Home to the snow

We arrived home from Mexico City on Monday to a wind and cold and a skiff of snow and the following day Victoria was blanketed in the white stuff.  This is what we experienced from one day to the next. What a contrast!

Before I leave our Mexico trip behind I want to post a few photos from places we visited around Cuernavaca.

This is the Robert Brady Museum, the over-the-top home of a rich American collector who lived there until 1986. The house was a former convent and displayed his collection of thousands of works of art, many of them Mexican.  The place is exactly as it was when he died in 1986, a private museum for him and his wealthy friends. A great spot for living vicariously.

Next up is Tepoztlan, one of Mexico's Pueblos Magicos, where we went by taxi for a day trip. It's a small town in an amazing setting of rocky mountain peaks. Wikipedia says it's famous for the remains of the El Tepozeteco temple built on top of a mountain. We didn't climb the mountain to see the temple but we did wander up and down the cobbled main street, where vendors were taking down their Christmas decorations and hikers were gearing up for the climb.                                                                                                                                                The church was pretty and the meal we had was good but there were entirely too many vendors selling trinkets for our taste.

We were more impressed with the Gardens of Mexico, also a taxi drive outside of Cuernavaca. This place is really large, the largest public garden in North America we're told. It was built by a wealthy family and rivals Butchart's Garden for sure. Like Butchart's it has an Italian garden, a Japanese garden, and all kinds of different areas. 

This large peacock greeted us as we entered. It was decorated with poinsettias and I believe the flowers change seasonally. You can see the bulldozer starting to remove the plantings in front.

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We liked the tropical gardens and the Cactus garden, but most of all we enjoyed walking around this lovely area (and taking little jitneys) in the early morning sunshine without crowds. 

Because it was just after the Christmas holidays there were very few people visiting.  It's only been open for five years so they must have trucked in some pretty large palm trees.

We enjoyed a lovely lunch in the lakeside restaurant and then headed back to Cuernavaca to get ready to leave the next day.  Even with the snow, we're glad to be home after a month in Mexico.