Saturday 9 October 2010
We depart today on a flight from London to Mexico City. On arrival we will be met by our local coach and guide and transfer to our hotel here in the Mexican capital. The evening is free, with dinner available in the hotel’s restaurant (not included).
Sunday 10 October 2010
A full breakfast will be served each morning. We begin our exploration of Mexico’s gardens this morning with a visit to the Botanical Gardens of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), which enjoys a sheltered location behind Mexico City’s Olympic Stadium. The fifty-year old garden reflects the fact that nearly three-quarters of the Mexican landscape has ecological habitats that combine harsh, variable weather with scarce rainfall, resulting in an abundance of arid and semi-arid vegetation. The garden has a marvellous collection of such plants, including many yuccas and agaves, whose flowering spikes tower above your head. There are also examples of oaks and conifers from more temperate areas.
In the afternoon we tour the amazing Floating Gardens of Xochimilco (pronounced ‘so-chi-mil-co’). One of the last remaining vestiges of the old Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán, the gardens were devised around 1000 years ago by the Indians who lived here as a way of making the lakeside marshes productive and today they still produce the same basic quartet of staple crops: maize, beans, squashes and chillies. An amazing six crops a year can be produced, all without the aid of fertiliser, weed killer or pesticides. Instead, plants work symbiotically, one benefiting the other, such as the great drifts of orange marigolds which, along with the chillies, help keep pests at bay. To visit here is an event in itself, as you are poled around the gardens in a brightly decorated punt, with floating mariachi and marimba to serenade you, floating kitchens to feed you and flower-vendors to tempt you with their colourful bouquets.
Evening at leisure.
Monday 11 October 2010
Today we celebrate the life and work of Luis Barragán, one of the greatest twentieth century architects and garden designers, beginning with a visit to the Casa Barragan, the house that he built for himself in 1947. Plain and unprepossessing from the outside, the interior has a luminous austerity with walls of white, yellow and pink and strong, simple furniture. Moving outside, you are hit by brilliant, resounding colour and a garden that is likely to be quite different from anything you have experienced before. The planting is sparse and minimalist but the way they interact with the walls of shimmering pinks and mauves creates a sublime effect.
Later we visit three more of Barragán’s creations, at Casa Gilardi, Casa Egerstrom and the Jardin Ortega. At each one, colour, form and careful planting combine to bewitching effect, brilliantly illustrating the concept of ”architecture without a roof” that was Barragán’s aim as a garden designer.
Evening at leisure.
Tuesday 12 October 2010
We discover another facet of Mexico today with a visit to the extensive archaeological site at Teotihuacán (pronounced ‘tay-otty-wa-can’), which was at its height in the first half of the first millennium AD and was the largest pre-Columbian city in the Americas with an estimated population of 100,000. The city's broad central avenue, called "Avenue of the Dead" is flanked by impressive ceremonial architecture, including the immense Pyramid of the Sun (second largest in the New World after the Great Pyramid of Cholula) and the Pyramid of the Moon. Along the Avenue of the Dead are many smaller platforms which the Aztecs believed were tombs but are now known to be ceremonial platforms that were topped with temples. The geographical layout of Teotihuacán is a good example of the Mesoamerican tradition of planning cities as a representation of the Teotihuacáno view of the Universe. Its urban grid is aligned to precisely 15.5º east of North and the Street of the Dead seems to line up with Cerro Gordo to the north of the Pyramid of the Moon. A climb to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun is rewarded with a fantastic view over the vast site and allows you to appreciate its scale and power.
Returning to Mexico City, we visit the Basilica and Shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe, an aspect of the Virgin Mary who is believed to have appeared to St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, an Aztec convert to Roman Catholicism, in 1531. According to the traditional account, Juan Diego was walking between his village and Mexico City when Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared and told him to build a church at the site. When Juan Diego spoke to the Spanish bishop, the bishop did not believe him, asking for a miraculous sign. Although it was winter, the Virgin told Juan Diego to gather flowers, and Spanish roses bloomed right at his feet. When Juan Diego presented these to the bishop, the roses fell from his apron and an icon of the Virgin was miraculously imprinted on the cloth, now housed in the Basilica which the bishop subsequently ordered to be built. Spanish missionaries used the story of her appearance to help convert millions of indigenous people in what had been the Aztec Empire and Our Lady of Guadalupe still underpins the faith of Catholics in Mexico and the rest of Latin America, making this the second most-visited shrine in the Catholic world after the Vatican.
Evening at leisure.
Wednesday 13 October 2010
We leave Mexico City today and travel south for a visit to the town of Taxco (pronounced ‘tas-co), a former silver-mining town noted for its fine colonial architecture and narrow cobble-stoned streets. Hernán Cortés mined tin for his artillery in the area and two hundred years later, French prospector Joseph de la Borda discovered a rich silver deposit. Silver is still the most important aspect of Taxco's, with over 200 shops and dozens of renowned silver jewellers.
We then transfer to Cuernavaca for a visit to the Ethnobotanic Garden and Museum of Traditional and Herbal Medicine in the suburb of Acapantzingo. Located in a former residence of the ill-fated Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, the buildings and gardens were restored in the 1960s and now display regional flora with information on medicinal, culinary and traditional uses.
We then transfer to our comfortable overnight accommodation at Tequesquitengo, not far from Cuernavaca, where we have the evening at leisure.
Thursday 14 October 2010
We leave Cuernavaca this morning and continue our journey southward, stopping en-route for a visit to the Cactus Reserve of Tehuacán-Cuicatlán, a chance to see some of the spectacular columnar cacti which are unique to this area and can reach heights of up to 15m. We continue to Oaxaca (pronounced ‘wa-haka’), our base for the final four nights.
Evening at leisure.
Sunday 11 October 2009
Today we tour the city of Oaxaca, which has a colonial heart of straight, narrow streets, liberally sprinkled with some lovely stone buildings. One such is the vast Church of Santo Domingo, astonishingly rich and ornate with a solid wall of gold behind the altar. Contained within the church complex is the wonderful Ethnobotanic Garden, which was begun in 1997 after a popular petition overturned a plan to turn the site into a hotel and car park. Monty Don visited here as part of his world tour and described the garden as ‘staggeringly beautiful’. Hedges of columnar cacti define and protect the garden, which is divided loosely into different areas housing different types of plants and art installations. Like the Barragán properties, this is literally a world away from the lush gardens we are used to in the Northern Hemisphere, but acts as a true reflection of the indigenous landscape and culture.
Evening at leisure.
Friday 15 October 2010
A full day excursion takes us first to the archaeological site at Monte Alban, which is even older than the site at Teotihuacán. Between 500BC and around 750AD this was the capital city of the Zapotec or ‘cloud people’ and was inhabited by goldsmiths, silversmiths, priests and astronomers. The complex covers 20 hectares (45 acres) on the summit of a hill which rises 400m (1320ft) from the valley floor. Nearly all the buildings are aligned with the cardinal points of the compass.
Our next visit is to a living marvel known as El Tule, the largest tree in the world. This massive Montezuma Cypress (Taxodium mucronatum) is at least 2000 years old, each branch the size of an oak tree, the trunk 165ft in circumference.
In stark contrast are the rare and delicate flowers to be found at the private orchid garden ‘El Encantada’ at San Andrés Huayapam. More than 600 different species of native orchids are represented here, more than half of all recorded species in Mexico, some of which are in danger of extinction.
Evening at leisure.
Saturday 16 October 2010
In the morning we visit the archaeological site at Mitla, where construction is thought to have begun in around 200AD and which contains an interesting mixture of Zapotec and later Mixtec styles. The walls of the former palace are decorated with distinctive geometric mosaics that characterize Mitla's buildings, each frieze consisting of up to 100,000 separate pieces of cut stone. A post-Conquest Spanish church has been built over some of the remains.
In the afternoon we return to Oaxaca where we have free time for shopping and sightseeing, a chance to pick up some souvenirs of this fascinating country.
Sunday 17 October 2010
We leave Oaxaca and transfer to the airport at Mexico City, breaking our journey in the town of Puebla, where there will be an opportunity for lunch (not included). We depart from Mexico City in the evening on our overnight flight back to London.
Monday 18 October 2010
Arrive this afternoon in London, where the group will disperse or make onward connections.