One of the great things about tequila and mezcal is that they’re distilled from agave and so, thankfully, are pretty much hangover-free indulgences. We’re grateful for this fact as we watch a beautiful sunrise over the Zocalo while eating breakfast, preparing for our early rendezvous with Dora and Raymundo to drive to Puebla.
For most of our intrepid adventures we’ll be using public transport, and are facing some very long bus rides to cross the huge distances involved, but as Puebla is just 80 miles southeast of Mexico City they’re accompanying us to show us a few sites on the way. And Dora is an absolute fount of knowledge as we drive, recounting the country’s history from pre-Hispanic times to the modern day, covering politics, religion, myth, tradition, culture and a whole heap more.
One of the stories she tells us is about the two volcanoes that dominate the scenery on our journey; La Mujer Dormita and El Guerro, known more famously by their Nahuatl names Iztaccíhuatl (Sleeping Lady) and Popocatepetl (Smoking Mountain).
The legend tells that when Popocatepetl, a Tlaxcala warrior, fell in love with Iztaccíhuatl, a princess, the king told him he could only have his daughter’s hand in marriage if he returned victorious from the never-ending war with the Tlaxcalan’s mortal enemies, the Aztecs. So he went to fight while his beloved swore to wait for him. However two year later the false news reached her that he had died and stricken with grief she took poison.
Popocatepetl returned from the frontline to discover her dead, and watched over her body until his grief became too much to bear and he killed himself. The gods then covered their bodies so that they would remain together, face to face for eternity, and turned them into mountains. She’s asleep but he’s still on fire to protect her. It’s basically Romeo and Juliet with added lava, and true to form, Popocatepetl belches out plumes of smoke as we pass.
Having beaten most of Mexico City’s notorious traffic we arrive at our first stop in the little hamlet of Tonanzintla, on the outskirts of the ancient city of Cholula. It’s famous for its beautiful church dedicated to Santa Maria with the most incredible interior either of us have ever seen. It’s decorated with exuberant and joyful baroque stucco work, like huge swirls of meringue and is a unique example of how indigenous people mixed their heritage with Christian themes.
Representations of flowers, fruit, saints, devils, people, birds and animals cover every conceivable inch of the walls, ceiling and altars. And the people on display are brown-skinned and much smaller than in other churches, representing the smaller stature of indigenous Mesoamerican tribes. Sadly no photos are allowed but thanks to the internet we grab a few images as aide memoires.
Across the road is Cafe Xocaf, where we buy a cup of local coffee and get chatting to the owner. I notice that much of the street art in Cholula proclaims it as a pueblo mágico, which is a description afforded to special towns and cities in Mexico. He disabuses me of the idea that there is some spiritual dimension to the appellation, explaining that it is instead a description which reflects places that are beautiful and full of historical architecture, and is essentially a marketing campaign rather than something rooted in mystical times. However, he’s hugely proud that Cholula is a pueblo mágico and he has big plans to bring tourists specifically to Tonantzintla as a result. Buena suerte, señor!
We drive on into the heart of Cholula, where the Great Pyramid Tlachihuatltepetl is located. Standing 450 metres wide at the base and 65 metres high it was bigger than the Pyramid of Cheops and a hugely important site for the Tolteca and Chimicheca peoples but from about 800AD it was abandoned. By the time the Spaniards arrived it was so overgrown that they thought it was just a hill so they didn’t destroy it, just slapped a church on top.
The Shrine of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios is beautifully decorated with fantastic views of Popocatepetl, and the surrounding areas. We walk down the sloping pathway to check out the ancient remains at its base which were uncovered by archaeologists well after the Conquistadors had left. Unfortunately due to Covid we can no longer explore the miles of tunnels inside the pyramid but we climb the mini replica that has been built at its base and then leave the site via its market.
Some of the stalls are selling the very traditional Mexican drink pulque. A slightly viscous fermented fruit drink made from the sap of the maguey plant and flavoured with different types of fruit, we opt for the guava version which is delicious. There’s a slight effervescence to it and it goes down far too easily in the sunshine. Apparently one pulque is good, two pulques are enough and three are dangerous. Considering after just a few sips Coman has donned a sombrero and we’ve sneaked behind the stall to chink glasses with the very shy lady running it, I think we’ll stick with just the one for now!
Back in the car Raymundo drives us the short distance to Puebla, which is a pretty large city, capital of the entire state of Puebla and home to many car factories, multiple universities and more. But at its centre is a beautifully picturesque district, the old colonial district. We’re dropped off with Dora and go for a short walk to El Parían, the handicrafts market, besides which is the Barrio de Artistas, where there are some little restaurants for lunch. She chooses a lovely place with outdoor tables called Fonda Típica La Poblana and orders for us.
First come chalupitas, which are tortillas with green and red tomato. Then tortilla soup, beans and guacamole and finally two large Cemitas - a Pueblan sandwich with papalo herb, cheese and chipotle chili. Puebla has a French heritage, amongst a melting pot of other cultures, and is famous in Mexico for its bread. Wheat is hardly used elsewhere due to the ubiquity of corn, but in Puebla they have bakeries making all sorts of pan & patisserie. And by God it tastes good!
Once we’ve been fed Dora walks us to Hotel San Pedro, where we say goodbye to both her and Raymundo. We are due to meet up again at the very end of our trip when we return to Mexico City but the rest of today is ours to enjoy alone. So we check in, head to our room and go straight to bed for a siesta!
By the time we head out again it’s evening and we wander up to the main square to have a look around and find somewhere for a drink or bite to eat. However the whole place is cordoned off with huge crowds obviously waiting for some kind of parade. We stop a local man and he tells us it’s the Procession of the Kings, an early celebration of Epiphany mixed with New Year celebrations, and that it’s a big deal in Puebla.
Thousands of people are cramming into the square and there’s not much chance of getting a spot to view what’s going on, so we sneak upstairs out of the crowds to a bar called Evangelina which has a little balcony. There’s people eating at tables on the balcony so we try and peer over them to the square below, but then the lovely waitress taps us on the shoulder and leads us up the back stairs to the roof of the bar where a few other people have gathered to watch the parade - and she even brings us up a couple of margaritas!
It’s a fantastic spectacle. Through the streets of the Zocalo come marching bands, majorettes, illuminated floats, school groups, church groups, costumes mascots, dustmen, firemen, police officers and more. It’s a brilliant cacophony of competing brass craziness with versions of ‘Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer’ trying to drown out drummers hammering the hell out of ‘Silent Night’. And to top it all off there’s a huge fireworks display at the end that must have cost half the annual municipal budget. Mexicans sure love a fiesta!
We stick around at Evangelinas for some food and then as the crowds disperse wander down through the Christmas lights and decorations that bedeck the square, before calling it a night. We’ve got a whole day of exploring Puebla tomorrow…
