The Coolest Place You've NEVER Heard Of!

February 3, 2010 to February 8, 2010

The Photos

Once again I am at a complete loss for words.  How do you describe the indescribable?  I guess for the most part the best place to start is at the beginning, but at the beginning of our adventures there or the history of the place... too hard to choose.  So instead you get a rambling story in the order of our discovery and the hope that it will inspire you to venture there on your own.

Contemplate sitting down with someone you’ve just met who doesn’t speak your language (or you hers.)  And using Google translate, she begins to tell you about a place she believes to be phenomenal but she’s never actually seen.  She only has the recommendation of a FaceBook friend and the various images she has found on the internet.  But the sincerity with which she speaks of this virtual unknown is so enticing and the images she presents to you so unbelievable that you have literally no choice but to incorporate her recommendation into your trip plan.  And so slowly you begin to wind your trip in the direction of an unknown place called Las Pozas.

Envision yourself in the past, of noble(ish) English birth and after inheriting some small fortune through that most unjust agent named death, you start to shape the world around you into what you want it to be.  But being of noble(ish) birth you are surrounded by other so called nobles who find your desires strange and/or disturbing.  You are also a collector of art that appeals to you, but that makes you even stranger to those around you.  And now you’ve started to find the English nobility uninteresting and quite probably judgemental.  So you wander the world some and find a place deep in the Mexican jungle where you can do whatever you please.  You purchase eighty acres of natural beauty and you begin interlacing it with the most elaborate and amazing concrete structures taken from your travels and your dreams.  Of course eventually the money runs low, but fortunately you are a man ahead of your time and all that art you collected has now become popular and quite literally worth millions.  You spend the rest of your life (from 1949 to 1980) and all of your money (approximately 5 million British pounds) working on your dream.  You are Sir Edward James and you have created Las Pozas.

Consider in the convolutions of planning your trip, you do a little bit of your own research and discover Casa Caracol (meaning snail house - and the addition of more spirals to the world of Gregory), a destination that seems too good to be true.  Removed from the city life and situated on the edge of the jungle.  A magical place with tepees (or teepees or tipis, you pick your favorite spelling!) for lodging, a great communal space for resting and recharging and an atmosphere that seems to be exactly what you are looking for as the perfect compliment to the adventure that awaits you at Las Pozas.

Visualise a long and windy bus ride that you barely remember, because once you get to Xilitla, the town nearest this extraordinary location, you find it to be spectacular as well.  In this village, you are two of maybe a dozen foreigners, but perfectly accepted as you wander through the market and welcomed to watch and participate in their traditional dance during a festival.  At night fog envelopes the city creating an air of mystery and pockets of wonderful golden light.  You decide to stay for a couple of days at the self proclaimed castle turned hotel, that was the former residence of Edward James’ closest friend.  And you get just a glimpse of the wonder associated with what you have specifically come to see and already you are getting the flavour of something strange and a little bit removed from the norm, yet solidly in the middle of Mexico.  Once you are finally ready, you start the long walk down the meandering road to Las Pozas.

Two videos of sliding down the Fire Pole at the hotel... one significantly crazier than the other!

Without Backpack  WITH Backpack

And this is where it gets complicated.  Do I fully describe just a few of the sites available?  Do I completely gloss over any of the details hoping that one day you, loyal reader and future traveller, will wander there of your own accord?  I turn to my travelling companion and ask his thoughts... Gregory suggests a rambling detail of the wanderings of two wide eyed children starting at around 11 a.m. and ending with a scrambling escape over a closed gate and barb wire fence in absolute darkness and quite a bit of panic.  However this sounds way too unbelievable and certainly not the reality most of you have come to expect.  But what you have no way of realising is this is a wander through a combination of your favourite M.C. Escher and Salvador Dali paintings.

Las Pozas is a surrealist dream, in some spots man’s will clearly dominates and in others nature is slowly reclaiming land that will always be hers.  Towers of concrete, spirals of stairs and platforms thrust into the sky contrast with nearly indistinguishable paths, tree roots breaking through and a thundering waterfall at the end of a path.  However, stand marvelling long enough and you start to see the shape of things and doubt is created as to what is man made and what is not.  Having no real idea of surrealism before this moment, we believe Las Pozas defines it for us, but makes it hard for us to describe it to others.

As I presume you are starting to understand from reading this and seeing the images (it is unimaginable that you haven’t popped out of this page to do a Google image search for Las Pozas) only through experience can you fully appreciate this portion of the trip.  And I am left with how exactly does one describe the indescribable?  Vaguely and with lots of imaginings!

Next up Reading, Writing and Arithmetic... or something like it!