I took a dozen pictures of the cloister, every one a different angle with different flowers.
The most interesting feature of the convent is the circular tower where 17 of the most devout nuns would be locked in (after purification in special baths) for the forty days of Lent with a VERY limited diet. They spent their time praying the rosary.
Of course, the roof to the circular tower is gone.
Each cell had a drop toilet into a sewer of flowing water with a vent above.
Here is a restored cell. (Bathroom on the right, storage on the left. The nun is NOT real although several of us were startled by her presence.)
Some of my blog readers made sure I saw this great garden view from one of the cells.
Beneath the circular tower was the wine cellar for communion wine and bread. The church requires wheat in the host, and wheat was not grown in the area for a couple hundred years after the arrival of the Spanish, so it all had to be imported. No local grapes or wine in the early days either.
Upstairs is a museum of 18th c religious art--the period just before the city was abandoned. No photos allowed in the museum, but I couldn't resist another view of the cloister.
The church associated with the convent is in ruins. Young men were scrubbing modern graffiti from the walls of the balcony while we were there.
Around every corner there is another lovely garden like this one behind the laundry.
I'll keep my washing machine, thank you.
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