Reed's Fulbright colleague who we had visited in Jilotepec, came to visit us in Cuernavaca. On Thursday, the three of us headed for Puebla in the truck. A favorite band of Reed's was suppose to be playing in a bar in Puebla on Friday night. As it turns out, they cancelled the day before we left, but we went to Puebla anyway.
Puebla (pop. 1.9 mil) is known as the City of Angels, has 70 churches and more then a thousand colonial buildings in the
center alone. (pic) The city is famous for azulejos (painted ceramic tiles). Our first stop, after our hotel, was at Uriarte Talavera Internacional. We wanted to take a tour of the oldest (founded 1824) and biggest workshop in Puebla that produces talavera (painted pottery) (pic). We were fortunate to have a tour given by the owner himself! The pottery is made
by hand, dried for 2-3 months, baked twice for
durability, painted and fired. (pic is from start to finish).
Other things we did in Puebla were visit the
Tiangis, the Ex-Convento de Santa Rosa/Museo de Arte Popular Poblano, the Barrio del Artista and a street market.
On Saturday we drove to Cholula (pop. 152,000) which is a small town close to Puebla to see the widest pyramid ever built, Piramide Tepanapa. Now it is overgrown and topped by a church but
still massive and beautiful.(pic) After a tour of the grounds, we
walked through a small portion of the 8kms of tunnels under the pyramid which were made by archeologists trying to find the several pyramids that were built on top of each other during many reconstructions. On the path up to the church, Reed was brave enough to try a fried grasshopper that a man offered to her. I, however, wasn't so brave! :o)
After returning to Puebla and having dinner which included the famous Mole Poblano, we sat in the Zocalo with the locals and listened to some of the live music from the surrounding restaurants.
For more pictures, click on this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/regnor11/DriveToPueblaPueblaCholula#
Coming next: Guanajuato
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