LAS POZAS

For some thirty years (from 1950 to 1980), Edward James, an eccentric English billionaire, son of an American railroad magnate and an Englishwoman close to the royal family (rumor has it that he is the illegitimate son of King Edward VII), patron of the arts and friend of the greatest surrealist artists, designed and built concrete constructions here, painted in phantasmagorical colors, his surrealist garden becoming a significant source of work for the inhabitants, who were then prey to the crisis in coffee prices. The dense vegetation, the tropical heat, the labyrinthine design of the site, the sculptures and buildings with their triturated geometry, the sound of waterfalls, the singing of insects and birds, the physical exercise (the site is mountainous), all contribute to a disconcerting sensory experience. From the village, a beautiful walk takes you for 4 kilometers under a forest until you reach the place commonly known as Las Pozas, the artistic and architectural playground of Edward James, flanked by waterfalls located in a natural site of great beauty. When he died in 1984, his right-hand man Plutarco inherited the surrealist garden and passed it on to his children shortly afterwards. Of the three plots, one is closed to the public (the one containing the Casa de los Peristiles and the monument to Max Ernst); a second, which includes the most recent structure and a waterfall, can still be visited today, but through a separate entrance(Los Comales). The third part is the largest and most visited.