La Paz: Season Two

Puebla

I like the familiarity that staying in a place three or more days can bring. We see some sights, do some activities, revisit a bar or restaurant that we liked and get acquainted with the neighborhoods. We find a rhythm. And then it’s time to move on, which always brings a bit of anxiety for me. 

After five weeks in La Paz, it was strange to pack our bags and head out, and after three and a half days in Puebla, it was hard to say good-bye to Marco (see my Good People blog for an introduction to Marco) and the city.

We flew from La Paz to Mexico City, and with Marco’s excellent directions we managed to find our way to the correct bus, so we arrived in Puebla about three hours after departing our plane.

We got a taxi, and while Google maps said it was about 24 miles, the traffic made it feel twice that. The ride took us through manufacturing areas and impoverished neighborhoods, and we wondered what the centro would look like. 

The taxi pulled up to a yellow-painted flat-fronted building in a busy neighborhood, clearly near central plaza, with numerous hotels, restaurants, bars and tiendas. The entry way expanded into a large central room with plants draped over iron railings and ornamentation that reminded me of New Orleans. The space extended even farther back as we made our way to our room.

We learned that this is typical of many of the buildings in central Puebla. When the city was founded in the early 1500’s by the Spanish, it was promoted as a Spanish-only city and many wealthy Spanish came to settle there. And they all tried to out-do each other. As a result, the streets are lined with these large buildings, once family homes, with beautiful interiors that have been restored and transformed for various uses. 

Immediately after landing at our hotel, we needed to find some food, so we ended up at the Casa del Mendrugo. Again, it has the unassuming façade that opens up to this beautiful room with lower and upper porticos and sweeping staircases. 

It was all about white table cloths, and we were early and not dressed for white table cloth. I was reluctant, but we sat and had a delicious meal of salad, mole Poblano, wine and coffee. 

Turns out the place was once a Jesuit church, and there is a great deal of history around the place and previous owners—so much so that there is a museum upstairs. After our meal we headed up to take a look.

On the way down, at the bottom of one of the steps is a deep hole covered with plexiglass, and within it a skeleton (not the actual) with a number of artifacts that they found exactly there when they did the remodel.

Not too many nice restaurants have a skeleton on display. And that makes me think about Mexico’s relationship with death. I don’t profess to know much about it all, but we had a conversation with Marco about Day of the Dead and the traditions they practice. I’d had a similar one with Alicia and Valeria. 

I told Marco that most of what I know is because I watched “Coco.” He said, “Oh, I love ‘Coco.’ All of Mexico loves ‘Coco.’” Why? Because the filmmakers did a great deal of research in Mexico about the traditions of Day of the Dead, and as far as Marco was concerned, they had done it right. 

Anyway, all this to say that, given the little I know, I think that Mexico and Mexican-Americans have a much healthier relationship with death then our own white culture in the United States, which would prefer to avoid it.

We met up with Marco our second day, and he gave us a succinct tour of the city. He does not work in the tourism industry, but he is an educator, and for about 10 years worked in a governmental position that arranged exchanges with educational institutions in various parts of the world. Thus, he has toured folks around his city many times, and he told us that if people leave without liking Puebla then he hasn’t done his job.

Let it be said he did his job with us, and we would tell anyone traveling in Mexico to visit Puebla.

I won’t revisit everything we did, but we started at the huge, tree-lined zócalo—not plaza—in the historic center, which, Marco noted, is different from a plaza because it is raised, and one must walk up steps to enter. 

Built in the 1530’s, it’s awesome to consider that people have been using it for some 500 years. Kind of makes the Ashland plaza seem really young. It’s the kind of place that begs to be used—for coffee, conversation, dance, protests, wedding photos, tourist’s photos and innumerable other things.

We headed over to a large diorama near the zócalo that showed the layout of Puebla’s streets. Unlike Guanajuato, which has no rational layout to its streets, Puebla’s center is laid out like a chess board, with eight square blocks. So it is, in theory, much easier to navigate the streets.  Much to Ed’s dismay, however, I did have us walking in circles one day.

We had a full day walking the centro with Marco, and the next day Ed and I resumed our tour. There are a multitude of museums, churches and markets and other sights that I could mention, but I will just mention some of the places that intrigued us. 

·     Topping the list of must-see’s is the Biblioteca Palafoxiana (Palafoxian Library), the first library in all of the Americas, founded by Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza in 1646. It houses some 45,000 volumes, ranging from the 15^thto the 20^thcentury.

The library dusts the every book page by page, and it takes about year to get through the entire library.

·     Another first is the theater, built in 1752. Apparently, it’s the first established, stucco-and-brick-kind-of theatre in the Americas.

·     Capilla Del Rosario (Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel), a breathtaking chapel built between 1650 and 1690 in the Spanish Baroque style. The chapel is alive with light because of the abundance of gold leaf throughout the space.

The church was built to honor the Virgin Mary and teach the indigenous  how to say the rosary.

 ·     Amparo Museum to learn about the Mesoamerican cultures.

Of course, we had to eat. Touring promotes appetite. Puebla and Oaxaca are the two cities known especially for their cuisine. We had some delicious moles and sauces, plus some good traditional sweets. I wanted to put some of these cookies in our luggage for all to sample, but sorry, we decided we had no room.

Marco said that the main difference between the Oaxacan cuisine and the Poblano (Poblano is from Puebla) is that Oaxaca uses ingredients favored by the indigenous cultures, whereas Puebla is more of a fusion of indigenous and Spanish. 

And then there’s mezcal, the drink of the area. I’m happy to report that Marco, Ed and I toasted with mezcal on my birthday. We went to the Profética bookstore. Seriously, a bookstore, bar and café. How can you beat it?

It was a memorable birthday night, filled with mezcal and orange slices, and much conversation.

At Profética the staff is super friendly and the prices are good.

I think I mentioned previously that our hotel had a bar upstairs. The first night we went up, and there happened to be a big rain storm, complete with thunder and lightning. It was so refreshing to be in the midst of it. Not that we were sitting in the rain, mind you, but it had been about six weeks since we’d left Ashland and had some rain, much less a thunder storm. 

We went up another night, and the place was packed. The music was loud, and we had trouble talking, but it was so much fun watching everyone.

The problem with a bar upstairs in your hotel is that it can be noisy when you’re not part of it. But with artfully placed pillows around the ears, eventually, we went to sleep.

On our final day in Puebla, Marco, Ed and I decided to catch an early train out to Cholula, a town just next to Puebla. The train line was long, but Ed and I were whisked to the front because we are senior citizens. This has never happened to us before—jumping lines because we are old. It was somewhat disconcerting because we can stand, on the other hand, it was nice to sit.

In Cholula one finds the Great Pyramid or Tlachihualtepetl. It is the largest pyramid known to exist in the world, but there was no sign of a pyramid when we arrived—only a church situated atop a large hill. That large hill happens to be the pyramid.

Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de los Remedios on the Great Pyramid

Excavated ruins

To get a sense of its scope, we went through a tunnel that spans the base of the pyramid. Within the tunnel, excavations downward and upward, reveal the impossible dimensions of this massive structure. Marco asked if we were claustrophobic. We both said, generally no. It was long and somewhat dark, but not a problem. We were about the only people walking through.

The tunnels were built and excavations were done mainly from  the 1930s through 1950s.

Later in the day after touring the outside ruins, the church, and a museum, Ed thought that maybe we could go back through the tunnel.

The line was ridiculous. There was no way we were waiting in that line, and the tunnel definitely would be claustrophobic with all those people.

I should also mention that beyond Cholula to the west are two volcanoes, Popocatépetl, Popo for short, is an active volcano, and Iztaccíhuatl, which is extinct. Neither were visible because of the haze, but it must be beautiful when the skies are clear. I took a photo of a photo in the museum to show what it looks like on a clear day! 

The base of Popo is in the distance, but there's no was no seeing the top on  that day.

Here's what it looks like a clear day from a different vantage point. 

That evening back in Puebla, we joined Marco and his parents for dinner. There was much to celebrate. It was Marco’s mother’s birthday that day, mine two days before, their 32^ndwedding anniversary the next day, which happens to be the same day as Ed and mine.

Marco, Enrique and Maria post-dinner. Wow, there was a lot of food!

Neither of his parents spoke English, though I believe his mother could have, so it was good Spanish practice for me. Marco, being the good teacher, had them ask me questions so that I could respond. When I couldn’t understand or find the words, Marco helped. 

It was a delightful evening, and we finished it off at the mezcalería with a toast to all celebrations and futures.

And Marco paid for the dinner. Guess who’s going back to Puebla to return the favor?