LIVING IN A DREAM AT LAS POSAS

The surreal vision of Sir Edward James exists as a lush Mexican jungle paradise

by DAPHNE CARPENTER, special guest writer

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I’m sitting high up in the trees, overlooking the incredible hidden city of Las Posas, in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. A light rain is falling from an electric sky, which is itself obscured by towering extraterrestrial trees. Abstract buildings lie dormant—swallowed up by the jungle. Massive tree roots spiral up around concrete obelisks like boa constrictors. Welcome to the tropical La Huasteca rainforest at Xilitla.

I’m wondering how I got here, but I guess it doesn’t really matter. The true amazement lies within this fantasy realm. There are cerulean pools of water, serving as mouths to a succession of cascading waterfalls, just below me. Parrots and flamingos are circling above. Although the natural scenery is captivating, what makes Las Posas (the pools) so memorable is nature’s juxtaposition to the bizarre architecture. How did this sweet confusion ever come to pass?

On a mission to locate the paradise where wild orchids grew profusely, Sir Edward James (1907-1984), a wealthy twentieth century art patron and charming social setter (who was rumored to be the son of England’s King Edward VII), made an expedition to Mexico’s fertile Northeast Coast in 1945.

James was an Indiana Jones-like adventurist who had become disillusioned by his own wealth and the materialist nature of the Bourgeois European social scene. When he came to Xilitla, he encountered the pools of water and was brought under their spell.

What he did with his time in Las Pozas is beyond the scope of most ordinary men. With a crew of hard-working local paisanos, he constructed his art: a living, walking, three-dimensional canvas. His extensive living quarters merged the human habitat with jungle. He dreamed up and then constructed spiraling staircases that corkscrew up into the trees and simply “end.”

James’ unique visions and dreams became a physical reality, and with guests like Sigmund Freud, Ray Mann, Aldous Huxley, Salvador Dali and filmmaker Luis Bunuel, some out-of-the ordinary parties took place here. Inspired by the Surrealist Movement of the mid-twentieth century, James often commissioned works by Dali who said, “Edward James is crazier than all the surrealists. Others pretend, but he is the real thing.”

When a freak frost put an end to the lifespan of his orchids in 1962, he decided to start anew, although inorganically. He built inconceivable giant bulbous columns, which give birth to blooming, concrete orchids at the top. Each section within the labyrinthine paradise is linked by sets of symmetrical staircases, which, from a distance, bear a striking similarity to an E.B. Escher drawing.

While traversing the mystical landscape one cannot help but ask, “How did this eccentric man manage to orchestrate all this?” You’re perplexed. Just then you walk across a fish pond in the form of a human eye—where the “crocodiles would play.” Then you wander up a path of concrete snakes that leads you up into the trees.

Continuing your exploration, you will walk through doors that appear from out of nowhere and are unattached to any kind of structure. You may find yourself on a leisurely stroll, chasing a butterfly, metaphorically lost in the ethereal forest. By this time you may no longer be able to resist the urge to plunge, enthusiastically like a child, into the waterfalls.

While in Xilitla, you can stay at a hotel in town and then walk a kilometer to the pools, or if your budget permits, you can stay here on the grounds at El Palacio, a posada surrounded by jungle. The heavy flow of stream water rushing over giant ancient rocks undoubtedly directs your dreams.
Once under this lush canopy of vegetation, it’s easy to forget that you are outside. While you slip into the tranquil flow of Las Posas, the tree-like sky morphs into something green and mysteriously unknown, an anomaly that can only be experienced in the flesh.