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OUR MISSION: To protect and preserve our natural heritage and help build an environmental culture while developing a Botanical Garden dedicated to Mexican flora and providing an oasis of peace and tranquility for all.
Please tell your friends and prospective members/supporters how to access the newsletter and help broaden the base of support for the Botanical Garden.
On Saturday, March 23, we will celebrate 15 years of our Spring Equinox Concert at the Botanical Garden. As in all the other years, this concert will take place in the canyon, a space sculpted by
nature over centuries. It’s a celebration of life, the energy of the Sun and the rebirth of the Earth.
These concerts have presented high quality artists of various musical tastes.
For this anniversary celebration we offer a special concert by the famous Mexican flautist, Horacio Franco, along with the well known Israeli American violoncellist, Asaf Kolerstein, interpreting
works for duets by J.S. Bach and A. Corelli (300th anniversary of his death).
The concert will start at exactly 5:50p.m. so we suggest arriving no later than 5:30p.m.
General Admission is 150 pesos; Members, students and teachers, 100pesos.
Tickets are on sale in the Botanical Garden, Posada Corazon (Aldama 9) and the Camino Silvestre stores (Zacateros 46 and Correo 43).
Information: charcodelingeniocomunicacion@gmail.com; Tel: (415) 154 4715; 154 8838
Horacio Franco: Internationally acclaimed as the best representative of his instrument at a worldwide level.
He studied at the National Conservatory in Mexico City and in the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam, now known
as the Conservatory of Amsterdam, with Marijke Miessen and Walter van Hauwe, where he was designated
“Soloist cum laude”. Franco is an active performer giving 150 concerts annually and is a director and teacher as well.
His repertoire includes classical music, contemporary and Latin American traditional and popular music.
He has taught master classes in Europe, Asia, the United States, South America, and Israel and has participated in educational projects in England, the United States and his native Mexico as well as projects for the disadvantaged and marginalized sectors of society. He has played chamber music in Europe and Mexico with Max van Egmond,
Lucy van Deal, Nigel Rogers,Charles Brett, Chrispian Steel-Perkins and Walter van Hauwe, among many others.
He has played throughout the world in important concert halls as well as numerous festivals and throughout
Mexico in such venues as The Cervantino and the Historic Center Festival in Mexico City, among others.
Asaf Kolerstein: Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, he studied mathematics at the University of California in Berkeley where
he won the Eisner prize and the Hertz scholarship. He obtained his Masters in Music at the University of Boston
and in 1998 the Musical School “Longy” in Cambridge, Massachusetts gave him a diploma in violoncello.
He has participated in many orchestras and chamber music groups such as the Capitol Chamber Artists in Albany,
the Portland Symphony and the Springfield Symphony, ALEA III in Boston, Berkeley Contemporary chamber players
and was principal cellist for the English rock group “Deep Purple” in Mexico City.
He is currently the principal cellist for the Symphonic Orchestra of Mexico City and regularly participates
in chamber music recitals and as soloist with various national orchestras.
In tune with the Spring Concert and throughout Saturday, March 23rd, the Botanical Garden
will have various activities to celebrate the United Nations World Day of Water to value and preserve
this natural resource throughout the world. The program is the following:
2:30-3:30: Conference with Dr. Marcos Adrien Ortega, expert in water issues and researcher at the Geosciences Center, National University of Mexico, UNAM (Juriquilla campus). Dome.
3:30-4:00: Public and media launching of the citizen’s campaign Living Water SMA (Observatorio Cuidadano del Agua y Saneamiento, OCAS). Dome.
4:00-5:00: Ceremony of the Spring Equinox. Plaza of the Four Winds.
FREE ENTRANCE
An explosion of yellow can be seen all around San Miguel de Allende starting in February: it’s the flowers of the huizache chino which perfume and adorn the environment. The huizache chino (Acacia shaffnieri) is a small tree that can grow 6 meters high, with composite leaves and spiny branches. Like many plants of the semi-arid areas of central Mexico, it has adapted to the changing and extreme climate at these latitudes; almost without leaves to avoid losing water, it puts all its energy into producing flowers to ensure the life of the next generation through its seeds. As well, its roots may be deep or shallow, depending on the availability of water. The huizache chino is a very useful plant, whether as forage, ornamental, medicinal, or extraction of perfume.
There is no doubt it’s a species worthy of admiration and conservation.
Last year David Tarrant, an internationally known expert in horticulture and resident of San Miguel, gave a delightful and well attended audiovisual presentation on “Gardens of San Miguel: a personal vision”, which was greatly appreciated by the audience. This time David will captivate us with a talk about the wild flowers he observed on his recent trip to South Africa. This is an overview of Cape Town and its beautiful gardens, followed by a detailed analysis of the amazing spring wildflowers in Namaqualand. Contact us by phone, in person or at charcodelingeniocomunicacion@gmail.comto make your reservation.
This species of duck (Anas acuta) can now be seen in the reservoir inside the Botanical Garden and can be recognized by black feathers on the neck. Males are grey with coffee colored heads, with white breasts, and white border from the neck to the back of the head. The females are light coffee colored. You can see them in groups feeding from the plants at the bottom of the reservoir, submerging only their heads and necks leaving their feet and backsides up in the air which makes them look very amusing and shows that the current level of water is quite shallow.
Come and see them before they head back to Alaska and Canada!
Spiny, tufted, rough and smooth, El Charco’s blooming succulents are your inspiration. Learn the techniques for realistic drawing in graphite pencil, including line drawing, shading and perspective. In a series of small studies and step-by-step exercises, you will train your eye to observe carefully details and your hand to record what you see.
The secret to portraying light and shadow on your subjects lies in understanding the scientific method of lighting as it applies to different forms. Beginning with basic geometric shapes, refine your skills in showing light and volume on any subject.
You overcome the obstacles of creating three-dimensional drawings while studying the range of value, continuous tone, and textured highlights while you discover the secret of portraying light and shadow. You’ll take your drawings from flat to fabulous. You'll emerge from the class with the skills you need to draw anything and you are confident to draw what you see. Even though this class mainly will work in graphite pencil, the principles apply to all other media.
Karla Beatty studied drawing and painting in Boston and New York before achieving a certificate in botanical illustration from Denver Botanic gardens. She now works as a natural science illustrator and landscape painter, and teaches in the School of Botanical Art and Illustration at Denver Botanic Gardens.
Information:
charcodelingeniocomunicacion@gmail.com
On February 12th El Charco was visited by one of the most prominent figures in the world of ferns, Dr. John T. Mickel, emeritus researcher from the New York Botánical Garden, who has had a close relationship with Mexico since the 1960s and has worked with other well known botanical personalities such as McVaugh and Rzedowski.
Dr. Mickel helped us identify some ferns and selaginela collected in El Charco and the Picachos, which confirmed the existence of at least 37 species of ferns and 17 of selaginela.
During a pleasant walk around the Garden he told us the joke that in some places he is known as the Milk Man, El Lechero (Helechero means fern in Spanish). He also showed us how to identify these beautiful plants in the countryside and their characteristics in the dry season.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
On February 20 and 21 a representative of the town’s Public Security department gave a training session to our staff on how to prevent forest fires. This was very helpful since it is only two years since a fire affected a large part of the northern area of the Garden destroying much vegetation.
To help us in this work, we ask our visitors to not leave trash, start bonfires and to put out and take out with them their cigarette stubs since 80% of forest fires are started by people (directly or indirectly). We are grateful for the training we received from Public Security and for their work with and for the community. Prevention is better than fighting.
On February 14th the talented musicians Jimena Gimenez Cacho (violincello), Gil Guttierrez (guitar) and Camille Garcia (accordian) gave a unique concert in the patio of Camino Silvestre which benefitted Audubon and El Charco del Ingenio.
We extend our most sincere gratitude to these wonderful musicians, to Martin Muñoz who organized an excellent audio, and of course to the entire team at Camino Silvestre for their brotherhood and consistent commitment to the environment in San Miguel de Allende.
Click on this link to watch a short demonstration of this unique concert:
El Charco is grateful for the donation for a woodcut entitled Nopal (2010, 110 x 745 cm) which is now on sale at our Gift Shop. The artist decided to donate a work to El Charco after the fire in 2011 that devastated a section of the Botanical Garden in order to generate funds for our conservation project. Marisa Boullosa was born in Mexico City in 1961 and has been living in San Miguel de Allende for many years. She specialized in etching and painting at the Massana School in Barcelona, Spain. She has received many prizes and has had more than a hundred collective exhibitions in and outside Mexico.
Thank you, Marisa!
We offer our condolences to Miranda Nadel, friend and Botanical Garden and volunteer for many years, for the recent loss of her husband, Eli.
This work is currently on exhibit in our Gift Shop and shows our dear Tormenta, the cat that has been living in El Charco for 15 years. Tormenta arrived just eight years after the Garden’s creation (1999), a few months old and since then has been the watchman and charm of the reception of El Charco.
The work was donated by the artist, Terra Mizwa, who also has made postcards from the painting of this famous feline which are on sale in the Gift Shop for 15 pesos. The money from the sale of these postcards will go to buying special food for Tormenta who can no longer chew.
We invite everyone to this open celebration that has been taking place for many years during the full moon cycle at the Four Winds Plaza in the Botanical Garden under the always surprising direction of Alicia Mayo. It’s worth arriving a little early to admire the setting of the sun and the appearance of the moon over the mountains. You may want to bring a coat for cool evenings and you may bring a musical instrument.
Alicia Mayo : 152 .0376.
This sweat-lodge steam bath, of ritual and healing character, takes place under the direction of an experienced temazcal leader in the ruins of the hacienda located in the Botanical Garden on the far side of the reservoir.
The combination of heat, humidity and fragrant herbs provides a purifying experience for the body and spirit. Its benefits are multiple: it activates circulation, increases the body’s defenses, eliminates pains, decreases uric acid, relaxes the muscles, regulates the nervous system, stimulates respiration and is excellent for losing weight.
Reservation necessary : charcodelingeniocomunicacion@gmail.com | Tel:154.8838, 154.4715, or at the Botanical Garden visitor’s center.
Enjoy the coming of Spring in El Charco del Ingenio with its beautiful landscape and diverse wildlife. Discover the flowers that emerge this month on the cactus and walk the beautiful paths, giving us both exercise and a connection to nature. Visit the Conservatory of Mexican Plants, the Scented Garden and the canyon, archeological ruins and much more.
Guides include Signe Hammer, Norman Besman, Luke Rich and Michael Wheatcroft.
The walks are for birders of all levels. They begin at 9:00 am and last about 2 1/2 hours. No reservations needed, and feel free to leave the walk at any time. Please bring binoculars, wear comfortable walking shoes and a hat, and bring water. Your guide will meet you after you pass through the Reception area of the Botanical Garden.
Welcome Spring with these reproductions of insects available in the Gift Shop. Support and contribute to local artisans while obtaining a beautiful decorative piece for your home made of metal.If you love nature and especially insects, don’t miss these ornamental pieces.
In this month when everything flowers, we invite you to savour a nutritious, seasonal fruit salad which, besides being tasty, is full of vitamins and antioxidants that help maintain youthful cells longer. The best way to enjoy this fruit is in its natural state. There is always fresh, seasonal fruit available at El Charco.