Our next stop after Tamasopo is Xilitla another Pueblo Magico (Magical Village).
After the bad experience arriving with red hot brakes in Tamasopo, we were a little worried to go deeper into the mountains. But locals assured us the road was fine and only going up…..(yes, that did scare me for when we had to go down again as Xilitla lies on a mountain top)
But indeed the road was ok. Entering Xilitla directly showed that they are used to some tourism. Before the village is a large parking lot for busses. People jumped on the road to have us park there. Obviously this is a paid parking lot.
We had arrangements made through our friends of the Proteccion Civil (Civil Protection) so we parked on the other side of the street waiting for our man.
This guy brought us to the building where the Proteccion Civil and the State Police were housed. A large parking in front of it would be our home for a few days.
The parking was strangely situated above the grandstand of the local soccer stadium, with the stadium 30 feet lower as Xilitla is build on a mountaintop.
Thumbs Up
Looking past the soccer field in the distance, we directly noticed a strange mountaintop. The mountain is called La Silleta and rises up to 8350 feet (2550 meter). The top has the shape of the famous LIKE symbol. I wonder if Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) has been to Xilitla for inspiration.
Birthday
Before leaving to Xilitla we had cake to celebrate Jochems 18th birthday in Tamasopo. The rest of the day we were driving, finding our parking spot, setting up and doing groceries. So we told Jochem we would go out to dinner and he could choose what to eat.
When you are 18 years old and have been eating RV camping food and tasting new kinds of food in different countries for months and you get the choice….you choose….HAMBURGERS…lol.
XILITLA is a very traditional little village and it was not easy to find a burger place where we could sit down. Most places where they do sell burgers are take away.
But we found a nice little restaurant in the city center called WINGS. Happy birthday with burgers and Corona.
Las Pozas – Edward James
We didn´t go to Xilitla because it was on the way or just because it is a pueblo magico. Xilitla is mainly famous because of one of his former inhabitants, The Englisman, Edward James.
Edward James, a poet and writer, was a passionate supporter of surrealism. He could count people as Salvador Dali to his personal friends and supported him financially for at least a year when he still lived in Europe.
James wanted to build his own surrealistic “Garden Of Eden”. So he bought a large piece (over 80 acres) land in the sub tropical forest next to Xilitla. His house in the village is known as the El Castillo (The Castle), and is now a hotel.
For many years, many workers have been building on the surrealistic dream of Edward James. Massive sculptures and buildings sometimes up to 4 stories high, rise up in this jungle. Very impressive also are the “Pozas”.
Las Pozas, as the garden is called, translates to “the pools”. Many pools with surrealistic forms and sculptures are filled by the water falls on the grounds.
But here is the thing about Las Pozas….
Nothing is finished.
We spoke to a former builder and electrician of Las Pozas, a man who is now the well respected head of the Proteccion Civil, Jesus. Someone who knew Edward James personally.
Jesus made it simple for us when we asked why nothing was finished.
He was a little crazy, he said.
According to Jesus, but this is a story we could not confirm with other people yet, James was writing a book. When he started to write a chapter, he started to build.
The images in his head that accompanied the text in his book were to be shown in the sculptures and buildings.
But building is slower than writing…..
So when James finished a chapter and moved on the next, the builders needed to lay down their tools at one site, and start building on the next site.
Not sure if this was entirely true, but a nice explanation from someone who was close to Edward James.
Anyway, it’s almost impossible to explain how special Las Pozas is. All these surrealist buildings and sculptures hidden in a jungle, makes you feel you entered in an Indiana Jones movie.
Las Pozas is a must see when you visit Mexico and you like surrealism!
Hike and Outdoor
But Las Pozas is not the only thing that makes Xilitla special. The subtropical surroundings with banana and palm trees everywhere are very beautiful to hike.
We hiked the road that Edward James often used to walk from El Castillo to Las Pozas. In day time you don’t see a lot of animals, but you hear birds everywhere.
It’s only a short hike, but using this route, you avoid modern traffic and you can understand why James choose Xilitla to live in.
There are a lot of outdoor activities to be done in the mountains close to Xilitla like rafting, mountain biking, climbing, caving etc. But the towns outdoor company in Xilitla wasn´t very interested in meeting with us, so we have no information about it as we only write about our own experiences.
Xilitla
The village of Xilitla is a nice little quiet Mexican mountain village with very friendly people. But Xilitla is more than that.
The town center is build on the top of a mountain and there are 2 roads to the top where the town square is.
One straight up……which is a serious climb.
And one circling up like a spiral. The main street start below and starts spiraling up around the top. Up and up like a snail house. The main street finally ends on the square on the top where the church is.
Using this road, you will literally pass by all the buildings in the city center, as they all lie on the main road spiraling up.
The bright colored buildings house many shops and restaurants.
Our experience
Xilitla is a must when you like surrealism. The combination of Indiana Jones and Salvador Dali makes Las Pozas a must on your bucket list.
The town and its people are friendly and as always the food is great.
We did notice though that tourism takes its toll. The mildly aggressive way how they wanted to pull us to their parking lot, an outdoor company that wasn´t interested in meeting with us, the sheer amount of people visiting Las Pozas is a sign that tourism is getting bigger and bigger in Xilitla.
Maybe the only reason why Xilitla didn´t explode yet as a tourist village is because Xilitla is tucked away deep in the mountains and the jungle.
So when you are in Mexico, visit it quick……because it’s a pearl in the jungle!
It’s still one of our favorites!
I want to finish this blog a little different than normal, with some extra pictures as there is so much to show you and a poem by Edward James he wrote just before he died in Xilitla:
I have seen such beauty as one man has seldom seen;
therefore will I be grateful to die in this little room,
surrounded by the forests, the great green gloom
of trees my only gloom – and the sound, the sound of green.
Here amid the warmth of the rain, what might have been
is resolved into the tenderness of a tall doom
who says: ‘You did your best, rest’ – and after you the bloom
of what you loved and planted still will whisper what you mean.
And the ghosts of the birds I loved, will attend me each a friend;
like them shall I have flown beyond the realm of words.
You, through the trees, shall hear them, long after the end
calling me beyond the river. For the cries of birds
continue, as – defended by the cortege of their wings –
my soul among strange silences yet sings.
—Edward James, Poet 1907 – 1984
