Cholula and a Great View

It has been a very busy week between trying to register for classes, get the credits approved back home, sort out visa approval, and some other less than glorious tasks, but thank goodness I have also been able to find some time to make a friend or two and do some exploring.

I am going to try and keep this one short and sweet with a quick discussion of a recent local expedition.

For some quick background on my geographical situation, Mexico is split up much the same way as the US. You have the mother country, within that the individual states (mine is Puebla which also has a capital city called Puebla), and within the state you have cities (I live in Cholula which is near the city of Puebla and is where my university is located).

Cholula is a great area that is built around the university. You have a happening street called Camino Real (think Franklin Street on steroids), a bit of a historic district, and then outside of this area there seems to be a sprawling amount of humanity. They call it a small town, but after having spent 9 years in Ahoskie, I know a small town when I see one and this sure is not it.

On Thursday, the international student office offered a walking tour of the historic part of Cholula so myself and about 7 other international students went. I would like to dress it up a bit and tell some story about a daring escape from some wild Mexican beast or something of the sort, but this trip simply included a 15 minute walk down Camino Real and a heck of a view from a pretty cool platform.

To sum things up, there is an enormous Aztec pyramid that has been partially restored along Camino Real and on top of it, a church called La Iglesia de Los Remedios which was built in the 16th century. If you go to the top of the pyramid you get to see the church which is beautiful and an unbelievable view of the surrounding country (Cholula, then Puebla, then the ring of mountains that surrounds which includes the active volcano called Popocatepetl seen in the background of this photo from someone with a much better lens than mine). It was a beautiful day and I hope that the pictures will be able to do it some justice.

After taking it all in up top, we walked back down and found ourselves smack dab in the middle of a festival for San Cristobal complete with bands, fireworks, balloons, banners, and large statues that people felt compelled to carry up the ramp to the top of the pyramid.

We finished the trip off with a lunch in the Zocalo (town center) of Cholula which has a lovely park and open square for their markets. All in all, it was a great afternoon and an excellent introduction to the local area. Next stop, colonial downtown Puebla.


A view of the church from Camino Real. They do an incredible job lighting it up at night so it appears to just be hovering over the city and is visible from just about anywhere.



Small town my foot


A close up of the brilliantly adorned church


A picture of yours truly and Marie Eva, a delightful Canadian student who knows much more Spanish and has come to my rescue on multiple occasions earning her the nickname "Madre"