I was fortunate to spend 6 days in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico the week before last (you didn’t know I was gone, did you?) and while our DD was involved in her daily 4 hour botanic drawing class, I either walked in the town itself or walked in the wonderful botanic garden, Charo del Ingenio.  Sited on ridges above this historic, World Heritage listed town, the focus is entirely on indigenous mexican plants, featuring cactii, agaves and succulents. Trees there were mostly the acacia family – all low rainfall area plants.  I commented as we drove into the town from the airport how dry it was and how it clearly had not rained for a very long time,  and would you believe, that night it rained…

the cross in the background to this pic is very symbolic according to the english half of the didactic panel/plaque nearby:

these rolled dried leaves attached to the underlying mesh (refer to the plaque above) I thought would make a gentle surface for a dead body – caring somehow – I didn’t test my theory as I didn’t want to look too nosey and pokey as an obvious tourista gringa.

Each time I was in the garden there were groups of school children there for an outdoor lesson or field trip.  Since its foundation in 1991, the garden has become widely known for its conservation and preservation of these specias of plants found all over Mexico, some of them iconic images of the country.  Some are very rare and difficult to cultivate, but certain people on the staff here have the skills and special knowledge, several of them are consulted by botanists from everywhere, several have travelled widely to lecture and teach and the city is,  rightly, very proud of this place.  The small low building behind the plaza is the lecture hall/classroom where DD’s class was held.  At the other end of the garden was a conservatory housing some special cactii, and an agaves garden planted out with a large variety of these.  And everywhere along the natural gravelled pathways were low bench seats for visitors to sit and gaze out over the partk with the wetlands at the bottom, watch birds, take photos, rest, or whatever. In one or two places I came across volunteers weeding among planted beds.  Following are some of the fav. photos from the time I spent there:

In future posts I will show a few other pics of the town and things I observed there as we did mother and daughter tourist things in the afternoons and evenings.