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Published: April 22nd 2006
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Casa de Muñecas
Beautiful Colonial Archetecture and tiles facade in the Casa de Muñecas, Puebla PUEBLA Puebla is a lovely little city about 4 hours from Oaxaca by bus and back towards Mexico DF. The city is full of beautiful colonial houses in various states of repair and I spent a day and a half looking around the squares and building there. Some of the buildings have absolutely amazing facades, layed with coloured brick or tiles and topped with lovely balconies or stone details - they are quite like the northern-French buildings in construction but the designs are more like those in the south of Spain. Apart from the fact that the Cathedral has the highest bell towers in Mexico the city is best known for its ceramic dishes which come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and colours but resemble the cermaics of Toledo, Spain very closely. I have resisted the urge to buy more unsuitable luggage. Well done me!
I went to the city´s old library which is a gorgeous and huge collection fo old books, unfortunately it doesn´t have that amazing old book smell - it seems the whole place is so well cared for that it smells more like a hospital than a library. From the Cerro de Guadalupe
Plates
Plates for sale, Puebla - the hill overlooking the city topped with Eucaliptus forest I could just make out the outline of Mount Popocatopetal - the active volcano which regularly threatens Mexico city and its environs, barely visible by day due to the smog which sits like a blanket over this part of the world, only the postcards on the street corners betray this and the 2 other snow-capped volcanos which surround Puebla.
On my first evening I met Judy, an older Canadian lady, who is staying in my room in the youth hostel and has been here for a month, and who has a Mexican 'boyfriend' who speaks no English, and she speaks no Spanish who she goes on day trips with around Puebla. I guess some things just don´t need words!? She is leaving soon but might come back to Mexico in October.
On my last evening in the hostel in Puebla I met Laura, Nathan, Eric and Tom, on their spring break from their jobs, also teaching in Guadalajara, although at a different school to me. They introduced me to the game, The Settlers of Catan - really good, and it's great to know that I already know some
church & pyramid
Church atop the ancient pyramid, Cholula people in Guadalajara before I get there - they only live a short distance from where I will be.
CHOLULA After I discovered there was a lack of cheap but exceptable accomodation in Tlaxcala, I decided to stay an extra night in Puebla and head out on a daytrip to the nearby town and ruins at Cholula. Famous for having a huge number of churches (Cortés is said to have attempted to build one for each day of the year, although he only got to 39) and for one of the largest volumed pyramids of the ancient world, now completely covered in grass and shrubs which grow well in the adobe-cover of the original structure.
After the extremely bumping bus ride from Puebla, through packed and badly-maintained streets. I visted a few of the many churcges, the most impressive of which was the Arabic-style Capilla Real which has 42 domes. I also climbed the pyramid up to the church which now stands on top and from which you get amazing views of the surrounding plateau. I also went into teh pyramid, into the archeological tunnels which are really interesting. You can see the ancient flights of
Capilla Real
The Mosque-like Capilla Real in Cholula stairs and water down pipes and ventilation shafts which serviced the structure. Really interesting, and the nice man on the door let me in free for being a student even though you shoudl really be a student in Mexico.
TLAXCALA Tlaxcala is beautiful. It has the nicest Zocalo (main square) I've seen yet here in Mexico, maybe in Latin America. It is so quiet and relaxing, has some lovely arts and crafts museums and stalls and is built on the side of a hill so has some lovely views over the town to the mountains. I also a have an amazing view from my hotel window (lack of youth hostels has forced me to splash out of $25 US for a room in a hotel!). After my 4 course traditional mexican meal in the tree-covered main square, for $4.50, I walked up the hill to the ex-convent which reminded me a lot of the Convent Catalina in Arequipa, Peru, the same amazingly bright walls.
Everything here is so clean and bright, buildings and painted all sort sof shades of orange, red and yellow and there are so many flowers here as well: bright red ones which
View Tlaxcala
View from the hotel window, Tlaxcala look like little red loo-brushes, purple and pink tree blossoms and aerum lillies growing in the gardens. At the local traditional arts museum I was shown round by a little old lady who was knitting and embroidering blouses and an old man who showed me how they make the traditional blankets and rugs on an old-fashioned hand loom, really interesting and they were so sweet.
MEXICO (again) Back in Mexico and I headed for the city's zoo as a bit of light relief from all that history and culture. I thought that it wouldn't be too busy in the middle of the day - Mexicans sensibly usually head for the shade, but this week is the school holidays and the zoo, which is free to get into was packed. In addition most of the animals were sensibly hiding from the googly-eyes, finger-tapping children in their shed and caves and those that were around were generally napping. I did see some things though including loads of primates and big cats - the zoo seems to have an amazimng collection of both, among which I saw a ring-tailed lemar (or Lemar Catta) which was all alone its synthetic forest
Weaving
Weaving in Tlaxcala's Popular Art Museum - which seemed mean as these animals usually live in family groups (I learn lots from helping Olly with his coursework!). I also saw my first Capybara - the giant guinea-pig stylie rodent and they are HUGE - big dog sized. Very cool.
Well I was pleased to find that my bag in storage in the youth hostel was still intact, including my Cadbury's chocolate so I think I will settle down and eat some of that while I watch the rain which has just started outside - a thunderstorm and the first rain I've seen in over 2 weeks. Tomorrow I'm off to Guadalajara to meet the family I'm staying with and I should start work on Monday. Wish me luck!
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