Shortly after going to Teotihuacan, I took a weekend trip to Puebla with my friend Katie. Honestly, I wish Puebla was the image that the United States had of Mexico because it is such a charming town with so much culture, art, delicious food and beautiful people. Unfortunately, that isn't the case, but back to my original point: the trip!
Katie and I arrived in Puebla, which is the city with the most Spanish colonial architecture in Mexico. At first, as we were walking towards the center, it looked like any other town in Mexico, but then we ran straight into the zocalo (the main plaza), which is filled with trees and beautiful flowers. To one side of the zocalo are local restaurants, artesans, and street musicians. On the other side, looms the incredibly Spanish cathedral that is just as imposing as it is beautiful.
Even though the majority of my friends said that the cathedral is gorgeous, after seeing the ones in Spain, I didn't expect it to be as large or intricately decorated as European cathedrals, but you could plop this cathedral in the middle of Spain and never realize it was built in Mexico. Incredibly gorgeous, incredibly impressive.
There are other smaller churches in the area that also have chapels that are even more impressive than the cathedral, in my opinion. One, called the Capilla del Rosario in the Church of Santo Domingo, is absolutely COVERED with gold. My jaw literally dropped when I walked into the chapel, I couldn't believe the beauty and detail of this chapel.
After wandering around the downtown area for a few hours and visiting the historic battlefield where the Mexicans defeated the French on 5 de Mayo, we decided to hop on a double decker bus and take a night time tour of Puebla. The music that accompanied the tour was cheesey and the tour itself could have been better overall, but we met some wonderful people. One man, named Ruben, took us out for coffee afterwards. Only later did we realize how important this man is -- he's the manager, the big honcho, of the Bank of Lima (the capital and the state). He's like the governor of Lima (the region, not the city). Nevertheless, big. honcho. We exchanged emails and are still in contact...who knows, it might be a good connection to have down the road!
The next day, Katie and I had a little adventure. In Puebla, there is a big zoo called Africam Safari and in this zoo, they have an actual safari that you can drive through in your car, taxi, or tour bus and see all sorts of animals native to Africa and the Americas: Lions, tigers, bears (oh my), flamencos, rhinos, hippos, jaguars, etc. Now, in theory, this should have been an awesome trip and, despite the setbacks, it was. In the first place, we should have gone earlier, but we decided to go with a tour and to my surprise, the big Estrella Roja bus went through the Africam Safari, dirt roads in all. Also to my surprise: there was traffic! And I'm not just talkin' a few cars ahead and behind you, I'm talking bumper to bumper, two lanes of Grand Rapids at 5pm rush hour traffic. With the bus lacking air conditioning and the temps reaching into the 80s, that part wasn't too much fun. At the very least, we knew when something interesting was coming up because all the cars would stop to take pictures and stare.
After our three hour (yes, three hours) tour of the Africam Safari, we finally headed back to Puebla to take showers after the sweaty, sweaty bus ride and headed out for another evening of aimless wandering among the various artesan shops and kioks in the city.
Oh, Katie just reminded me. She got stung by a bee on the bus in Africam Safari. It was a real African experience.
Anyway, the next day, we traveled to a near by pueblo called Cholula to check out the widest pyramid in the world, which also happens to be crowned by a church built in the 16th century. If you ever make it to Puebla, it is worth the half hour bus ride (it would be shorter, but there are stops) to Cholula. The church itself is incredible, looking over the city from it's perch on the pyramid (which is actually 2 pyramids built on top of one another). The coolest part of the visit, however, was to visit the pyramid instead of the church because you can go underneath, into these tunnels excavated by archeologists. The pyramid itself doesn't look like much on the outside because of all the overgrowth, which cannot be removed or the church will collapse. The tunnels, then, are actually on the outside steps of the pyramids underneath the hill that formed after the pyramids were abandoned.
The most incredible part of the pyramid, aside from walking through the tunnels, are the patios outside and behind the church. The main patio, used for religious ceremonies, has incredible acustics and if you clap, the reverberations sound like a duck quacking. I wish I would have taken a video, but instead you'll just have to take my word. It was awesome.
Phew. I think that's about enough from me. I won't be updating for another two weeks or so because I'm heading off on a two week vacation
2 comments:
Hi! I enjoyed your blog and pics - I've been looking for information about Puebla, and this is one of the most helpful things I've found so far. Would you happen to know of any good places to study spanish in Puebla? Thanks so much!
Nice post and pics. The Great Pyramid of Cholula is a largest monument in the world and it listed in Guinness World Records. Pyramid of Cholula was constructed by one of the seven giants known as Xelhua. Cholula is a highly significant centre of the Mexican. YOu can see very attractive taludtablero patterns coloured in shades of red, yellow and black with insect- shaped creations that are typical of Teotihuacan technique. The Temple of Quetzalcoatl was used as a ritualistic area. For more details refer Pyramid of Cholula
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