Frida Kahlo captivates us as much with the Courage of her life as with the uniqueness of her Art. This pilgrimage is designed for Frida Kahlo fans who feel a connection to this fiercely passionate woman, and who are seeking an informal way to immerse themselves for a week in her Life, Culture, Country & Art.

We have arranged a Frida Pilgrimage for you with unparalleled access to her places of inspiration, as well as many of her paintings available for viewing in the City & surrounding
areas.

Our experience starts in a town north of Mexico City, Guanajuato, where there is a Mummy Museum. This is essential to understanding that Frida's obsession with Death and Skeletal images derived from her Culture rather than any desire to be part of the Surrealist movement. For the remainder of the trip we are based in Mexico City, so that we may walk in her footsteps and immerse ourselves in many of the Cultural influences she expressed in her Art. We stay in her hometown of Coyoacan, where we see the home where she was born in 1910. The walls are still painted the vivid cornflower-blue color she favored, and many rooms remain in their original state. In the studio upstairs, her wheelchair sits next to the easel with a partially completed painting surrounded by paintbrushes, palettes, books & photos.

The iconography with which she is so identified, flows out of the rich vein of her Mexican heritage, and we seek these out for your own direct experience:

The Flower Markets / Ancient Pyramids / Monkeys / Skeleton Icons / Pre-Columbian Pottery & Textiles / Magnificent Cathedrals / & Fabulous food.

Evening entertainment includes: Ballet Folklorica. You are always accompanied, both in the hotel, during all meals, excursions and evenings out, by your bilingual, enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide for a unique & memorable experience.

ALL MEALS ARE INCLUDED

BREAKFAST
This meal is served in our B&B or Hotel.

LUNCH
Lunch will be fitted in between all of our many activities. Sometimes we will be able to stop at a nice restaurant.
Other times, we will be picking up something 'on the run'.

DINNER
We will usually enjoy Dinner
at a fine restaurant to enjoy excellent food and gracious service as we enjoy sharing our discoveries of the day.

Alcoholic beverages are not included in any of our dining experiences, but may be purchased by the individual participant separately at Lunch or Dinner.

Water. Bottled water is readily available and you will be kept well supplied with this necessity.

IN COUNTRY TRANSPORTATION

We have our own private van, with chauffeur, at our disposal for the entire trip. Once you are picked up at the Airport, you will be traveling with the group to all sites and towns, and evening Entertainment. The van will be limited to 14 people.
This means that we can pack in a lot from Morning to Night, getting across town the quickest way possible, or having a private ride home late at night after Ballet Folklorico.

Each day will involve Walking Tours requiring average Physical condition & Comfortable Shoes.

Lodging

We stay at 2 wonderful places.
The first two nights in Guanajuato
THE CASA DE ESPIRITUS ALLEGRES.
This is a lovely B&B which we rent in its entirety for our group.
Chosen so we may visit the Mummy Museum in this town
http://www.casaspirit.com/

The next 5 nights we are in Frida's Hometown of Coyoacan staying at the HOLIDAY INN TLALPAN.
Chosen so we may walk in her footsteps every day. Click for more Info

Scheduled Events

Sunday
You arrive at LEON'S International Airport where you are met by your guide and escorted to the hotel. Please plan to arrive in the afternoon, between 1-4 PM.

Senor Torres will personally meet you at the airport, making 2 trips in our private chauffeured van between the airport and the B&B. We pick up one group who will arrive by 2 PM, and we will return for the second group who will gather by 4 PM. We will collect your specific flight information from you before the trip to facilitate your connection with Larry Torres. How will you locate him? Simple. He promises to dress "In Costume," and will be readily identifiable!

The fun begins! Our van will take us directly to the B&B, LA CASA DE ESPIRITUS ALEGRES. We have exclusive of this lovely place rented just for our group for two nights. Our opening night dinner will be a four course candle-lit affair prepared for us by the B&B staff in their garden. This means that some of you who have been traveling a long distance today can enjoy a fine meal without further travel and call it an early evening to go upstairs for a hot bath before turning in. Others may choose to linger over a glass of wine after dinner.

Monday
Guanajuato - Guanajuato was once Mexico's most prominent mining city, for 250 years it produced 20% of the world's silver. It is a colonial gem, now a University town, tucked into the mountains with underground tunnels serving as streets. The first morning we plan for some who choose to sleep late to do so, while others can wander the maze of crooked streets winding up the hillside. We gather as a group for lunch, then off to explore. Some of the sites include: The Basilica features a jewel-covered statue of the Virgin, hidden from the Moors in a cave in Spain for 800 years ! The Callejon del Beso is a tiny street where the balconies on either side almost touch. There is a legend of star-crossed lovers who lived on opposite sides, exchanging secretive kisses from these balconies. As we stroll, we will come across several excellent places to shop for Silver items. After Dinner in town, we will travel to La Pipila. This is a monument with a torch raised high above the city. We will take our van to the top to enjoy the magnificent view.

Tuesday
Today we visit LA MUSEO LAS MOMIAS. This site is the main reason we start our Frida Kahlo Tour in Guanajuato, for it displays 119 preserved mummies, including the smallest mummy in the world, a pregnant mummy, and lots more.
By Starting our tour here, we can see first hand that Frida's skeletal iconography derived from her Culture, rather than from a desire to be part of the Surrealist movement

Two other minor museums will complete our visit to Guanajuato:
MUSEO Y CASA DIEGO RIVERA. Rivera was born here in 1886. On display is a nude portrait he did of Frida. Also there are sketches for the controversial mural commissioned by New York City's Rockefeller Center as well as peasant portraits.
MUSEO ICONOGRAPHICO DE QUIJOTE. Don Quixote de la Mancha, the famous hero of Spanish Literature, is depicted here in many different media by a wide variety of artists. The Museo de las Momias. This is the quintessential example
of Mexico's obsessions with death.

By late afternoon we check out of the B&B and climb aboard our van for the 4 to 5 hour drive to Mexico City. Here we check in to HOLIDAY INN TLALPAN in Frida's home town of Coyoacan for the rest of our stay in Mexico.

Wednesday

We are now in Mexico City to view the magnificent Basilica de Guadalupe. This cathedral marks the site where the Virgin Mary appeared to a poor peasant named Juan Diego. Her words to him: "Am I not your mother here?" as well as her magnificent image emblazoned on his cloak, gave rise to the fierce devotion to the Mother Mary in Mexican culture . Then we travel to the Plaza de Tres Cultures, representing a fusion of pre-hispanic and Spanish roots into the Mestizo culture.

Our evening is reserved for the Ballet Folklorico, a 2 hour extravaganza featuring: colored lights, music, regional costumes, and dance from all over Mexico.

Here we will not only enjoy ourselves immensely, but also see many of the inspirations for Frida's unique style of dress.

Thursday
Morning. We stay in our 'hometown' of Coyoacan for the highlight of our Frida Pilgrimage - a visit to MUSEO FRIDA KAHLO - CASA AZUL, the 'Blue House' where she was born in 1907. You can feel her vivid presence everywhere here, from her 4-poster bed fitted with a mirror above, her wheelchair at the easel, the colorfully decorated kitchen, and the brick-a-brac in her bedroom. Most touching, is the body cast she had to wear and defiantly decorated, and a pillow on her bed embroidered with the words “No Me Olvides, Amore Mio” (Do not forget me ,my Love).

We will see her early sketches, diary entries, tiny outfits, and be greeted by giant paper mache skeletons outside, and in the upstairs studio there is an unfinished portrait of Stalin. Among the 18 paintings on display in her Living Room is: El Marxismo Dara la Salud' which shows her casting away her crutches, as well as her last completed painting:“Viva la Vida” (Here's to Life), an exuberant and sensuous painting of watermelons. In the upstairs studio there is an unfinished portrait of Stalin.

Her art collection is also on display, containing works by Velasco, Duchamp, Orozco and Paul Klee. The folk art collection includes many of the Mexican regional costumes worn by Frida as well as pre-Hispanic objects and crafts.

We will take our time absorbing the magical and fascinating atmosphere Frida created around herself. Nearby is a park, the Jardin Frida Kahlo, where a bronze statue of the artist sits regally on top of a pyramid. We'll also take a bit of time to visit a nearby Museum: MUSEO DE LEON TROTSKY. It is a forbidding fortress where Russia 's most famous revolutionary, and Frida's lover, lived and was murdered. There are bullet holes still in the walls from the 1st assassination attempt and memorabilia such as his trademark round spectacles. The garden contains a tomb with his ashes.

In the Afternoon we travel to The MUSEO DOLORES OLMEDO PATINO, the 8 acre estate of her friend and patron, Dolores Olmedo, who acquired 25 paintings and various sketches. This single largest private collection of her work is displayed in a chapel-like room of her own. One stunning painting here is Self Portrait With Small Monkey, from 1945.

Also in the collection, are many of Frida's signature works; including: The Broken Column; A Few Small Nips; Henry Ford Hospital; Without Help and many more straightforward portraits, fanciful flowers.
The collection as a whole provides an excellent overview of Kahlo's entire career.

Friday

Our van takes us to the ancient city of Teotihuacan where, The Pyramid of the Sun was built in the 2nd century AD. Teotihuacan -the place of the Gods - was the first true city in Mesoamerica , at its peak - 600 AD - it housed more than 100,000 people. It is the third largest pyramid in the world and the largest in the Teotihuacan complex. It's sides are 700 feet long, it is about 200 feet high, and is actually a succession of pyramids built one on top the other over the centuries. The pyramids and many other structures at Teotihuacan are stepped, rather than smooth sided like the Egyptian pyramids, and the stones of which they are made are not so large that there would be a mystery about how they were moved as there is with the Egyptian pyramids, the Moai statues of Easter Island , and the Nasca Lines. At its peak time - most of Teotihuacan was plastered, and the pyramids were painted bright red. The priests who served this temple had a panoramic view of a remarkable urban complex. In the morning, they could look westward, down to the long plaza in front of their pyramid and to the Street of the Dead, an avenue that seemed to stretch for miles into the far distance north and south. Its north end opened onto a large plaza in front of another huge pyramid. In the rising sunlight, this vast structure cast long shadows be low. The priests could see the small temple at its summit, but the figures of their colleagues there were dwarfed by the scale of the pyramid under them.

Saturday
San Angel

This charming suburb has quiet cobbled streets and a wonderful Art's and Craft fair on Saturdays. Diego & Frida lived here from 1934 to 1940 in an avant-guard home, designed for them by Juan O'Gorman, with separate houses and studios for each connected by a second story walkway. In the Morning we tour the home, which is now a museum- MUSEO CASA ESTUDIO DIEGO RIVERA Y FRIDA KAHLO - containing lots of memorabilia, and will see Frida's large sunny studio.

Our Afternoon is spent shopping at one of the best Bazars in Mexico City , BAZAR SABADO, featuring exceptional crafts of a higher quality than you will find any where else, including: Blown glass, original fine art Jewelry, Paper Mache Figures, & Woodwork. Indigenous groups from nearby Puebla bring their folk art - Baskets, Masks, Pottery, Textiles. On a nearby plaza, many easel artists display their Paintings.

We return to the Central Mexico City Historic District for a final Evening of strolling the colorful streets.

Dinner is at the Restaurante Danubio, a city tradition since the 30's specializing in Seafood.

CONCLUSION
Our wonderful shared experience concludes after
Breakfast on Sunday.
Our chauffeured van takes you directly to the Mexico City
International Airport by 12 Noon for your return flight home.

V a y a C o n D i o s