610 - 28th - The two mountains

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 28th Apr'10

607 - 25th - The Iglesia of Cholula

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 25th Apr'10

604 - 22nd - High above the mountains

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 22nd Apr'10

598 - 16th - Popo, Ixta and Cholula

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 16th Apr'10

461 - 31st - La Malinche

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 31st Mar'09

This one is from one of my treks to the Volcanic mountain in Tlaxcala - La Malinche. This place is actually the base of the main peak which you reach almost after three hours of climbing. The peak which you see at the top of the image is still three hours away from this point. This place onwards, the surface becomes more difficult to manage as it contains loose soil and small stones. When I first saw an image of this place, I thought it would be a child's play to reach the top; but believe me it is an exhausting thing to do.

It took me five hours to climb and another three to come back to the base of the mountain. But the effort was really worth putting in.

Click here to see the full sized image

429 - 17th - The sun, the volcano and the kite

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 17th Feb'09

This one is again from the evening at Cholula. As I have mentioned before, kites are the "in" thing right now in Puebla. I was sitting on the slopes of the pyramid staring at the setting sun and the volcano in the foreground, when suddenly this kite entered into the frame. The "pilot" of the kite was slowly winding up his string and bringing it down.

I had only a few shots at my disposal to catch the kite right in the middle of the sun and the mountain. Given the low light, I didnt have enough time to set the camera and get the sun a little less blurred, but the photo as a whole turned out to be good.

Click here to see the full sized image

416 - 4th - Popo behind the trees

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 4th Feb'09

I have clicked many photos of the magnificent Popocatepetl and have posted some on my blog too. But this time the shot is a bit different. Instead of the mountain occupying most of the frame or unlike some of the photos which I took from my hotel with an empty foreground, this one was taken from much closer to the volcano.

I clicked this one in Atlixco, which is an hour's drive from Puebla and much closer to the volcano. It was a clear day and the beauty of Popo was at it's best.

Click here to see the full sized image

380 - 30th - Popo from the heavens

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 30th Dec'08

Our flight had just taken off from the airport of Mexico City when I observed that we were already flying over Puebla. I was hoping that maybe the plan would fly past the volcano of Popcatepetl. Just in a couple of minutes I saw what I was waiting for. I could see the volcano at a distance surrounded with white and blue clouds with other smaller mountains in the vicinity. The whole scene was heavenly and unforgettably beautiful.

I waited till the plane started diverging from it's path towards the volcano and then took some shots. I was cursing why these damn airplane windows can't be opened.

Click here to see the full sized image

347 - 27th - Among the clouds

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 27th Nov'08

We were climbing down towards the base of the volcano at Toluca while the sun was setting down at the horizon. The distant mountains were slowly getting lost in a blanket of clouds and the colors at the horizon had started turning into a different shades of purple. The air was getting chilly we were the only people left behind in the curvy maze of roads on the mountain.

After two minutes of constant pestering, my friend finally allowed me to get out of the car and take some shots of the almost dark horizon.

Click here to see the full sized image

345 - 25th - Orange hamlets

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 25th Nov'08

The base camp at the mountains of Toluca was built at a height of some four thousand meters and is a house to some local cops who take care of the people who come to visit the volcanic lakes situated on top. People who come here park their cars at the base and then start climbing up. The only shop in the 10 km radius where you can find something to eat is available at this place.

The small orange buildings look beautiful with the green forest and the blue city of Toluca in the background.

Click here to see the full sized image

315 - 26th - Nevado de Toluca

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 26th Oct'08

Nevado de Toluca is a large volcano in central Mexico, located about 80 kilometres west of Mexico City near the city of Toluca. It is generally cited as the fourth highest of Mexico's peaks. There are two crater lakes on the floor of the basin at about 4,200 m, the larger Lago del Sol (Sun Lake) and the smaller, but deeper, Lago de la Luna (Moon Lake). A road runs into the caldera to the lakes, making this perhaps the most accessible major Mexican peak.

The one you can see in the photo is the small lake - Lage de la Luna. I trekked all the way up to the volcano and then down to the crater in around 4+ hours. The place was cold, silent and perhaps one of the most beautiful natural settings I have ever seen.

Click here to see the full sized image

302 - 13th - In the shade of the mountains

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 13th Oct'08

At the first look, this photo will give you an image of a huge mountain with some sundry small things filling up the rest of the frame. The sheer size of the Grey mountain on the right of the frame seems to overshadow the significance of almost everything else in the picture. But if you enlarge the picture by clicking on it and see the full view, you will observe that there are three main things which catch your attention. What are they, I leave it for you to decide.

I took this picture while trekking up the mountain of Nevado de Toluca.

Click here to see the full sized image

23 - 8th - The orange sky

Originally clicked & uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 8th Jan'08

Yet again, I feel i was lucky enough to reach my hotel room just in time to take this shot. After 10 minutes, everything was dark. :)

The sinking sun was throwing its orange rays laterally on the clouds to paint the whole sky with a magical touch of mixed colors. It was literally looking like a painter's canvass.

Click here to see the full sized image

2 - 18th - Popocatepetl

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 18th Dec'07

I took this foto today evening, just when the sun was going to set behind the magnificent volcano in Puebla - Popocatepetl. The view was so much eye catching, that in the first glance itself I knew this is going to be the image of the day.

The volcano stands in all its majesty overlooking the scarcely populated city of Puebla. Its magnanimity creates varying thoughts in my mind - often of completely opposite nature. Sometimes it makes me feel so diminished and non-existent in front of itself & sometimes it inspires me to be like it ... stand so tall that everyone just wonders - WTF.

Click here to see the full sized image