With just three days till 12th December (the Fiesta de la Virgen de Guadalupe), we did one last photo walk to the Basilica de Guadalupe on Sunday morning to see the pilgrims arriving and the dancers performing. Photo Walk Nº93 was once again very colorful and interesting as we photographed groups from Veracruz, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Puebla and other states in Mexico.With so much to photograph and so much to learn about Mexican culture, it was a perfect photo walk to finish up this year. Let's see what next year has in store for our cameras.
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Last Tuesday we went on our annual Day Trip to the two Pueblos Mágicos, El Oro and Tlalpujahua, about 2 hours' drive from Mexico City. We usually go at this time of year because Tlalpujahua is famous for its handmade Christmas ornaments.Our first stop was at El Oro, once a thriving gold and silver mining town in the early 1900s. Today it is a small peaceful town with unusual European-style architecture, murals and an elegant theatre, witness to its past wealth. We visited the Town Hall with its murals depicting the history of El Oro, the Teatro de Juárez, had coffee in one of the old train carriages, now converted into a cafeteria and photographed the old railway tracks that crisscross the town.Tlalpujahua was also a mining town but disaster struck in the 1930s when the slag heap, unstable after heavy rains, buried two thirds of the town, killing thousands. The Dos Estrellas Mine was promptly abandoned. Today Tlalpujahua is a colourful town with a pretty pink church and is famous for its handmade Christmas ornaments.From October to mid-December, the town fills with stands selling Christmas ornaments and whole families, who work all year round, can be seen in small workshops, glass-blowing, dipping and decorating them. Tlalpujahua is one of the top five places in the world in this sector and exports 38 million "esferas" every year. While we were there, we visited some of these places to photograph the artisans working and were surprised to see even 4-year-olds helping out.Before we left, we purchased some of these unique hand-crafted works of art to take home to decorate our homes for Christmas.December 12th is the Day of the Virgen de Guadalupe and a few weeks before and up to that date, literally millions of pilgrims from all parts of Mexico come to the Basilica in Mexico City to thank the Virgen for her favors. Many of them come in their traditional dress and perform dances in the large square in front of the Old and New Basilica. Last year, over 7 million pilgrims visited this site to celebrate her Feast Day.For Photo Walk Nº92, we met early on Sunday morning to learn about and photograph this event. The weather was perfect with blue skies providing a backdrop and we could even clearly see the two volcanoes. We spent the morning watching the dancers, some of whom came from Veracruz, Puebla, Estado de México, Chiapas and further away and visited the Old and New Basilica and a few of the other sites in the complex.In fact, there was so much going on, so many colors and sounds and so many scenes to photograph, that we began to suffer from sensory overload. Something that always happens at this time of year. |
Margaret MetcalfeBorn to travel, explore and share photos and experiences Archives
May 2019
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