There is a rare booklet written in 1868 by the Italian painter Eugenio Landesio: Excursion to the Cacahuamilpa cavern and ascent to the Popocatépetl crater. He died in Paris in 1879.
Trained in Rome, Landesio had as students young people who would come to equal him and some to surpass him. Of course, José María Velasco.
To visit the caves of Cacahuamilpa, Landesio and his companions took the diligence that gave the service from the capital to Cuernavaca and from there they continued on horseback: “We left through the San Antonio abad gatehouse and taking the road to Tlalpan, we passed in front of the small town of Nativitas and the Hacienda de los Portales; After the river of Churubusco, which we found completely dry, we crossed the towns of this name. Then we leave the straight path, and charging to the left, we pass in front of the estates of San Antonio and Coapa. Then, over a very low bridge, we passed the Tlalpan stream, and soon we arrived at Tepepan, where we changed our horses and had breakfast ”.
In the caves of Cacahuamilpa, the guides were “climbed here and there, on the rough edges of those walls like spiders, breaking and stocking up on concretions, to sell them to us when we left ... The little that I have traveled is very interesting, being in he stalactites that hanging from the vaults form beautiful spiders of varied and capricious form; others, upholstering the walls with extravagant drawings, give ideas of trunks and roots, which sometimes join together to form a common body with the stalagmites. In some section, huge stalagmites rise up imitating towers, and pyramids and cones, all of white marble; in other embroidery that upholster the floor; imitating in others the trunks of trees and herbaceous plants; in others, they present us with candlestick models "
“Then you arrive at the Hall of the Dead, whose name was given because the corpse of a completely naked man was found there, with that of his dog near him; and they assure that having already consumed all his axes, he still burned his clothes to get more light and get out of the cave; but it was not enough. What would your cravings be? He was a victim of darkness.
As in the temple of Luxor in Upper Egypt, in this natural wonder visitors' signatures appeared, some famous: “The black of the walls is superficial, it is a smudge, which they used to write, scratching with the tip of the razor, many names, among which I found those of my friends Vilar and Clavé. I also found that of the Empress Carlota and others. "
Back in Mexico City, Landesio and his traveling companions again took the stagecoach from Cuernavaca to the capital, but were robbed shortly before Topilejo, losing their watches and money.
For the excursion to Popocatepetl, Landesio went by stagecoach from Mexico to Amecameca, leaving at dawn by the route of San Antonio Abad and Iztapalapa; other members of the group embarked the night before in San Lázaro for Chalco, where they were to arrive in the morning. All gathered in Amecameca, from there they ascended on horseback to Tlamacas.
At different times the sulfur of the Popocatepetl crater has been used for the production of gunpowder and other industrial uses. When Landesio was there, the concessionaires of that exploitation that we could call mining were the Corchados brothers. The “sulfurists” –normally indigenous people– got into the crater and took out the valuable chemical with a winch up to their mouths, then they lowered it in sacks to Tlamacas, where they gave it some minor process. There, “one of these huts is used to melt sulfur and reduce it to large square loaves for commerce. The other two for stables and living ”.
Landesio also had to observe another unique economic activity: he found some "snowfields" coming down from Iztaccíhuatl with blocks of ice wrapped in grass and sacks, loaded by mules, which allowed us to enjoy snow and cold drinks in Mexico City. Something similar was done in the Pico de Orizaba to supply the main cities of Veracruz. “The Ventorrillo sands are contained by cords or steps of porphyritic rock, which seem to descend vertically from the side of the ravine, at the bottom of which they say there are a number of animal bones, and especially mules, which, according to what I have been told, pass daily there, driven through the snowfields, which are often pushed out of the cliff by the gusts ”.
In the rise of the mountaineers, not everything was sport. “I had forgotten to say: as almost everyone who has climbed the volcano tells and assures that the strongest liquors can be drunk there the same as water, so we were all supplied with a bottle of brandy. A very jovial Mr. de Ameca had brought with him oranges, brandy, sugar, and some cups; he made a kind of liquor that is drunk hot and called tecuí, very strong and tonic, which in that place tasted glorious to us ”.
The most suitable equipment was not always available, such as spikes: “We went to the volcano; But before we wrapped the shoes with rough rope, so that it could grip and not slip in the snow ”.
Landesio sketched the crater of Popocatepetl, which he would later paint in oil; This he wrote of the sight: “Very seized and almost lying on the ground I observed the bottom of that abyss; There was in it a kind of circular cauldron or pond, which, due to the size and uniform arrangement of the rocks that formed its edge, seemed artificial to me; in this, both because of the color of the substance and because of the smoke that came out of it, there was boiling sulfur. From this caldera a very dense column of white smoke rose and with great force, which reached about a third of the height of the crater, spread and dissipated. It had tall and capricious rocks on either side that showed to have suffered the violent action of fire, like that of ice: and really, the plutonic and algent effects were read in them; on one side the vitrification and the smoke coming out of its cracks and, on the other, perpetual ice; like the one on my right, which, at the same time that it was smoking on one side, was hanging on the other, a large and beautiful iceberg: between it and the rock there was a space that seemed like a room, a room, but of goblins or of demons. Those rocks had in their extravagant form something of toys, but diabolical toys, thrown from hell.
“But I have not said in my account of having witnessed a storm under my feet. What a pity! In truth, it must be very beautiful, very imposing to look down on the enraged elements; to travel fast, broken, the most terrible of the meteors, the ray; and while the latter, the rain, the hail and the wind attack the subject locality with all their force and violence; while there is all noise, terror and fright, to be an immune spectator and enjoy the most beautiful day! I never had such happiness nor do I expect to have it ”.
