Aug

A Traveler’s Oasis: Toluca’s Cosmovitral

by Eva Boynton on August 10, 2015

Plant set against the stained-glass walls of the Cosmovitral, a botanical garden and traveler's oasis in Toluca, Mexico. (Image © Dia Glez)

At Toluca’s Cosmovitral—cultivating the cosmos and an entire botanical garden
© Dia Glez

A Botanical Garden Grows Under Glass

As I walked a stone path enveloped by plants from around the world, the light winked a blue-purple and then a red-orange. Plants dangled in the air. Behind supple foliage emerged hard lines of steel supports. Contrasting sounds hit me—bird song and human murmuring; water trickling and car engines rumbling.

What was this ethereal place of such contrasts?

I had stumbled into an unlikely oasis within the city of Toluca, Mexico. Here was both the largest art installation of stained glass in the world and a botanical garden with hundreds of plant species from around the world—the Cosmovitral.

The view of the length of the botanical garden in Toluca's Cosmovitral, a traveler's oasis in the city. (Image © Eva Boynton)

Gardens the length of a football field under a sky of glass
© Eva Boynton

The name Cosmovitral comes from a combination of cosmos and vitral, the Spanish words for “cosmos” and “stained glass.” It is a place where a beautiful work of human design—the glass mural—meets a marvel of nature’s design—the botanical garden. For me, it was a traveler’s oasis.

Stained glass panel at the Cosmovitral, a botanical garden and traveler's oasis in Toluca, Mexico. (Image © Eva Boynton)

Cosmic details of night and day in the ceiling panels at Toluca’s Cosmovitral.
© Eva Boynton

Venerable Roots and Worldwide Sprouts

At Cosmovitral, birds whiz from an African tree to the metal arches supporting the building that once was Toluca’s first grand market.

Built in art deco style, the original market building resembled a train station with clear glass above concrete walls. It opened in 1910 to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the start of the Mexican Revolution and operated until 1975.

Thanks to Yolanda Sentíes, the first female mayor of Toluca, and artist Leopoldo Flores Valdés, the market building would have a creative new life.

Flores imagined the old glass walls of the market as a mural in stained-glass, with no beginning and no end. The city envisioned a botanical garden underneath. Five years later in 1980, the Cosmovitral opened. Today, more than 400 species from all over the world grow there.

Plants growing in Cosmovitral, a botanical garden and traveler's oasis in Toluca, Mexico. (image © Eva Boynton)

Plants from many countries, such as
South Africa and Japan (bottom), grow side by side in Cosmovitral.
© Fanny Murguia (images 1-3) and Eva Boynton (image 4)

Harvesting Light

It took 45 tons of glass in 28 different colors to create the 71 stained glass panels in the Cosmovitral. Imported from Italy, Germany, France, Belgium, Japan, Canada and the USA, the glass lets light seep through walls and cast its colors on the gardens below.

Flying owl in a stained glass panel from the wall of the Cosmovitral, a botanical garden and traveler's oasis in Toluca, Mexico. (Image © Odette Barron Villegas)

Blue and purple reflections fall from a flying owl.
© Odette Barron Villegas

Leopoldo Flores and about 60 artisans created the windows across a 3-year period, using 25 tons of lead and about 500,000 pieces of glass. Blues are dominant on the north side with brighter colors on the south side.

Close-up showing the many pieces that make up a stained glass panel at Cosmovitral, a botanical garden and traveler's oasis in Toluca, Mexico. (Image © Jennifer Doofershmirtz)

Piece by piece, a masterpiece is made.
© Jennifer Doofershmirtz

The mural makes a statement on mankind’s connection to the universe. In the book El Estado de México, Gerardo Novo explains:

The theme depicted by the windows centers on universal dualities and antagonisms, the struggle between life and death, good and evil, day and night, and creation and destruction, all shown in cosmic continuum.

Light plays the essential role in illuminating the theme. As the sun moves through the sky, different stained glass windows take prominence. Here humans plunge through swirling reds, oranges, and yellows, colliding headfirst with life and death.

Humans seem to fly through tones of a red and orange stained glass window at the Cosmovitreal, a botanical garden and t raveler's oasis in Toluca, Mexico. (Image © Eva Boynton)

Stained glass often relates to places of worship.
Perhaps Cosmovitral is just that—a place to pay honor to a cosmic connection.
© Eva Boynton

At one end of the building, light pierces a wall of glass, revealing the awe-inspiring Hombre Sol (Sun Man) that has become the symbol for Toluca. Here mankind is depicted in harmony with the universe.

Stained glass of man with red orange colors at the Cosmovitral, a botanical garden and traveler's oasis in Toluca, Mexico. (Image © Eva Boynton)

With the alignment of the sun at the spring equinox,
Hombre Sol takes on a cosmic, fiery glow.
© Eva Boynton

Digging Deeper

With such light on the matter, Oh, I see the dualities in our universe.

I see how opposites—day and night, good and evil, life and death—have their own connection in the cosmos. I see the cycles of life. Even the plants growing at Cosmovitral are fed by nutrients of decaying organic matter with life and death ever present and ever important to the continuum.

The very dualisms represented in the vast murals are tightly connected, leaded together in fact, as they interact within the same universe.

Here, at my traveler’s oasis in the Cosmovitral botanical garden, I question if opposites are really opposing at all.

Exit at Cosmovitral, a botanical garden and a traveler's oasis in Toluca, Mexico. (Image © Eva Boynton).

A final glance through the exit back into the garden and
a last reflection on the dualities of our universe
© Eva Boynton

Find info on visiting Cosmovitral and more photos here.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Eva Boynton 3 Comments

Mexico/Nature Discovery/The World's Art & Design

Jun

Web-Footed Wanderlust

by Meredith Mullins on June 22, 2015

Single African blackfooted penguin showing his wanderlust iin a penguin parade. (Image © iStock.)

Getting out and about
© iStock

Five Travel Tips from a Penguin Parade

You can learn a lot of things from a jackass.

It’s not often that I get to start a story with a tribute to a jackass.

In this case, I’m talking about the jackass penguin, or African blackfooted penguin. (The unfortunate nickname of “jackass” comes from the honking sound they make, reminiscent of a donkey braying.)

I first learned of these penguins when I saw their penchant for curiosity and wanderlust in a whimsical YouTube video.

Meredith Mullins 6 Comments

Art of Travel/USA

May

From Colorful Guatemala to Post-Vacation Blues

by Sally Baho on May 11, 2015

Off-centered door in yellow stucco wall, a colorful memory recalled during post-vacation blues. (Image © Scott Kafer)

The flowers aren’t the only thing that provide color in Antigua, Guatemala,
the houses remind you of a painter’s palette. © Scott Kafer

Finding the Color Wherever You Are

Only yesterday, I had returned from Guatemala, surrounded by people, colors, smells, and noise—music, cars, crowds, conversation. Now here I was back in Pacific Grove, CA, known as “America’s last hometown,” waking to the low hum of my refrigerator. Looking around, my once beloved apartment seemed silent, cold, desolate.

I felt as if someone had pulled the plug on me—where was everyone? They had gone and left me with the post-vacation blues.

A Sense-sational Trip

Traveling—when done right—hits all your senses. My trip began in the streets of Antigua, a colonial town and UNESCO World Heritage Site, where old cobblestone streets crawl past colorful facades.

I continued to noisy Guatemala City where a walk through the crowded Mercado Central captivated my senses. The sharp smell of fresh fruit. The pots of simmering meat. The sound and smell and taste of the sizzling tortillas on the griddle.

Close up of a moronga (blood sausage) taco with tomatoes and onions, and a Gallo beer bottle in the background., a tasty memory recalled during the post-vacation blues. (Image © Sally Baho)

Moronga (blood sausage) taco
at the Mercado Central in Guatemala City
© Sally Baho

I thought back to the two old ladies who insisted on feeding the gringa (me) some of the moronga (blood sausage) taco they were eating . . . with their bare hands.

I relived my flight north from Guatemala City to Flores and how the vista of the Isla de Flores in Lake Petén Itzá opened my eyes wide to new wonders.

Aerial view of Isla de Flores in northern Guatemala, a beautiful memory recalled during post-Vacation blues. (Image © Rafael Amado Deras)

Isla de Flores, Guatemala, where the water is as inviting as the view!
© Rafael Amado Deras

The memory of all these sensory experiences, however, only heightened my sense of sadness.

New Friends in New Places

I missed the new friends I had made, too. And I missed how easy it feels when I’m traveling to make new friends.

Only three days ago, I had shared a canoe ride with a lady I had just met. We drank a cold beer as we leisurely rowed away from the vibrant Isla de Flores. I was on vacation: no watch, no alarm clock, no email, no desk, just me and my whims.

I met Ilse on the street. We were both looking to rent a canoe which happened to be only for two people, and we were both alone.

“OK, quiero ponerme el traje de baño,” (OK, I have to change into my bathing suit) I said, as we coordinated payment and logistics.

“Y yo voy a comprar la cerveza,” (And I’ll go buy the beer), she answered.

Three wooden canoes on a body of water, providing one of endless experiences whose memory can spark the post-vacation blues. (Image © frankdennerlein / Thinkstock)

Ten minutes later, we were walking along the shore of the tiny island to a jerry-rigged “dock”—a few rusty canoes chained to a rotting post. Balancing oars, plastic bags, and sandals, we climbed in the canoe and started talking about life.

It’s amazing how travel works—you lose inhibitions, you’re open to life and all the experiences it has to offer. It’s so easy to share personal thoughts and stories, much more so than in your daily life.

Back to the Same Old Life in the Same Old Place

Here at home, life just wasn’t the same. To quell my loneliness and blues:

Bag of Guatemalan coffee in a Guatemalan textile bag with a worry doll, part of a strategy to get over the post-vacation blues. (Image © Sally Baho)

I put on some Latin music and made coffee from beans brought back from Guatemala.

I looked at my travel photos and researched cheap flights back to Guatemala.

I unwrapped my Guatemalan worry dolls and tried to pass off my big case of post-vacation blues to the tiny doll.

Blasting Away the Post-Vacation Blues

And then my phone buzzed. It was Saturday morning when my local running group meets for our long run.

“Are you coming? We want stories!”

I begrudgingly laced up my shoes and headed out to meet the group. We ran a route I had never run before.

One of the guys told me that we were approaching “The Window of the Bay” and, when we emerged from this clearing, there would be a beautiful view. He instructed me to yell, “we live here” as soon as I saw the view.

“How will I know?” I inquired.

“You’ll just know.”

So we continued our run, swapping stories, laughing, chatting when suddenly we came upon a clearing with a panoramic view of the ocean.

“WE LIVE HERE!” I screamed and did a jump for joy.

View of the Pacific Ocean, during a run designed to blast away the post-vacation blues. (Image © Sherry Long)

The view of the Pacific Ocean from the running path…
it’s hard to believe that the same waters touch Guatemala
© Sherry Long

Oh, I See

And like that, my post-vacation blues disappeared.

It dawned on me that it’s not about where you are; it’s about your attitude. It’s about finding the things that make your heart race where you live (or moving to the place that fulfills you, if that’s an option).

It’s about bringing back the openness to other people that you feel when you travel—the kind that makes you head down to the tourist trap in your area, chat with some travelers, and maybe even invite them for a canoe ride.

Airplane ticket from Flores to</br>Guatemala City, a scrapbook item that turns post-vacation blues into a good memory of the trip. (Image © Sally Baho)