Mexico 2018: Puebla

2018 Mexico

Thursday, July 5:

Drive from Oaxaca to Puebla

             We packed up everything and barely fit into Terry and Jennifer's car (we had to put their bags on the roof) for the four hour drive north to Puebla.  We took the toll roads, which are quick and smooth.  Around 2pm we arrived at Alfred and Carmen's house.  Terry and Jennifer have known Alfred and Carmen for over 45 years! 

            We unpacked and then drove down to the center of Puebla.  Alfred took us on a tour of the hotel he was remodeling.  When he first bought the property it was just a huge house that belonged to an Arab family.  It looks like a mosque.  They have completely renovated it into a hotel and he is in the process of selling it to someone else that will finish it.  It is a very beautiful building.  

Alfred and Carmen's Hotel

What the hotel looked like before the remodel

        We then went over the Parian, which has lots of little stalls selling all sorts of items.  Puebla is famous for its Talavera pottery.  Every little shop was full of all sorts of pottery items.  We stopped to watch a lady that was painting pictures on plates.  We stood around and watched her and ended up buying the plate she was painting.  For dinner, we went to a restaurant that sold Arabic-style tacos.

Parian market

Watching lady paint with her fingers

The finished product that we ended up buying

Building in Puebla with Talavera tiles on the facade

Friday, July 6: 

            This morning we drove over to the small town of Atlixco, which is considered a "pueblo magico" (magic/ special) town.  We walked around the small town and looked at some shops.  Many of the buildings in Atlixco were damaged in the September earthquake, so they were still repairing many buildings. 

Repairing earthquake damage

            We then drove up to a man-made lake and went fishing.  Most of the kids caught a fish and we had them cleaned right there.  We hopped back in the cars and drove up the hillside to a restaurant that was right along a creek.  The cooks fried up our fish for us, along with some other tasty food.  There was a rope swing right next to our table, so of course the kids had to go swing over the creek.  Siena ended up getting wet first. 

Fishing spot (volcano is in the background)

Carmen and her catch

Feeding Grandpa

Restaurant where we ate our fish

Dinner

After we ate, we walked up the hill a bit to a fish hatchery. The kids really enjoyed watching the fish go crazy when the workers threw the food at them.  The restaurant and hatchery were both up on a hillside close to the volcano Popocatepetl.  The volcano, which is over 17,000 feet high, is still active and every once and awhile we would see steam coming from the crater at the top.  When we arrived back at the house, we had churros and mexican hot chocolate for dessert.

Fish Hatchery

Saturday, July 7:

            After breakfast we headed up to the ruins at Cacaxtla.  These ruins are unique in that several of its original murals were preserved.  The ruins themselves were built and rebuilt many times over the years, usually right on top of the last building.  Many of the murals and paintings were purposely covered and spared in the rebuilding process, thus they were protected for over a 1,000 years.  It was amazing how bright some of the paint still was after all of these years.  We ate lunch at a little stall right outside the site.  They made us some great tacos with blue corn tortillas, meat, cheese, onions and cactus. 

Improvised bike rack

Ruins at Cacaxtla

Preserved murals

Great blue corn tacos with cactus

Church of Santo Domingo

            After lunch we drove down to the center of Puebla. Since school just got out, there were a lot of people downtown.  It took us awhile just to find a place to park.  First we went to the church of Santo Domingo, which is famous for its Rosary Chapel.  The Rosary Chapel is ornately decorated and is considered one of the finest examples of baroque design in the world.  We then walked about the downtown area and went over to the zocalo (plaza).  The colonial area of downtown Puebla is very scenic with lots of beautiful buildings and churches.  On the drive home it started to downpour and most of the streets started to flood.  Luckily, we were already in the car and not still walking downtown.

Rosary Chapel

Outside of the church of Santo Domingo

Alejandro, Esther, Carmen, and Cindy

Puebla Cathedral

Sunday, July 8:

Model of downtown Puebla inside Baroque Museum

            We attended church this morning.  Even though it was all in Spanish, most of it was just like our church services at home.  The kids enjoyed trying to sing the hymns in Spanish.  After church, we went over to the International Baroque Museum.  The whole museum is devoted to the Baroque building style and explains the worldwide cultural developments that took place at the same time.  It contained many beautifully built artifacts from this time period.  We then went back to Alfred and Carmen's home and had lunch.   Alejandro, their son-in-law, barbequed up some great tacos for us.  We ended up resting and taking it easy the rest of the day.

International Baroque Museum

Monday, July 9:

             Today was our last day with Becky's parents.  We went out to breakfast with them and had great tamales.  We then said goodbye to them as they left for their 8 hour drive back to their apartment in Juchitan. 

Grandma and the boys

Alfred, Grandpa and Grandma, Carmen

Tunnels inside the pyramid

            Carmen, Alejandro and Cindy then drove us over to Cholula.  Cholula is famous for the huge pyramid ruins that look more like a hill.  Most of the site has not been fully researched.  Most archeologists think it was possibly the largest pyramid in the Americas.  We looked inside several tunnels that early archeologists dug into the pyramid to research the structure.  The pyramid was actually several buildings continually built on top of each other seven times.  Now most of it looks like a large hill covered in vegetation.  At the top there is a beautiful yellow catholic church.  After looking around some of the ruins, we decided to climb up to the top and see the church.  From the top you can see all of the Puebla area, including all of the surrounding mountains and volcanoes.  Carmen told me that in the town there are 360 churches. 

Pyramid at Cholula with church on top

Some of the churches in Cholula

Church at the top of the pyramid

City of Puebla

Authentic Mexican food

            We then went and looked at some shops and made our way over to the zocalo, where we let the kids play for a bit on a huge playground.  By then we were all hungy and went to Dominos pizza for lunch.  In the evening we all went back to downtown Puebla and went to the Estrella de Puebla (the star of Puebla), which is a huge ferris wheel, similar to the one in London.  Even though it had just rained and was getting dark, we still had some good views.  When we got back to Alfred and Carmen's house everyone was there to welcome home Carmen's mom, Carmen Sr.  She had been gone for two months visiting family. 

Star of Puebla Ferris Wheel

Tuesday, July 10:

            Carmen and Alejandro drove us to the airport this morning.  The volcano Popo and some of the surrounding mountains were covered in snow from the rain the night before.  It was very clear outside, so we could clearly see the volcano with steam coming from the top.  We caught a quick flight from Puebla to Monterrey, then hurried to our next flight to Merida. 

Popo with fresh snow