Mexico City's Centro Histórico is full of interesting streets, museums and everyday life. For this week's walk, we explored the different buildings around Plaza de Santo Domingo and then made our way down Calle Donceles to Plaza Garibaldi. There was no end of scenes to photograph and new places to discover.We met in the centre of Plaza de Santo Domingo by the fountain with the statue of La Corregidora, a lady who played an important role in Mexican Independence. Our first stop was the old colonial SEP building (Secretaria de Educación Pública) where there are a series of 235 murals painted on the walls, mainly Diego Rivera's early works, done between 1923 and 1928. On the other side of the square is the Portal de Evangelistas where, in the past, scribes used to sit and write letters for people. Today they still do this using ancient manual or electric typewriters and there are numerous stands with small hand-operated printing presses ready to churn out personalized invitations to events etc. This area is also notorious for being the place to go to for those wanting to get documents forged or to get fake degrees!Leaving Plaza de Santo Domingo behind us, with a coffee in hand, we made our way to Calle Donceles, along streets lined with shops selling wedding and "quinceañeros" dresses and stopped off to see the Archivo Histórico de DF where they usually have the original Angel de la Independencia's head on display. It toppled down in the 1985 earthquake and was damaged. Unfortunately, it is currently on show in an exhibition somewhere else so we were unable to see it (photo from an earlier walk).
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The weather was spectacular for our photo walk in the park... hot and sunny with deep blue skies as a backdrop for our photos. Section 2 of Chapultepec Park is a beautiful quiet area during the week and a great place to get away from the noise and traffic for a while.We began by walking around one of the lakes, taking photos of the reflections and looking for natural frames as well as capturing the egrets and herons there. We also did some nature photography, looking for backlit shots and getting close for details.We then wandered past the new fountains with views down towards Polanco and made our way up to the four grass-covered circles which we learned are actually massive water tanks where water is stored underground before being distributed to parts of Mexico City. In the centre of each one is a tower which acts as a vent and a snake-like feature surrounds it, once a fountain with water flowing through its undulating form. On one of these circular areas they have planted a cactus garden where we managed to get some interesting shots.After that, we visited the little-known Cárcamo de Dolores where Diego Rivera painted a spectacular underwater mural called Water, Origin of Life in the sump tank where the waters from the Rio Lerma flowed through. Although he used special pigments, after just 5 years the flowing water had caused the paintings to deteriorate and had to be diverted. Later, the murals were restored and the site opened to the public again in 2010. Another fascinating feature is the music produced by the flow of the water, passed through a computer and emitted through a series of organ-like pipes. Finally, after some coffee and juice at El Bosque café overlooking the second lake, we made our way past the series of fountains called Mito del Agua, the Papalote Children's Museum and the Feria complete with the oldest and largest wooden rollercoaster in the world, back to our starting point. Not only did we enjoy the peace and quiet but were also able to visit one of the lesser-known murals of Diego Rivera.Photo Walk Nº95 - A visit to Los Pinos, residence of the Mexican presidents, now open to the public16/1/2019 For our second photo walk this year, we made our way through Chapultepec Park to Los Pinos, the residence of the Mexican presidents from 1934 to November 2019, which was recently opened to the public after the new president decided to live in his own house.Prior to the 1930s, the presidents lived in Chapultepec Castle until Lázaro Cardenas decided that he would go and live in the more austere Rancho La Hormiga instead, changing its name to Los Pinos. The Castle was then open to the public as a History Museum and so it could be enjoyed by all Mexicans and foreign visitors. At the start of the walk, we learned that the grounds of Los Pinos are 14 times bigger than those of the White House and 13 presidents have lived here during their term of office. We also photographed the park as we walked through on our way to Los Pinos, including the Fuente de Nezahualcoyotl, the Canadian totem pole, the Plaza de Quijote, and the picnic area.To start the new year off, Photo Walk Nº94 took us to the neighbourhood of San Angel where we wandered around some of the back streets as we made our way to the Casa-Estudio Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Designed and built by Juan O'Gorman for the famous Mexican artists in the early 1930s, these Twin House-Studios for Diego and Frida, with their almost industrial look, stand out in stark contrast to the colonial mansions around them.We met in the Plaza de Carmen in San Angel and from there walked along the cobbled streets, photographing the colourful details and mansions so typical of this area. One house with an interesting façade is the "Casa de los Delfines", which some neighbours told us about as we were taking photos.Next we visited the House-Studio Museum of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, painted in bright colours and surrounded by a cactus fence. These were the first functionalist houses built in Mexico and were considered radical and modern. Juan O'Gorman (who also did the murals on the UNAM Central Library) was a friend of the artists and designed these spaces with lots of light and highly innovative ideas for that time. On our way back, we popped into the Iglesia San Jacinto and the Casa de Risco to photograph the unique fountain before returning to Plaza de Carmen. |
Margaret MetcalfeBorn to travel, explore and share photos and experiences Archives
May 2019
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