Mexico City and Puebla - the very heart of Mexico

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Before heading for the capital of Mexico I decided to break the trip and spend two days in Puebla. One of the biggest cities in Mexico with 1,5 millions inhabitants and capital of the same named state.

For the second time after Mérida I decided to couch surf. I quickly found somebody who could host me for two nights. It was a girl this time who lived together with her family.

We had a funny misunderstanding at the beginning. She told me: "Take a bus number 4 from the bus station and go to the university. We´ll meet there". I did what I was told. I then got off the bus and was standing in front of the entrance of the university. I sent her a message "I have arrived". She then goes like "wait for me in the "Italian coffee" shop". I looked around the area but there was nothing like that near the entrance. I saw some people coming out of the university so I asked them "Where is the "Italian coffee" shop?". Nobody could tell me...

After exchanging some more sms' I finally figured out that I arrived at the wrong university. When she picked me up. She said: "I told you UPAEP university and you got to BUAP". I said: "baby, how the hell should I know that there are more universities in Puebla".

Anyway, the house of the family was very specious. I got my own room with my own bathroom (!). They were all very friendly but unfortunately the parents didn´t speak English at all. So I was forced to use my basic Spanish.

The next day one of the sisters (as there were two of them) took me to Puebla and showed me around the city. And I have to tell you guys that if you go traveling in Mexico you definitely shouldn´t miss that city.

Puebla used to be the second most important city in Mexico after Mexico City. She has always been a rich city with wealthy inhabitants. She has been planned by the Spanish conquisitadores and a slogan in city's museum says "A Spaniard's city built for the Spaniards".

The city center is laid in grid pattern. The very heart of Puebla is the Zocalo with an amazing cathedral. I have seen quite a few cathedrals in Mexico so far, but this one was definitely the richest one. Outside maybe not that impressive but the inside was full with ornaments, painted in bright colors and big!

I was even more astonished when I saw some more of the 70 (!) churches in the city. They all seem to have very rich decoration, especially the ceilings and gilded altars with many statures of saints. Particularly the Dominican church was again, as in Oaxaca city, very wealthy.

Except for big number of churches Puebla also has some nice museums, artist's market and a modern shopping center. The streets are pretty clean as for Mexico, and many houses features colonial architecture. Also the buildings are bigger in size than lets say in Oaxaca.

Next to Puebla there is a small town called Cholula with a vivid student community. Cholula is also famous for apparently the biggest pyramid in the world. However, you can barely recognize it as it's almost completely overgrown and on the top there is a church. Similar to Puebla, Cholula has a enormous big number of churches. I think the town has barely 100.000 inhabitants but the churches amount to something like 36 (!)

Not far from Cholula there are two very big mountains: Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl both reached more than 5000 meters (don´t know how much feet it is sorry). When you go up the hill where the pyramid is, you have a beautiful view on both of them.They are the second and third highest peaks in Mexico respectively.

The day no. 2 in Puebla was also an interesting one. Mainly because it was "cinquo de Mayo" - a very important date for Puebla. Apparently on that day something like over 150 years ago the Mexican army beat the French and expelled them from the country. This victory is then celebrated each year on the 5th of May.

The parade is huge. There are the military people, lots of music, dancers and all the schools from the state of Puebla participate in that as well. Unfortunately, we didn't get the best seats so I couldn't get good pictures. And it was hot, very hot...

After this parade it was time for me to head for the ultimate destination of my trip: The Mexico´s capital - Ciudad de Mexico!

From the very beginning my trip in Mexico City was very adventurous. First of all, I was late with finding a couch host so I was compelled to check in into a hostel. On the way from the bus station the taxi driver ripped me off by charging 100 pesos, which normally costs the half, as I figured out later.

Then the prices in the hostel were extortionate. One bed in a dormitory costs 200 pesos (!) (for comparison, hostel in San Cristobal cost me 70 pesos). I chose "the city hostel" next to the Zocalo (the main square and close to the cathedral). It was pretty clean with spacious rooms and they also served breakfast. I didn´t plan to stay there long, I still hoped to find somebody who could host me.

On the next day I ventured out to the nearby area visiting the amazing cathedral. It´s maybe the biggest church in entire Mexico and I think it might also belong to the biggest churches in the world. There is a big organ inside and many different altars.

The area around the cathedral and the Zocalo itself is less appealing. To tell you the truth I was quite disappointed. The Zocalo being the main square of the capital and heard of the city is pretty faceless. There is the cathedral on one end and the Palacion National at the onther side, but everything is grey. Besides, there is no fountain, no monument in the center of the square. Instead there are lots of tents, demonstration and people shouting loud through their speakers.

I was even more shocked when I went passed the cathedral to the north of the Zocalo in order to find the entrance for Temple Mayor - the remnants of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan. There were lost of street vendors screaming and yelling like insane! In addition, all the buildings around were grey and the air very stuffy. I said to myself: "Jesus! Is this the capital of Mexico?" I knew I have to leave this area as soon as possible.

So I boarded the subway, the second thing after the cathedral that I like in the city, and headed for a district called Zona Rosa. There in front of my eyes a new world began to unfold. The houses were colorful, lined with trees and there were plenty of restaurants. Also the people looked so different from those in Centro Historico. Finally I saw some very good looking Mexican women. And I mean REALLY good looking.

I embraced so much this neighborhood of Zone Rosa that I didn't want to leave. Except for the bars and restaurants there were also lots of strip bars and one street was devoted to the gays only. But the overall impression was very positive.

But it was time for me to find the suitable host because I really didn't want to spend another 200 pesos for the hostel. I received few answers but most of the people couldn't host me. One girl offered me to stay on the floor at least but I wasn´t that desperate. Anyway, the result was I had to stay another night at a hostel. And I chose the same one as it was less complicated than to find and move to another one.

On that evening I succeeded to watch the famous "lucha libre" combat in Mexico city. You know it's the Mexican wrestling, where guys were masks and fight in the ring. It was really good fun and I have to tell you that those athletes are very skilled. They performed saltos, jumped high in the air and simply did a fantastic show.

After that, we went to a party to an area called Roma. It was apparently a Couch Surfer party so I had some hope that maybe I could find somebody there who could host me. The party was good but again no host available. I also didn't want to push too much as it didn´t seem to me that the time and environment was appropriate. Anyway, the party was good and I also met some nice people from Mexico city.

The next day brought me good news. A guy answered my request and could host me for the rest of the time in Mexico city. I was very happy about it. The only drawback, however, was that the guy lived really far away from downtown area. You had to take threes subways plus a bus in order to get there. But except for that his place was impeccable. Just after my arrival his landlord, a nice and friendly lawyer, invited us for a dinner. Unfortunately we couldn't wait till dinner was served because we had an appointment downtown with some other people.

I actually wanted to avoid the area called "centro historico" but I had been overruled by the others. So we went to a bar with some live bands. The music their played was so bad that one of us described it as "random noise". My suspicion was that those guys were completely high on weed and not able to handle properly their instruments. Thank god the people I was with were so funny that we had really good time there.

For the upcoming day the plan was to see the neighbourhood of Chapultepec and the canals of Xochimilco. My host, Ricordo, had a day off and came with me, which was cool. We first wanted to get to the famous museum of archeology. At the entrance the guard said that only Mexicans can enter the museum for free, all the others have to pay. Ricardo goes like:"Man, this guy is resident, he worked in Cancun for three months" The guard looked at me and I nodded vigorously saying: "Si, soy residente!". I was expecting that the guard is going to want me to show him a document or something, instead he waved with his hand letting me in.

The museum is pretty big and covers all the pre-hispanic civilizations of Mexico. One could spend hours wandering through the different exhibitions. We spent there maybe one hour checking out only the most important exhibits. I don't want to leave it unmentioned that the park around the museum called Chapultepec is really nice, too. On that particular day, it was Sunday, it was packed with people.

But the real highlight of the day supposed to be the canals of Xochimilco. A suburb of Mexico City in the south with remnants of the former lake of Texcoco. For those of you who are unaware I'd like to mention that the Aztec city of Mexico, called by then Tenochtitlan, was built on an island surrounded by a lake. In course of the time when the Spaniard conquered the city the lake had been dried out and the actual city of Mexico had been build upon it. The spongy soil still causes problems as the buildings in city center tend to sink couple of inches every year as I was told.

But back to Xochimilco: It's a long ride from downtown Mexico to this suburb. My Lonely Planet guide says: "Avoid to go to Xochimilco on Sundays afternoon". Guess what time we chose to get there? Yes my friends, Sunday afternoon :-)

As in the guide book predicted Xochimilco was overcrowded with people. The big attraction was the ride on a boat through all the canals with mariachi bands playing their music. We were 8 people. We bought something like 4 cases of beer some snacks and got on the boat.

On that day the football team of Pumas from Mexico city beat Monterrey and 3 die hard fans of Pumas joined us for the trip. It was them who made this trip unforgettable. Especially as they were already slightly drunk when we met them. I think we were one of the loudest boats in the canals. Their forced me to sing the Pumas song with them and later doing a drinking contest as well. I did well I think but I started to feel a little bit dizzy afterward.

It took us almost three hours to get back from Xochimilco to the place my host lived. It was the part of the town called Azcapotzalco in the very north of the city. I was tired, drunk and felt asleep the very moment I went to bed. But the day was worth it. We had really good fun there ;-)

The following day, Monday, I reserved for going to the famous ruins of Teotihuacan. My host, Ricardo, warned me: "don't go there during midday. The heat is unbearable". Guess what time I went there? Yes my friends, on midday. But what a choice did I have? It takes time to get to the ruins and I had a exhausting day before. I needed rest and Monday was the last day I could do it.

The ruins themselves were very impressive. I think they are the biggest on Mexican soil. Especially the pyramid of the sun is very big. The entire complex lies on a flat plain with not much shade. I spent there something like three hours wandering through the site. It was the 6th ruins I saw in Mexico and I think maybe the most impressive ones.

Afterward I went back to Mexico and hit straight the nice neigbourhood called: Coyoacan. It was supposed to be the Mexican Montmatre. A neighbourhood of artists, painters and other alternative people. And I really liked it there. There were plenty of nice cafes and restaurants. Pretty main plaza with many trees and benches. Unfortunately I was too late to visit any of the museums, especially the one of Frida Kahlo.

I finish the last day of my journey in the neighbourhood of Condesa, apparently a party district. We went to a nice bar where I paid for the most expensive beer in Mexico (50 pesos) and can't even remember its name... I didn't see much of Condesa as it was already dark by the time I arrived there. I can only tell that the two bars I went to were very nice. I wish I had more time to explore more of this neighbourhood.

And so my trip found its end. It was a very interesting adventure. It gave me an insight into the Mexican culture, the cities, the different landscape and also I met some very nice people. Everything went perfect and happened exactly how I had planned it. Mexico is a very divers and beautiful country. It might not be the cleanest one but the merits overweight the drawbacks by far.

Thanks guys for reading my blog. I realized that is not that easy to gather all the thoughts and put them down on paper or in this case type into computer. Especially, as I think, that I am lacking some vocabulary. I also realized that it takes lots of time to write it and you not always have the time and the mood to do it.

Anyhow, thanks again for reading this. Take care all of you.

Rob

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Comments

[Cinthya Margot]

amazing!!!!
Robert, I loved this!!!! it was amazing for me to read all you lived around my country, specially i was glad because you visited teotihuacan, my litlle town!!!! Also thanks for have mentioned me a javier in your blog, we were very happy when we were reading it... you were also very special for us, and although Orbitrips no longer exists,we have another new bussiness just for us, so if one day go back to Cancun, you know that we have a secure job for you, just call us... ;D Keep in touch with us ok, i miss you my friend, there is nobody to teach me English jajjajajajaja..... I hope you're fine now and everything is going well .. Greet your family for me, hopefully you soon invite me on vacation to poland jajajaja. take care and write me back to my mail ok. Huges and kises... Margot