Day 6 Mexico City to Puebla and Oaxaca

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Today was a very long day, 500km trip, leaving Mexico City for two days based in Oaxaca (pronounced Wahaka. What tha!). First we picked up the rest of our passengers for the next 9 days. 5 in total, 2 male Columbians & a retired couple from Brisbane & me.

First stop was Puebla, Mexico’s fourth largest city after passing the immense, usually visible snow-capped volcanoes Popocatépetl (Smoking Mountain, 5464m) and Iztaccíhuatl (Sleeping Lady, 5230m). Didn't seem as impressive as I would have thought but you barely noticed that the highway had climbed to over 3000 mtrs so looked small in the distance.

Near Puebla we visited the Santa Maria Tonantzintla temple with an amazing fusion of indigenous and Christian religious decoration. It is so over the top yet beautiful at the same time. No photos allowed but could never capture it anyway.

In Puebla more extrordinary Chapels & Cathedrals (there everywhere). The town itself is very pretty, organised & clean. Both the old & new town roads were cross grid patterns. The old town had cobbled streets & lined with colourful Moorish style architecture and wrought iron balconies for the upper floors. Everything feels safe but police are everywhere & one jewellery store had a guard with a machine gun.

We continuing on to Oaxaca which like Puebla, is listed as World Heritage through the Mixteca mountain range which is protected for its vast expenses of cactus which start with a single stem & if allowed to age over 100 yrs or more grows many more stems in the shape of a candelabra.

Late arrival so blog & bed for early start tomorrow.

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Photos

Side chapel
Often more ornate than the main alters

Sierra ranges
Sierra in Spanish means saw (as in teeth of a saw) & this view is why