sleeping with the nuns and eating their inventions

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We got to Puebla yesterday and I have been struggling to like the city. It is the first time that I have experienced this in Mexico, where I want to leave as soon as possible. So tomorrow, without reservations we are leaving for Oaxaca City. A four hour bus ride through the mountains.

We are staying in a hotel which intially was convent in 1750. They have not changed the structure. The walls are very thick and the rooms are huge and furnished with some of the original furniture. It is near the center of the city. The problem with our room is because of the thick walls and the tiled floor, it remains cold, and the room is huge (25 by 15). We leave the bathroom light on at night so we can find the bathroom, it is quite a maze to find it. I swear we are sleeping on the same hard beds the nuns sleep on. Across the street is a church where I can hear mass. I can hear the priest chanting and people singing in reply. Tonight a blind man played his trumpet at the church entrance. Lovers sit on park benches in the walk way past our hotel, kissing passionately as they often do in Mexico. We were in vegetarian restaurant today, filled with people and got to watch a very much in love couple eating and kissing at the same time.

So not only do we sleep with the ghosts of the former nuns, we also eat dishes invented by nuns. David kept noticing that all the restaurants had pictures of nuns cooking in them. It turns out they invented many of the dished that Puebla is known for. I had one last night, it was quite a delightful surprize and the colours in the dish represent the Mexican flag. It was a poblano chili, not hot, which is stuffed with ground nuts, pieces of chicken and numerous dried fruits. The creamy white sauce is made with walnuts, it is poured over the stuffed chili, then pomagranant seeds and cilantro are sprinkled on top. The colours of the flag, red, white and green. The other dish invented by the nuns is known as poblano mole, which has numerous spices, nuts and chocolate ground together to make a sauce which is poured over numerous dishes. David had a fantasy that a nun was caught with chocolate in her cell, at our hotel and as a penalty, she not only had to give it up, she also had to create a dish with it, mole. Said like mole eh.

We don´t know if the people on the list we created for this blog, are getting them. Could some of you reply? Thanks, Carol

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