A week can be a very long time. Finally left the crazy beauty Mexico City, much fun and not what I had expected but good to leave all the same. Friday we at last made it to Xilitla, we travelled through the night and arrived in the early morn in a haze. To walk through the entrance to Las Pozas, to be actually there was amazing. Having read so much about the place, seen pictures, watched videos, to be there for the first time was just incredible. The place is something else, i cant really describe the scale or the beauty or just the damn right crazyness of it all, its incredible. Spent most of friday wandering around in general wonder, still hazy and disorientated from the night bus, then increasingly hazy and disorientated by the gardens themselves. Nothing is as it seems, or where you think it would be, the water flows according to gravity but apart from that all bets are off. But it is beautiful, i was´nt sure that it would be but truely it is. Just the way the jungle and the sculpture interact and become one, the way that the whole place is so heavily landscaped while always appearing is though it were not and how the pools of water form the gardens heart. Its epic.
Anyway, thats enough gushing about the place there is also work to be done here. So, the Treehouse. We have found the site and are curently designing the structure. The design i had in my head before went out the window as soon as we walked around and saw the place, i thought this may be the case. We spent a long time walking around lookiing at diferent sites and have been given a great deal of freedom in that. One of the things we had in mind for the location was somewhere that offered the feeling of hight, somwhere that had a veiw. We have not been dissapointed, the site is on an outcrop of cliff about 300 foot in the air, the view from the back down into the waterfalls of the gardens and to the front Xilitla and the mountains beyond. Will post some pictures soon. Its a bit daunting, just getting the materials up there is going to be a herculian task but if if we can pull it off it will be a really amazing structure. We have designed a 2 story structure with a 3rd story crows nest, the theme of the design centers on a contrast between natural froms and materials and a very angular and contempory structure. Sort of hippy Ghery kind of thing.
Sunday, thats today has been quite a full on day. Got up early, worked on some designs, went for a coffee, had an interview with 2 local papers, went to the treehouse site for approval, went to the local market then to some traditional dancing and then off to a giant limestone cave to watch the daily commute of 2 million swallows. i would love to talk at lenghth about anyone of those things but time is an issue here but i must talk more about the swallows. About an hour from Xilitla is this huge cave, something like 400 meters deep, and it is home to millions of these swallow like birds. the cave is a good hike through the jungle but well worth it and although on paper watching birds fly into caves does´nt sound like much but when ther are millions and there are all flying at 125kmh its quite something.
more news to follow soon.
jm