Tag: castillo

Postcard from Guanajuato, Mexico: Where the Spanish found pots of silver at the end of the rainbow

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Wrote so many things about Guanajuato two years ago that few words are necessary. Here is a batch of photos mined there during our meanderings there this past fall.

Templo de San Francisco
Templo de la Compania de Jesus
Teatro Juarez
street corn
Teatro Juarez
Basilica of Our Lady of Guanajuato
Diez y Seis de Septiembre lights
Museo Palacio de los Poderes
El Pipila
Universidad de Guanajuato
Iglesia de San Diego
Father Hidalgo prepping for Diez y Seis
Templo de la Compania de Jesus
Casa del Conde Rul
El Clave Azul Mezcal Bar
castillo erected for fireworks to celebrate the Festival of the Virgin of Loreto
Basilica of Our Lady of Guanajuato
Capilla Santa Casa de Loreto
jarra de claret

My favorite photo here is the rooftop overflow “parking lot” for El Nino Medico. The toy cars left with prayers for El Nino in his glass quarters in Templo de la Compania de Jesus always mount up, sometimes to the point of almost burying him. There were so many stuffed inside this trip that the faithful began parking them on top of his quarters. I am including a photo after the illegally parked cars have been towed away once again by church guardians.

rooftop overflow parking lot for cars and trucks left for El Nino Medico

 

Postcard from Guanajuato, Mexico: Festival of the Virgin of Loreto

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Dancers pranced to beats of drums and high-pitched flutes all day yesterday in a street below the house where we are staying. We’re not sure it is an official holy day, but the neighborhood participants treat it as such.

Flowers adorned the altar in the Capilla Santa Casa de Loreto, dedicated to the Annunciation in the home the Virgin inhabited when the angel Gabriel revealed her impending delivery of El Nino. While Candelaria in January is regarded as the holy day when the faithful bring their small Nino statues dressed in new finery to churches for blessing, in Guanajuato the ceremony is replicated in front of the altar during this festive event marking the anniversary of the consecration of the chapel in 1854. Although some let me peek inside their baskets, we didn’t feel comfortable asking anyone for permission to photograph the lacily attired Ninos they cradled so proudly.

And, of course, music, food and firecrackers warmed up the crowd in advance of the major pyrotechnical displays at 9 o’clock. The experts toiled to assemble a monumental castillo of fireworks throughout the afternoon.

We were viewing the altar when the shrill sounds of the whirling wheels of light first began. Along with many of those heeding the call to exit the church, we watched from the steps. The Mister began filming with the camera.

First lesson learned: Do not hold the camera vertically when shooting because we do not have the software downloaded to rotate it 90 degrees. For this reason, the images of the fireworks were snatched from frames of the video and turned for viewing.

Second lesson: When a lone bombero appears beside you in fireproof clothing, lowers his visor and nervously glances upward, MOVE. Even if relocating means you must stop filming just as the swirling halo of the announcing angel perched atop the castillo rockets upward into the dark night sky.

Cascades of sparkling fireworks showered down upon us from the rooftop of Capilla Santa de Loreto. This display was followed by the finale of explosions of light set off above. The video captures some of the first sparkling showers.