Back in Puebla for a couple more days, I continued wandering around exploring though frankly, I would just as soon have gone back to Mexico City. I had seen a lot of the city's charming architecture and the crafts but I had yet to find any of the legendary outstanding cuisine. And
the other thing about Puebla was my arctic airbnb accommodations.
It
was cold in general at that time, especially nights and mornings but
warmed up nicely during the day. But when I came home, I had to put on
my parka and fleece in my all-tile, windowless space.
One of the signature dishes in Puebla is mole Poblano, a version of mole about which there are two conflicting legends. One is that the sauce was created with divine guidance by nuns at a convent in Puebla for the visit of an Archbishop. The second and more credible version is that mole was created by the Aztecs. If you're not familiar with mole, it's a sauce characterized by it's complexity, both in terms of ingredients and preparation and by the addition of unsweetened chocolate. In any case, it's a favourite of mine and I was looking forward to trying some in Puebla. My first evening in Puebla I tried some at a little restaurant near my Airbnb. I was the only patron which should have been warning enough. They were somewhat flummoxed by the presence of a foreigner to start with and the enmoladas (enchiladas with mole) were tepid and under cooked. I also tried another version of the sauce at a very upscale restaurant and was was equally underwhelmed. I did have a good cemita at the public market, a sandwich on a bun packed full of vegetables and meats and cheeses.
One of the notable sights in Puebla is the Amparo Museum. It houses some archeological exhibits as well as temporary shows.
I saw some outstanding photography exhibits there from a variety of photographers from many different countries like these two from a Nigerian photographer.
My friend, Alfonso, also recommended that I visit theBiblioteca Palafoxiana founded in 1646, the first public library in Mexico and sometimes considered to be the first in the Americas. The library itself was beautiful but the other exhibits not of interest.
There was, however, a very good band playing Cuban type music in the central courtyard.
I spent the better part of a day at big big Zona Historica de los Fuentes (Historic Zone of Fountains), a massive park-like area occupying a hill. You can drive up there or take the Teleférico Puebla, as I did. It's a very short tram ride to a site where there is a planetarium, museum, a huge conference centre and walking paths and bike trails, a big soccer stadium.
Quite the place, big views all around over the city and surroundings and the volcanoes if the air was clear enough to see them, which it wasn't. Hardly a soul around; not one bike on the many paved bike paths and not another walker. In fact, there is bike infrastructure in Puebla but more about that in the next post.
When visiting Puebla, an excursion to Cholula is obligatory. Originally a distinct city, Cholula is has now been swallowed up by the urban sprawl of Puebla but it retains its distinct character and is a huge draw for tourists.
One of the chief attractions there is the Great Pyramid of Cholula with a base of over four times the size of the great pyramid of Giza.
It is the largest archaeological site of a pyramid (temple) in the New World, as well as the largest pyramid known to exist in the world today. The pyramid is part of the archeological zone of Cholula, which is estimated at 154 hectares.
The site is accessed through a long tunnel constructed for archeological exploration originally.
The temple-pyramid complex was built in four stages, starting from the 3rd century BC through the 9th century AD, and was dedicated to the deity Quetalcoatl. At the top is the Nuestra Señora de los Remedios sanctuary built in 1594 by the Spanish.
This church has been damaged by earthquakes three times and repaired twice so far, the most recent being the earthquake last September. The church hasn't been repaired yet and is closed to visitors. Maybe there's a message there? The other notable feature of Cholula is the number of churches.
It is said that the city of Cholula has 365 churches, either one for
each day of the year or one for each pre-Hispanic temple that used to be
there.In reality, there are only thirty seven churches; 159, if all the small chapels including those on local haciendas and ranches are counted.
The San Gabriel church and monastery was established in 1529 by the Franciscans, on top of the destroyed temple to Quetzalcoatl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbZPYTcgMeU
Moorish influenced architecture
In any case, there are are a lot of churches even by Mexican standards. So, while visiting Puebla, I set one day aside to visit Cholula.
On this year's visit to Mexico City I got a bee in my bonnet to take an excursion to the city of Puebla a couple of hours south of Mexico City by bus.
Puebla is the fourth largest city in Mexico, capital of the state of Puebla and is known for it's rich colonial history and cuisine. I'd been to Puebla briefly on one of my first trips to Mexico and wanted to have a more in-depth look. Puebla was founded in the early 16th century and became an important trade route for the Spanish between Veracruz on the east coast and Mexico City. Another notable piece of Puebla history is the May 5, 1862 victory over the French forces then occupying Mexico. Now "Cinco de Mayo" is celebrated pretty much everywhere in the west though, in terms of Mexican revolutionary history, it was pretty insignificant and the French did come back and defeat the Mexican forces and remained until they were ultimately driven from Mexico.
Puebla is noted for it's colonial architecture and the extensive use of Talavera tile on buildings.
From Puebla you can also see (when the air is clear enough) most of Mexico's highest mountains, the volcanoes
La Malinche, 4461m,
Popocatépetl, 5426m,
Iztaccíhuatl, 5286m and Pico de Orizaba, Mexico's highest mountain and 3rd highest in the North America at 5636m. Unfortunately the air quality was poor on my visit and only La Malinche and Popocatépetl were dimly visible.
Also at the Miguel Lerdo de Tejada Library was an exhibit of the works of Luis Filcher, a Ukrainian artist. I quite like his pen and ink drawings and what looks to me like charcoal sketches, watercolours?
Leaving the library, I continued further into the centro
Alfonso recommended that I visit the Ideal Bakery.
There's that piper and drummer again between cakes
The Ideal is an extremely busy bakery occupying two floors on a busy pedestrian mall. Have you ever seen more elaborate wedding cakes? I saw the kind of buns I like there and have had hard time finding in Mexico City but it would have taken me probably half an hour in line to buy one.
