Puebla

My goal is make you all jealous of my weekend by the end of this post. :O)

First, Friday night Sheila and I went to an early Independence Day party at my host counselor’s house. Unfortunately, the rain ruined their plans for a poolside fiesta (and all the pretty decorations) but the food was still amazing. Amazing. Canasta (basket) tacos, potatoes, corn Mexico-style, tiny little tortillas with ground beef, two kinds of cake and traditional dulces…mmmmm. At 11 p.m., we did the Independence Day grito (yell) even though we were a week early, and then sang happy birthday to my host counselor and another birthday girl.

Saturday, we got up before dawn to take a bus to Puebla. It was an easy three hour ride since I slept during most of it. From the main bus station in Puebla, we took a local bus to nearby Cholula, home of Pyramid Tepanapa, the world’s widest pyramid, and 39 churches.

Sheila with Cholula in the background, taken from the top of the pyramid.

Lucky us, Cholula, like the community of Tlaltenango in Cuernavaca, was holding a fair to celebrate the Virgin Mary’s birthday. The streets were filled with food and artesania stands as well as carnival rides, though we passed those up. On our way through the zocolo, we stopped at two beautiful churches. The second one, the ex-convent of San Gabriel (1500s) was attached to the Capilla Real, which had dozens of domes in the ceiling.

The interior of the ex-convent of San Gabriel, Cholula.

The main row of artesania stands led us right to the pyramid, where a crowd was climbing up to the Santuario de Nuestra Senora de Los Remedios on top. There, even more people were gathered around on one side of the church, standing room only, listening to a sermon or waiting in line to see the statue of the Virgin. I accidentally went in the exit so I was able to see the inside of the church as well. I don’t think I would’ve made it through that line otherwise.

On the other side of the church, folk dancers in ceremonial garb were also celebrating the holiday, though in a more general sense of giving thanks to the earth and the basic elements.

A view of the church from the base of the pyramid with another small capilla in front.

We had to descend in order to get to the entrance of the pyramid’s archeological zone. This was much more exciting than I had expected based on the outward appearance of the pyramid. See, even though it’s the widest/biggest pyramid by volume in the world, that doesn’t mean it’s the tallest or most impressive. At first glance, as you can see from the photos, it just looks like a wide, natural hill with a picturesque church on top. But inside, you can see that there was plenty of masterminding behind this structure. First, we walked through a series of tunnels. I read that there are 8 km of tunnels, I’m not sure if there are even more that haven’t been excavated but we probably only walked through 1 or 2 km. We could see the extensive offshooting tunnels that were lit up from the main path – some of them went really far up or down, and they were steep, too.

After exiting the tunnels, we curved around to the other side of the pyramid where we saw the “Patio de los Altares.” There were at least three altars, a pit for sacrifices, a mini version of the giant Olmec heads that were primarily found in Veracruz and a small platform where children were occasionally sacrificed.

The head with an altar behind it.

I love this view. You can see the Patio ruins in front and the church in the background.

On the west side of the pyramid, we climbed up a reconstruction of the last layer of the pyramid.

The view wasn’t quite like Teotihuacan in Mexico, but we had a better vantage point to watch four men spiral down a pole upside down. It’s part of an ancient ritual but I unfortunately don’t remember what it’s called.

I get a kick out of this shot, which I snapped on our walk through Cholula. They’re selling Simpson hats, in case you can’t see the stand behind the garbage can.

After we grabbed some lunch, we took a bus about 20 minutes to the village of Tonantzintla to see the Templo de Santa Maria, which I’d read was one of the most unique churches in the country. The inside was covered with porcelain figures – faces, flowers, geometric shapes. It rivals the gold and floral interior of the Sanctuario de Guadalupe in Morelia, but I think that one still has a slight edge.

Since we were only a kilometer away from Acatepec, another small village, we stopped there to see the Templo de San Franciso (1730). It’s strange how these tiny little towns look so rundown and deserted, and then there’s a huge, gorgeous cathedral rising up out of nowhere. This one had colorful clay tiles covering the exterior, which made it more impressive outside than in.

Another bus ride and we were finally in downtown Puebla. Downtown there is a lot bigger than Cuernavaca, which we soon realized after walking for about 20 minutes. It was a nice walk, though. We passed a long row of shops and the zocolo before reaching the Meson Sacristia de la Compania hotel restaurant, which we’d picked out of tour book recommendations. Since the restaurant was supposedly acclaimed for its mole, I tried the sampler plate which had four kinds: green and red pipian, mole poblano, and a house mole. It was SO much food, even after setting aside the house mole that I didn’t like. Mmmm.

Rain dampened our plans for the night so we turned in early at Hotel Victoria. Three local Roteracts who were going to try to help us out with housing or showing us around stopped by to chat, but we didn’t go out because they were exhausted from a meeting they had attended earlier that day.

Sunday we got up early to visit the main cathedral. I figured that I should at least experience one Catholic mass while I’m in Mexico since it’s such a huge part of the culture here, so I tagged along with Sheila. It was a little bit awkward but I managed.

Next, we went to the Museo Amparo, which all my tour books had flagged as a must see. It had a huge collection of prehispanic art, plus colonial art and a special exhibit on Persia. The Persia exhibit was phenomenal, extremely well put-together. It used a combination of video, artifacts, reconstructions, maps and handheld placards to cover everything from the rise and fall of the Persian empire to the adoption of Islam and cultural highlights such as art and poetry. The only downfall was that the museum was so good that it took us about three hours to get through everything, which was tiresome.

We ate lunch around the corner at La Poblana. I tried a cemita, which is basically a sandwich with thinly sliced meat, but something about the spices or the way it’s prepared makes it a local specialty.

Just before the rain poured down too hard, we bought tickets for a trolley tour of the city. Even though the tour guides tend to speak in rapid-fire Spanish, we’d learned from Morelia that these were a good way to get a feel for the city layout and history. The tour took us past statues, oodles of churches, markets and the two forts where the Cinco de Mayo battles against the French were won.

An overlook of the city from near the entrance to the forts.

The rain had stopped by the time the tour ended, so we walked to El Parian, an artisan market a few blocks from the zocalo. We couldn’t really carry home much of the famous talavera pottery, but I bought one small piece as a recuerdo. And that was it. I grabbed some mole enchiladas to go (try eating that on a bus!) and we were off to the bus station.

Here’s the talavera pottery that Puebla is known for. (Artisan market, Cholula).

As always, more photos are up on Flickr – 87 total in the Puebla folder to be exact!