Snaps – January 2015

The first 31 days of the year reduced to a few indifferent snapshots. Previous months can be found by clicking here.

In the Parque de los Fuertes, high above the city of Puebla, the city turned on the fountains to celebrate New Year’s Day.
Cuatro Veces Heroica Puebla de Zaragoza, Puebla, Mexico
1 January 2015

Puebla, which we liked a great deal, is separated from Mexico City by two towering volcanoes. This is Popocatépetl, which peaks at an altitude of 5,426m and is still active.
Cuatro Veces Heroica Puebla de Zaragoza, Puebla, Mexico
1 January 2015

Along with neighbouring Oaxaca, the state of Puebla is renowned as the culinary heart of Mexico. Asking around for guidance on the local food, we were told to try a cemita, so we ordered a couple in a local food market. A cemita, it turns out, is nothing more complicated than an absolutely f cking gigantic sandwich. It is gradually becoming more obvious to us how Mexico has come to be the fattest nation in the world.
Cuatro Veces Heroica Puebla de Zaragoza, Puebla, Mexico
2 January 2015

Formerly a distinct city but now pretty much absorbed into the sprawl of Puebla, Cholula is famously said to have 365 churches. Google has made it easy to disprove such nonsense; apparently, there are fewer than 40. Even so, it’s fun to pick out their towers and domes from high above the city. The 360-degree views we enjoyed were from atop the ancient pyramid known as Tlachihualtepetl, overgrown for centuries but believed to be the largest pyramid ever constructed. In typically brash fashion, Mexico’s Spanish conquerors showed the locals whose god was boss by building a church on top. The interior of the current chapel was restored in 2014 and is now a quite breathtaking spectacle.
Cholula, Puebla, Mexico
2 January 2015

Brrrrrr.
Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal, Mexico
4 January 2015

Until last summer, the Estadio Azteca held the distinction of being the only stadium to have twice hosted the World Cup Final. (It holds certain infamy at home as the site of England’s loss to Argentina in the 1986 tournament, a match remembered chiefly for Maradona and the Hand of God.) Alongside the Azteca’s role as Mexico’s national stadium, it’s the home of Club América, the biggest and most successful team in the country. América rarely packs it to capacity – unsurprising, as it has room for 105,000 spectators – but it was more than three-quarters full on the afternoon we saw them beat León 3-2.
Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal, Mexico
10 January 2015

To our slight surprise and great delight, cycling culture in Mexico City is thriving. The city has its own bike-hire scheme and an expanding system of cycle lanes; that said, as Londoners, we didn’t find the traffic in the centre to be unduly traumatic. There are regular organised rides through the city; the oldest is the Wednesday-night Paseo Nocturno run by campaign group Bicitekas, which draws about 250 cyclists every week. Will joined them for the second ride of the year.
Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal, Mexico
14 January 2015

His and hers.
Ruta 85 leaving Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal, Mexico
18 January 2015

Mexico’s National Photography Museum is located not in the capital but in the city of Pachuca, about 90km away, where it enjoys an elegant setting in a 17th-century monastery. Only a handful of photographs from the permanent collection are on show, but the selection is a joy. We particularly liked this photograph of a family of young toughs, taken by Winfield Scott just over a century ago. The complete archive is available at the Fototeca Nacional website.
Pachuca de Soto, Hidalgo, Mexico
18 January 2015

Many streets in Mexican towns are named after heroes (and, in a few cases, villains) from the country’s past, and provide extranjeros such as us with a useful overview of the Guerreros and Hidalgos that line Mexico’s history. This one, though? We’d love to know the story behind it. ‘No Me Olvides’ translates, literally, as ‘Don’t Forget Me’.
Pachuca de Soto, Hidalgo, Mexico
18 January 2015

The son of wealthy parents (and the godson of King Edward VII), Edward James inherited a fortune when he turned 18 in the early 1920s. Thereafter, he seems to have lived quite the life: a fervent supporter of surrealism in its nascent days, he commissioned Dalí’s ‘Lobster Telephone‘, featured in several paintings by Magritte and produced a few volumes of questionable poetry before fleeing the UK. After a spell in New Mexico, he found his way to the Mexican subtropical rainforest, where he constructed a surrealist garden made up of waterfalls, orchids and concrete structures of his own design. Since James’s death in 1984, at the age of 77, the elements have got the better of his buildings, which are now in some disrepair. But Las Pozas, as it’s known, remains an extraordinary place.
Xilitla, Querétaro de Arteaga, Mexico
23 January 2015

We’ve long since grown used to seeing concerts advertised with rainbow graffiti on roadside rock walls, although we did a double-take as we passed this one. Pronounced, we think, ‘ra-mo-nes’, unless someone’s brought Joey, Dee Dee and pals back from the dead.
Ruta 120 near Landa de Matamoros, Querétaro de Arteaga, Mexico
24 January 2015

The lobby of the modest hotel where we lodged in the tiny mountain village of Pinal de Amoles is proudly decorated with pictures of the owner and his family.
Pinal de Amoles, Querétaro de Arteaga, Mexico
26 January 2015

The botanical gardens in the small, unassuming and largely tourist-free town of Cadereyta de Montes take two parts: the outdoor gardens, which collect, preserve and display innumerable varieties of plants that thrive in this semi-desert region; and the indoor invernaderos (nurseries), where new plants are cultivated from scratch. They really are tiny.
Cadereyta de Montes, Querétaro de Arteaga, Mexico
27 January 2015

Perhaps the unnamed sculptor didn’t entirely think this one through.
Cadereyta de Montes, Querétaro de Arteaga, Mexico
27 January 2015

Sometimes, it can be hard to locate the source of a puncture. This was not one of those times.
12km east of Santiago de Querétaro, Querétaro de Arteaga, Mexico
28 January 2015

from Santiago de Querétaro, Querétaro de Arteaga, Mexico