Las Pozas

Deep in the rainforest of the Sierra Gorda, above the village of Xilitla in San Luis Potosí, concrete columns rise out of the jungle like the flowers of some impossible plant. Stairways climb into nothing and structures open onto the sky, while waterfalls pour into a chain of natural pools below. This is Las Pozas, the life's work of Edward James — a wealthy English poet and one of the great patrons of Surrealism, who had supported Salvador Dalí and René Magritte — and the most complete Surrealist environment ever built.

James came to Xilitla in 1945 with his friend and guide Plutarco Gastélum, bought land around the pools and began by growing orchids, at one point some 29,000 of them. When a rare frost killed the orchids in 1962 he turned to building instead, and for more than two decades until his death in 1984 he employed scores of local workers, carpenters and mould-makers to cast his visions in reinforced concrete. He paid for it by selling off his collection of Surrealist art. The result covers more than 80 acres with dozens of structures, some of them four storeys high, with names as playful as their forms: "The House on Three Floors Which Will in Fact Have Five or Four or Six", "The House with a Roof like a Whale", "The Staircase to Heaven".

What makes the place moving is the dialogue between concrete and forest. Concrete forms modelled on the flowers and leaves of the valley stand among real ones; moss and ferns have crept over the painted surfaces; mist from the falls drifts through the empty rooms. After James's death the garden passed to Gastélum's family and opened to visitors in 1994. It was declared a state cultural heritage site in 2006, and in 2007 a group of foundations, with the state government, acquired it and set up the Fondo Xilitla to preserve it.

Getting there

Las Pozas lies on the edge of Xilitla, about a 20-minute walk or short taxi ride from the town centre. Direct buses run to Xilitla from Ciudad Valles, about 85–90 km away, in two to three hours; the nearest larger town listed on maps is Tamazunchale, about 26 km away. The closest major airport is Querétaro Intercontinental (QRO), about 150 km in a straight line, but the drive through the mountains is long; Xilitla is roughly seven hours by road from Mexico City.