More pics

The first garden one comes to at the Hacienda de Cortes. We got there just as the sun was beginning to set, so the lighting gets a bit worse as the pictures go on. I tried to fiddle with my camera settings, and even with the brightness/contrast after I loaded the pics onto the computer, but not much could be done. Hopefully the pictures give a sense of the ancient (i.e., 1530s colonial hacienda) and the new (2000s spa resort)

Entrance to one of the meeting areas. Plants are growing up and around and through all these buildings.

Case in point: This tree.

And this vegetation growing all around the interior walls of the restaurant.

And this!

This was in a slightly different part of the estate where it seemed the oldest construction was still preserved. Our guide (some guy at the hotel who saw two gringas wondering aimlessly) told us that these were the rooms for Cortes's family. You can kind of see that there were two stories. A pic below shows remnants of the old stairway.

The old stairway, but note toward the back a newer stairway, and modern lights. That is the entrance to the modern part of the hotel, which is built right up against the older buildings, using plexiglass to wall off the old and new so that one can still see the old from inside the new. It looked to be very tastefully done (but we didn't go inside -- guests only).

A newer courtyard but preserving the old columns. Through the arches is a very modern-day pool.