Puebla de Los Angeles

North America » Mexico » Puebla » Puebla City
June 23rd 2008

Published: June 24th 2008

While this trip is exciting and fun and educational, there definetley are parts of it where I wish I wasn't traveling around in a group so large. Sure, the immense amount of Americans made the initial adjustment to the culture really easy and eliminated the first shock of being completley confused by a foreign language, they also tend to inhibit some of the travel experiences. The worst part of traveling around with a group this large is the tours. Although these tours are partly at fault of the university for assuming that we actually are so interested in culture and history that we would like to spend our days doing nothing but touring museums and churches...followed by more museums and more churches..., but partly at fault of the fact that when you have to design a tour for 50+ American students, its hard to figure out how to please everyone.

That being said let me start off by completlely advocating for the Mexican city of Puebla. Out of all the places I've travelled on this trip, this city was by and large my favorite. It's streets were gorgeous, modeled after many colonial cities in Spain, the architecture was mind-blowing. The main zocalo was a eautiful green park, and not so packed with street vendors and beggars as the other city centers have been. All in all the entire demenor of the city was different, the people were so nice, and the cat-calls (while still very much existant) weren't quite as prevelant as they had been in other cities. From the moment we stepped off the bus, I was in love so to speak. At first I couldn't be sure whether it was the lack of sleep due to a 6 am departure time or true love that put me in such a euphoric state upon our arrival in Puebla, but I'd quickly learn that no matter how hard the endless, monotonous tours of such a beautiful city were for me to endure, they still couldn't ruin this city for me.

As I said, we left for Puebla very early on Friday morning. Even though my roommate and I decided to turn in early the night before, getting up was nothing short of a struggle. We made a quick stop at the 24 hour convience store for bus (and the quinticential mexicans-don't-eat-lunch-til-3) snacks and some money from the ATM. We then caught a bus up to the school opting out of the 1/2 mile uphill hike with all of our bags. As soon as the buses were loaded (late of course) I pushed my seat back and fell asleep...trying to make the most of my 3 1/2 hour bus ride.

Of course, as I explained, upon arrival I was instantly mesmerized by the quaint and elegant vibe of this new city. It was unlike any we'd visited before, that's for sure. Although my excitement about this new and exciting city was quickly stolen by the loud, overdramatic tour guides forcing us into lines as we pushed and shoved our way into the city's main cathedral. It's no lie that this cathedral (sitting right in the city center) was gorgeous, gold paint and trim everywhere, intricate figures and phenomenally detailed paintings. Problem is...and let me apologize right now for the absence of overflowing intellect...that by the end of this trip we'd visited so many churches, all of which looked nearly identical, that at this point I can't keep them straight. I know the first church was built in the 16th century and I know it was dedicated to the Angels (hence the city's official name Puebla de los Angeles) and now is actually dedicated to the virgin Mary's conception of Jesus...but other than that I really must admit to an information overload that impaires me from spewing off any other irrevelant facts regarding this church, or any of the others we visited during our trip.

After visiting La Cathedral de Puebla, we walked for what seemed like about 12 blocked to what the guides explained was the Taller de Talavera. This was a small, yet fairly interesting artisan factory where the guys made ceramic tiles (apparently famous and native to the city of Puebla) The actual art of making the clay for the tiles took nearly 3 months, and the small factory was filled with artisans, either skilled in making clay, making pottery, or painting the pottery, tiles and plates made in the factory. While interesting, by the end of this tour all I could think about was food...even after a few jalepeño cheetos and half a turkey sandwhich that we'd made the morning before, I was more than ready to find some authentic Puebla food.

Unfortunatley my attempt at trying authentic Puebla cuisine backfired. Initially the waiter completley forgot my order of chalupas- which are known as a Puebla delicacy- but even when i got them I was less than impressed. The chalupas were little more than dry, shredded chicken on top of tortillas, smothered in extrememley spicy red and green hot sauce. After eating about half, my stomach couldn't take any more and we found our way back to the hotel for a quick recargar (otherwise known as a recharge...or a nap)

The second half of the day was also bogged down by this time even more pointless tours. We started by visiting another church (la iglesia de Santo Domingo y Capilla del Rossario) but I was more entertained by the teenage skateboarders tearing up the courtyard then anything the tour guides had to say about the church. From there we walked down what is known in Puebla as Calle de los Dulces or "candy street"...it was kind of neat to see shop after shop lined up selling all sorts of local delicacies...not a single one of the stores had candy with any peanut butter, so I was forced to buy Camines which are known to be a local favorite. Unfortunatley I found nothing apetizing about fruit flavored sweet potatoes (which is exactly what they taste like) so I decided to box up the rest and bring them home for other people to try. We ended this part of our tour at an artists market, which had tons of street painters and craft shops. It was interesting, but most of the crafts were things I'd seen before, so I left less than impressed.

The nightlife in Puebla was a part of the city I found most exciting. After a phenomenal dinner of Semites Cubanos (an amazing local sandwhich) we walked around town looking for something to do. We quickly found a bar offering not-so-barrato (cheap) prices, but also had the intreiguing aspect of a live band. We decided that since it was early we'd give it a shot. We found a table out on the balcony, ordered drinks, and waited for the fun to begin. The live Mexican rock band was really really good. Not only did I get to practice my spanish by trying to decipher their song lyrics, but I got to practice again when I asked if we could have our picture with them. They were super friendly and even offered to take requests for the rest of the night. We stuck around for their second set, but due to our early morning we said "adios" soon after and headed home somewhere around 1.

The next day was more of the same. After a very disappointing breakfast of uncooked bacon and carrot juice (our reading comprehension skills obviously failed us at the morning restuarant) we headed off to visit yet another church (Iglesia de San Fransisco Acatepec) and yet ANOTHER one (Santa Maria Tonantzintla) niether of which I remember much about except that 1. they were pretty and 2. you aren't allowed to drink beer outside of them (courtesy of 2 very classy American boys on our who thought it would be acceptable to do so)

From there we drove to the city of Cholula, known for having the largest (but not tallest) pyramid in the world. We walked around the inside of the pyramid, which was a selection of narrow hallways built by the indigenous groups that had inhabited the area and built the pyramid, and then ventured to the outside where we climbed to the top, wherein (gasp!) a giant church had been built. At this point though I was perfectly content to eat my ice cream and peer out at the phenomenal view provided from the top...chis iompletley avoiding touring yet another church...and then working my way back down and finding a restaurant.

The restaurant we ended up in turned out to be a highlight of the trip. We ordered queso en fondido for an appetizer which was kind of a cheese dip that you smeared on tortillas. I also ordered sopa aztecha which is a tomato based creamy soup mixed with chicherones, avacado, tortilla chips and cheese. By the time I got to my chili relleno (a magnificent cheese stuffed green chili pepper) i was pretty much too full to finish. So we left the boys to finish their beers and their soccer game and headed out to do some more shopping before we had to catch the bus.

Saturday night in Puebla had to be my favorite cultural experience thus far. After wandering out and getting some Mcdonalds happy meals for dinner (feliz cajetas as they're known here) we stumbled upon a Mexican art festival. Complete with huge photography of beautiful mexican scenery, an artisan fair and my favorite, a Mexican music competition. At this point my roommate and I opted out of joining the rest of the American crew in their barhopping expedition and instead stayed out and ordered a few beers of our own at a restaurant near the stage. It was quite the cultural experience as we jammed with Mexican metalheads and sung along to lyrics we couldn't understand. Lucky for us the festival ended early and we made our way home before most of the other American's night had even started. We called it a night early and awaited one more day of museums and churches we wouldn't hardly remember.

The final day in Puebla could have ended way earlier than it did. After an overpriced hotel breakfast (and another dose of hardly cooked bacon) we checked out of our hotel and headed for a whole new round of uninteresting tours in the city and state of Tlaxcala, Mexico. Immediatley upon our arrival they shuffled us around through the national palace and forced us to go to art museum after art museum and iglesia after iglesia. All of us were exhausted after 2 full days of nothing but tours, and would have liked nothing more than to climb back on the bus and sleep the entire way back to Cuernevaca but our pleas and complaints were met with nothing as they alloted us 3 hours of free time before we could leave. The absence of public restrooms made us compelled to eat (a struggle due to my lack of remaining cash and my roommates upset stomach) and the city wasn't really anything special that needed to be explored (or hadn't been in the 3+ hours we spent touring it) By the time 4:30 came we were more than happy to climb on the bus and catch up on some long awaited sleep

Puebla de Los Angeles

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