This past weekend was a ton of fun including lots of new people, bars, and activities. The highlight was absolutely our trip on Saturday to Puebla. Puebla is world renowned for its many churches and colonial architecture and it sure didn’t disappoint.
After a 30 minute bus ride at the crack of dawn (9 AM feels like that when your late night food stop is a 4 AM feast at the taqueria on Camino Real, but like they always say, when in Mexico…) we arrived at the Zocalo (town center and beautiful little park) in down town Puebla.
From there we split up into groups and headed to the Puebla Cathedral and wow, this thing was not small!
Construction was started on it in 1575 and construction continued on and off until 1649 (Pillars of the Earth anyone?). Its front two towers are the tallest in all of Mexico.
That was about the extent of what I was able to gather from our tour guide (one of the amigos internacionales who are UDLA students and in charge of taking care of us aliens for the first couple weeks) despite the incredible amount of knowledge he shared with us on the history of Puebla. It was simply too bad he felt the need to address us in Spanish, but the wonder of how this behemoth was built without any type of electricity or power machinery was mind blowing.
From there we headed to an art museum. Admission is free if you have your UDLA student ID (I was the only one in the 22 person group who had failed to pick that bad boy up), but sometimes we were informed they let foreigners in for free. As a result I was told to make sure I appeared as an American and not a native Mexican and believe it or not, I pulled off the charade and we were admitted. Unfortunately no pictures allowed, but still some cool stuff. Instead of featuring art works, the artists actually just painted their works on the wall which made for some really cool rooms.
After this we walked down a beautiful street with trees down the middle of it and people playing instruments and selling huge bouquets of balloons.
At the end of this we got to another large church called the Iglesia de Santo Domingo which didn’t look like much from the outside but holy moly the inside was something to write home about. It had an entire chapel called Capilla del Rosario which was completely decorated in gold (walls, ceiling, and the enormous structure in the middle).
Pretty awesome, I would love to be the appraiser when that bad boy goes up for sale.
After this stop we cruised through some markets and ate a café for lunch. Despite the deliciousness of the chalupas, I went for a second entrée of tostadas and the bill still was only 8 American dollars (gotta love the exchange rate, I will probably name my first son Peso).
Lunch was followed up with some more market hopping including this picture of an eclectic group that was gathered together.
Following the picture we took a different route back to the Zocalo which we found had completely transformed in our absence into a full blown fiesta. There was an entire orchestra playing with a lovely trombone section (see next entry which will detail my first day of the orchestra class I am going to take this semester), huge banners, vendors, and tons of people.
I was able to have an hour long walk with a different amiga internacional named Hilda with whom I had a great conversation with (AKA I smiled and nodded while she spoke about a trip to Alaska including bears, eagles, and killer whales). Fortunately I came away from the conversation feeling great after contributing that I have a dog named Shamu.
After getting back on the bus and returning to Cholula, I was conned into going to a bar called La Playa for a drink. Imagine two of your favorite things possible.
If you came up with drinks and hammocks then this is your Mecca. Every seat in the place is made out of rope, the drinks are fruity and completely unacceptable to be had in a fraternal environment, the pool table is horribly slanted, and it was awesome!
Giffin! Hasil just sent me the link to your blog because of the Pillars of the Earth reference. Love it. Love it all.
ReplyDeleteIf you name your first son Peso, don't you think it would be inevitable that this scene would play out at some point in his life?:
Peso is an angsty teenager... and for some reason you can't make it to one of his football games or, you know, chamber music recitals. He'll be so mad and yell, "Am I worth ANYTHING to you?!" ...
Poor little Peso.
But it looks like you're having a blast! I'm so jealous. Can't wait to read about more of your adventures! -Mary G