Puebla, Mexico

We really needed to get back to the real Mexico and Puebla was our perfect next destination. We spent several weeks in Bucerias, (near Puerto Vallarta), in a neighborhood filled with other gringos avoiding the rainy spring in Canada and the Northern US. It was Mexico… but we didn’t have to speak Spanish in most situations, and we often felt like we were in Canada South during hockey playoff season. So we were ready to move on and flew to Mexico City, and then took a 2 hour long bus ride to the city of Puebla, and found ourselves in a huge city with very few gringos. This is our 10th Mexican state and it reminded us why we love Mexico so much. The food here was amazing, architecture was fantastic, and the people very welcoming and there was a lot of stuff to do.

Puebla has a Metro area of 4 million people, which is the 4th biggest in Mexico, and is overlooked by the smoldering Popocatepetl (Popo) volcano. It was hot and hazy the whole week we were there and the locals blamed the haze and the air quality on the ash in the air. It also got every surface dusty and gritty within minutes. It was so hazy that I never really got a good picture of any of the 4 volcanoes that surrounded us. We happened to arrive in Puebla just in time for Cinco de Mayo, purely by coincidence. In the US, Cinco de Mayo is really just an excuse to drink and eat Mexican food. In the majority of Mexico, it really isn’t celebrated, but it is a huge thing here in Puebla. They remember a significant and victorious battle between Mexico and Napoleon’s invading French forces on May 5th 1862. We saw lots of decorations, a video and light show on a downtown building, a military parade, and a fair that were all part of the Cinco de Mayo celebration.

We have been on many other trips to Mexico with many city tours and museums, but our Mexican history has never really come together in our minds. After another city tour and some more museums in Puebla, I think it is finally making some sense. We now understand the conquest in 1519, the revolution in 1810, the war with the US in the 1840’s, the war with France in 1860’s and the final Mexican revolution in the 1910’s. We understand the main heroes in each skirmish so we are better to understand things we are seeing everywhere like paintings, murals, statues, and even street names. In Puebla we visited the old fort Loreta, the abandoned irrigation tunnels used in the Cinco de Mayo battle, and a house used by some of the conspirators behind the 1910 revolution.

Our favorite thing about Puebla is probably the food. We are heading to Oaxaca in a couple of weeks but I am not sure that food is going to beat what we had here. We were able try many new things and I don’t think we had a bad meal all week. We ate a lot of Mole, Cemitas (huge sandwiches), Chiles en Nogado (chiles filled with meat and fruit), Tacos Arabes (taco meat in a pita wrap), molotes, and a bunch of Dulces (candy). We stopped at a place (Pasitas) that made their own liqueurs and tried their specialty called a Pasita. It is a raisin liqueur that came with bit of cheese to eat while sipping it. Really weird but I actually kind of liked it and might try to replicate it this summer. We even took a cooking class to learn how make the Pepian verde mole using pumpkin seeds. Contrary to the listing when we signed up, the chef did not speak any English. It was a little difficult but trying to learn everything in Spanish made it that much more fun. Our Spanish is getting better but I feel like we are always going to need our phones out with google translate.

We did take a day trip one day to one of the Pueblos Magicos of Cholula. Mexico has a tourism incentive program to identify some of the best small towns in the country that are usually beautiful or have some interesting history or culture. There are now 177 Pueblos Magicos in Mexico and Cholula was just a city bus ride away from Puebla so we had to check it out. It is famous for the largest pyramid in the world. Yep, it is bigger than Teotihuacán, the Mayan pyramids and even the pyramids in Egypt. But, it isn’t in that great of shape anymore. The civilization had abandoned it prior to the Spanish conquest so it had been grown over a bit. The Spanish ended up using some of the blocks to build a new cathedral on top. We were able to see some of the original excavated structures and then climbed the pyramid to see the view from the church. Pretty cool, although the 85 degree heat and 7000 foot elevation didn’t make it easy. Luckily we were able to find some more good poblano food in the cute little town later with some refreshing bebidas.

We were stayed in a 2 bedroom Airbnb very close to the historic downtown of Puebla. It was near the historic old town center and had some beautiful old architecture all around it. It had a small pool in the parking garage which initially didn’t look so appealing but we ended up using it most afternoons to cool us off after our adventures. We are missing AC a bit. The Airbnb was just fine with a friendly host, but we really loved the vibe of the old neighborhood and the closeness to restaurants, a bakery, and a grocery store.

Like I said before, this week visit reinforced our love for Mexico. The food, the people, the beauty, and the history all make us want to see more. This is our 10th Mexican state and we are planning to visit 5 more states this year. There is a lot more to see. Our next stop is in our 11th state of Veracruz. Looking forward to the smaller town of Orizaba!!!! and here is some more food pix…