With all the bad press and the bad things happening in Falcon Lake recently, I decided to re-publish some of my images from Guerrero Viejo. These were taken back in May of 2009. As most of you know or heard in the news, an american tourist was recently killed there while visiting the Guerrero Viejo ruins by jet ski. It’s a shame that such an interesting place has been taken over by the Mexican drug cartels. I wouldn’t dare to visit the Guerrero Viejo ruins at this time, but back in 2009 it was fairly safe. I ventured out there with two other photographers from our photo club TexNEP. (click on images for a larger view)



Street scene in Viejo Guerrero. Old storefronts along the road leading to the main plaza.

Guerrero was a very important town along the Texas-Mexico border during its peak time in the late 1800’s and first 4 decades of the 1900’s. In the 1950’s when Falcon Lake was built to provide a steady supply of water to both countries, engineers knew that two towns along the border would be flooded by the rising waters of the lake. The towns of Guerrero in Mexico, and the town of Zapata in Texas, would need to be moved. Guerrero was evacuated and it’s residents were moved to higher ground where the new town of Nuevo Guerrero now stands. Zapata, on the Texas side, was also moved to a new location.

In the 1990’s due to severe years of drought, Guerrero Viejo began to emerge from the lake. Most of the buildings had fallen down but some structures had withstood the lake and time. The church outer facade has remained practically intact and efforts on the Mexican side to restore the old church have practically brought the outside of the church back to life. It hadn’t been until this year, with the recent hurricanes and tropical systems that the lake has re-taken the town. In 2009 when I visited, 75% of the town was not flooded so you could visit the ruins without a boat.

The Church of Nuestra Señora del Refugio



Nuestra Señora del Refugio w/ debris pile in front.

The Church of Nuestra Señora del Refugio is by far the most preserved building in the old ghost town. The exterior walls still stand and have also been partially restored recently. You can still see how high the water level got since the pillars at the front of the church have been permanently marked by the lake waters.





Front facade of the church. Sun peaking over the cross.



West side of church building. Water line mark is 9 feet tall.

The church interior has received major renovations in the last 10 years. A new roof has been erected and the interior has been cleaned up after decades where water and silt tore away at its walls. It is a shame that all this renovation work might go to waste since the lake has recently re-taken the structure.



The renovated roof and interior.

The Central Plaza

The central plaza is still in place, complete with its kiosk and cement benches. I was amazed to see that some of the benches are still intact despite the fact that they had been underwater for 50+ years.



Central Plaza bench’s detail.



Some of the damage of being underwater for 50+ years.



Central plaza Kiosk and benches w/ church and lake in background.

The Market and surrounding storefronts.

Where I imagine was a very busy center for trading goods that came up and down the river, now stands just a few exterior walls that made up the market. Only one building of the main market remains standing.



The old marketplace ruins.



A tree grows where the old marketplace used to stand.

You can still tell where the streets stood that surrounded the main market place. Ruins of the buildings that held storefronts still stand.



Ruins of old storefronts overlooking the market.

Some of the ruins still have the old brick stoves and ovens that were used by the local residents. The image below shows us an old stove in a building surrounding the marketplace. I imagine this could have been a restaurant or kitchen that sold food/meals to the residents and merchants visiting the marketplace.



Brick stove inside a building by the marketplace.

Residences

The Main residential corridor was never submerged totally underwater. A good section of the old houses are still here. Some in bad shape since they were abandoned over 50 years ago, but some still show off the workmanship of the builders back then.



Residences along one of the roads.



Interior of doorway looking at street.



Looking into the backyard of one of the residences.



Residential Doorway



Door lock/keyhole.



Ruins along the road.

Tech Stuff

All of the above images were processed in HDR (High Dynamic Range). I processed these using Adobe PS4 and created the HDR images using Photomatix Pro 3. I decided to process these in HDR since most of these images were photographed in harsh light. For security reasons I did not want to be driving out of Guerrero at night so we photographed in the middle of the day when the light conditions were not the best. By processing in HDR I was able to partially fix the harsh light conditions of that day. For most of these images I used the Sony Alpha a900 camera and the Sony Carl Zeiss 16-35mm 2.8 lens. I also used the Sony 15mm fisheye, trying to get something a little different and fun.

Thanks for stopping by and until next time, may you find the beautiful light in all of your photographing travels.

Ciao.

All images © 2010 Hector D. Astorga. All rights reserved.