Day 30 – Puebla

As our trip starts to unwind we wake up in yet another World Heritage site, as Mark endures yet another vegan breakfast…

Founded in 1531, Puebla has hundreds of colonial buildings, many adorned with tiles, for which the city is well known.

A Fiddler on the Roof, I mean a fiddler in the colonnade, was playing wonderful tunes as I walked by:

We decided to board a double decker tram to take it all in. It departed from the gorgeous plaza shaded by mature Indian Fig trees.

The tram took us, among other sites, to the Parque Mirador Independencia, which overlooks the metropolis as well as the smoking Popocatepetl volcano.

As you can tell from the screenshot on my phone, Puebla has a challenge to overcome! We got off the tram at Barrio de la Luz, famous for beautiful Talavera ceramics.

Overlooking the zocalo we had lunch, which consisted of noodles and rice, followed by chile en nogada.

Here’s Mark exploring the gorgeous Biblioteca Palafoxiana, the oldest library in the Americas:

Then we walked towards the plaza along the famous Calle de los Dulces, where we bought delicious fruit jellies.

While strolling we happened upon a wonderful free concert starring two tenors. Performed in the courtyard of the Museum of the Mexican Revolution, it commemorated the 107th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution. We got lucky! In the video the song is Muñequita Linda, which my mom used to sing to me when I was a little girl; Placido Domingo recorded an unforgettable rendition of this classic.

As we approached the plaza, we stumbled onto another free show: a trio singing guapango for tips. Their music was different from anything else we had heard so far. We listened while Marquitos sampled a local specialty: Spicy grasshoppers!

To complete the Poblana experience we drove to Cholula to catch a glimpse of the Great Pyramid, which, according to our reliable Internet is the largest known to exist in the world today. A church sits at the top.

After such a wonder-filled whirlwind day we still drove 210 miles to our next stop: Oaxaca.