This photography trip took us to the mountains in the state of Hidalgo to photograph the spectacular natural formations of basalt columns at Huasca de Ocampo, the nearby Hacienda de Santa Maria Regla and the colourful "pueblo mágico" Real del Monte, a former mining town with English influence which can be seen in the Mexican equivalent of Cornish pasties.Our first stop was to see the "prismas basálticos" at Huasca which we were fortunate to have all to ourselves. Formed by the rapid cooling of lava coming into contact with water, these hexagonal basalt columns are an amazing sight to see. Visitors can walk along the top of the cliffs on both sides, cross over a suspension bridge and make their way down to the bottom where waterfalls cascade over the rocks. We practised using fast and slow shutter speeds to capture the flow of the water.Nearby is the Hacienda Santa Maria de Regla, one of the group of four haciendas built in the 18th Century by Count Pedro Romero, one of the richest men in the world at that time. It was not only his residence but also where they melted down gold and silver from the mines in the region and is one of the biggest haciendas ever built, a labyrinth of pools, bridges, vaults, underground tunnels, mills, furnaces and even a church. Today it is a museum and hotel and even a film location.We then drove back to Real del Monte, a pretty little town of brightly painted houses with tin roofs and cobbled streets and found a place to taste the "pastes" or pies which are a legacy from the time when the Cornish miners from England ran the mines. The other claim to fame of this "pueblo mágico" is that this is where the English introduced football in Mexico.After wandering through the streets, past shops selling silverware, we returned to Mexico City, a 2-hour trip by car.
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Margaret MetcalfeBorn to travel, explore and share photos and experiences Archives
May 2019
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