Continue Reading
An endless number of approaches to familiar motifs show themselves throughout the town. A trogon, its cherry red neck gleaming against a body of emerald green, crawls up the side of a picture frame, followed by a chattering monkey. Mickey Mouse, decked out in a blue jacket and red trousers, offers a rose to a […]
Continue Reading
All the world has been told that tequila, the drink was born in Tequila — the town located 45 kilometers northwest of Guadalajara — but is this really a fact? Curiously, the famed Tequila Express train has, for years, been carrying tourists straight to a small town called Amatitán, and not to Tequila at all. […]
Continue Reading
Santa Clara is the town that produces copperware and copper crafts of all kinds. For 5 pesos from the Patzcuaro bus station it is an easy part of the day trip. There are many shops that sell copper products and if you walk to the rear you can watch items being manufactured. Although you have to […]
Continue Reading
Chalma is a rather small pueblo tucked into the east end of the Malinalco valley. Due to the miraculous appearance of an image of Christ in 1533 the place has ever since been a pilgrimage site for Mexicans but otherwise lightly traveled by foreigners. The image (statue) was found in a cave but was transferred […]
Continue Reading
Puebla is an industrial city of the first order. Though the downtown architecture is virtually exclusively colonial style, you still have the feel that you are in canyons of buildings due to their proximity. The zocalo is the heart pumping with activity, often demonstrations, since this is also the state capital. On your route to the […]
Continue Reading
Hierve el Agua is stunning, one of Oaxaca’s most impressive attractions — and perhaps one of the most spectacular in the entire country. Yet, surprisingly, it is one of the least visited. With its bubbling springs and petrified waterfalls, Hierve el Agua should be considered a “must see” for naturalists, photographers, hikers and anyone else […]
Continue Reading