The airlines in Mexico and are so well organised that we were able to fly direct from Monterrey to Puebla, both small cities in Mexican terms. Our hotel in Puebla was amazing! We got upgraded to a huge room full of antiques with an amazing 4-poster bed. We felt very fancy!
Everything about the room was so old - the walls were really thick, the ceiling was lined with ancient wooden beams and the doors were heavy and studded. Even the key was unique - and huge!
The next morning we checked out the view from our window. Our street was gorgeous!
It's Semana Santa time in Mexico, which is the Easter holiday time. This week, many Mexicans go on holidays, mostly to beaches but also to special places like Puebla. It's also a time of many religious celebrations, and we went to Puebla for this reason. People were pouring into the churches and the Puebla Cathedral was decorated with flags.
An enormous decoration made entirely from flowers adorned the front of the cathedral.
There were so many churches in Puebla!
Entire buildings were covered in tiles like this wall here. The blue and white tiles are very traditional.
There were also many brightly painted buildings. These are usually adobe (mud brick) with thick, strong walls.
These colourful buildings were everywhere.
Like nearly every other Mexican town, the family action occurred in the zocalo, or town square. People hung out, listened to bands, bought balloons or just wandered around. There was a cool sculpture there.
Just near us was one of the best markets I've seen in Mexico. It was an antique market with a mix of quirky stuff and local ceramics thrown in. It had everything from vinyl records to antique furniture to jewellery made from ceramic beads. As it was holiday time, it was really busy. I actually found it quite refreshing to be just one of the tourist hordes. Although we saw very few other gringos, there were so many Mexican tourists that nobody paid me any attention as I wandered around by myself.
I bought my first proper souvenir in Mexico here - a locally made ceramic mug. The ceramics are gorgeous. I wish I could take tons of them home.
The ubiquitos balloon sellers were all over town.
At last it was Easter and Semana Santa time. Unfortunately, both John and I were now quite ill with a flu so it was all about what we could see with minimum effort. The big religious parade was happening and we thought we'd find a cafe along the parade route and sit there and watch the parade go past. We underestimated how many people would be there though. Thousands and thousands of people lined the roads. The cafes were full - many people had reserved tables in advance. We kept wandering around and found one restaurant right beside the road that had seats. It turns out that we had to spend a minimum of 300 pesos each (about 22 Aussie dollars) to be allowed to sit there. This is a lot for lunch in Mexico but we didn't hesitate. We had a great view of the whole parade!
We think that each of the many churches in Puebla had a group that paraded. Some carried large statues of Jesus, Mary or saints. Some played music but many just walked quietly. They dressed in interesting costumes. The whole thing was very serious and very religious, however the girl in the centre of this photo seems more interested in her phone!
These large statues are carried on a frame by groups of people. They are very heavy and they change carriers regularly throughout the parade.
I was fascinated by the costumes that looked like black Ku Klux Klan guys. These costumes often appear in Catholic Latin American displays. I googled it and learned that the costumes are based on hats worn by people found guilty of religious crimes during the Spanish Inquisition. By wearing these costumes, people today are re-enacting Christ's road to Calvary.
There was some music at times.
This group all carried crosses and each cross had some sort of ratchet on it which they would turn in time with the drumming.
After the parade, we checked out of our lovely hotel and caught a taxi to our next destination, only 10kms down the road. This place is called Cholula and we were there for more Semana Santa celebrations.
The town was quite an eye-opener to us. It's clearly a huge destination for tourists from Mexico City. There were thousands of Mexican tourists everywhere. They were in holiday mode and it was wonderful to see so many families out enjoying themselves. Like Puebla, I found it nice to be just another tourist.
We were still not feeling well but thought we could cope with a bit of a dawdle to the zocalo. One of the main things we had come here for was the huge floral carpet they make for Semana Santa. They spend ages making it then they walk through it and destroy it during their big parade. I found it quite difficult to get info online about times and places for these events but we planned around the little info I could get. The girl at our hotel said the flower carpet would be at the zocalo so we headed off. We couldn't find it so we asked and, of course, they had their big parade earlier in the day and the carpet was destroyed!
There was so much going on at the zocalo though that we didn't feel too disappointed. The zocalo was enormous and was chock-a-block full of amusement rides and food stalls. Next to it was an enormous complex of churches. It is said that Cholula has one church for every day of the year. I don't think that's correct but there are a lot of churches anyway! The sun was setting and dark clouds rolled in and the area looked quite striking.
My favourite church was the one that was designed in the style of a mosque. We've never seen this anywhere before. It had 49 domes and dates from 1540. It and was huge and was so much more open than a traditional church.
We found Chuhuahua dogs in Chihuahua, now I think we found a
Mexican Hairless dog!
Much to our surprise, as we walked around the churches, a parade started coming out of one of them! We just stood where we were and watched it all go past.
I loved the lanterns some people were carrying.
Throngs walked along beside the statues.
We wandered back to the zocalo and got some yummy snacks for dinner. This guy was making churros (Mexican doughnuts) on the spot. There was a queue to get them.
We finished the night at a quirky bar. We had to go in it with a swinging saloon door like this!
There was a sign outside one church saying it was having a March of Silence at 8pm. It was getting cool by 7.30 so John went back to the hotel and I wandered around the zocalo, checking out the stalls. I went to the church early and to my surprise they were getting ready to go out. I had hoped that it would be an atmospheric march in the dark with lanterns but it was still dusk and the march was much like others, without the music.
As I was writing this post in our hotel, I heard music outside. I checked it out and another parade was making its way down the street. This one was accompanied by really loud crackers which drive us mad at times. There are so many parades!
We woke up the next day feeling a bit better. It helped that John's football team won! John watched it early in the morning on his laptop.
We decided we felt well enough to check a few sites out. We ended up at a great museum which showed us much about the history, archaeology, art and traditions of the region, although most of the info was in Spanish. My favourite part was a temporary art exhibition by a Oaxacan artist. Oaxaca is famous for its painted, wooden animals. Sometimes these animals are mythological creatures that are carved from wood then painted in a bright and funky ways, and this guy excelled at these.
When I was first researching where to spend Semana Santa, this photo stopped me in my tracks. The volcano in the background is Popocatépetl, which is currently active. We hesitated about whether to come here but the volcanic activity settled down just in time. Besides, it's actually about 50kms away.
The church in front of the volcano is just a short walk from our hotel. John and I felt well enough to walk up the hill to it (it's not as high as it looks). This isn't just any hill though - underneath the dirt is a series of old pyramids. Each pyramid is built on top of the previous one. The last pyramid has the largest base of any pyramid in the world. Over the centuries, dirt and ash from the volcano covered the pyramids and it just looks like a hill if you don't look carefully. The church was then built on top of the hill a few hundred years ago. It's unclear whether the Spanish knew the pyramids were underneath or not when they built the church.
We joined the hordes and headed up.
The views from the top were great, although it showed how hazy the air was. The pollution is pretty bad around here. We looked for the volcano but it was difficult to make out in the haze.
The banging of firecrackers went on all night on Saturday night. These aren't ordinary firecrackers - they fire into the air like fireworks but there is no display of lights. The whole purpose of them is to make noises - REALLY LOUD! Thanks goodness we were staying in one of the few places we've been in with double glazing. The noise was kept to a minimum inside.
Cholula was gorgeous. It took colourful buildings to a whole new level.
The artwork on the bar at the end of our street was interesting!
These freshly-baked doughnuts scaught my eye. I'm not a huge doughnut fan but these looked amazing!
We found yet another fair (how many fairs do they need?). In the background is a hill but again, it's not just any ordinary hill. It's another buried pyramid!
After a night of full-on firecrackers again, we got up early on Easter Sunday. We knew this would be a quieter day at the pyramid and we wanted to get there at opening time as the crowds were horrendous the day before. On the way we came across yet another parade......
When archaeologists discovered that there was a pyramid buried in the hill under the church, they had to work out how to explore it without disturbing the church on top. They ended up digging 8kms of tunnels though the hill. We could walk through one section of the tunnels. We could see walls of different pyramids in places.
At a museum later, we saw a cut-away model of the different layers of pyramids.
In front of the hill was a separate section of temples. They were built at different times by different tribes and seemed to be all over the place. There was an Aztec altar where children were sacrificed when there were droughts. It was thought that children would carry messages to the gods that the people needed water.
One of the worst massacres in Mexican history occurred near here. The Spanish united with an enemy tribe of the people of Cholula and called everyone together for a huge meeting in an arena. They then blocked off the exits from the arena and killed thousands of Cholula natives.
Cholula was quite beautiful. There was a lot of open space in the town. We were amazed to come across some market gardens and even flower farms right near the centre.
We found these very tame squirrels in the zocalo. They are obviously used to being fed.
We found a stray Aztec wandering around the square!
Much to our amazement, part of the entertainment at the fair was a performance of "The Dance of the Flyers". This is a traditional performance that originated as a way of asking the gods for water in times of drought.
Firstly, the men danced around an enormous special pole.
Then four men began to climb the pole. Note the lack of any safety equipment.
Another group stayed on the ground holding the ropes.
The four men reached the top and slowly spun the unstable-looking platform to wind the ropes onto the pole. They tied the ends of the ropes around their waists. A fifth man climbed up and stood at the top.
The fifth man played a flute and a drum and danced on top of the pole, all without any safety equipment.
The four men then lowered themselves over the edge of the platform while the fifth man kept the platform turning. As the platform spun, the 'flyers' moved around to 'dance' on the ropes.
The ropes slowly unwound, getting longer in the process and eventually lowering the dancers to the ground.
We were very lucky to see this. How cool!
On our last morning we were feeling a little better so we thought we'd climb up to the church again to see if we could get a better view of the volcanoes. At last the skies were clear enough to see them! Popocatépetl, the volcano that's currently active, wasn't even smoking.
The other volcano nearby had more snow on it as it wasn't hot like Popocatépetl.
Adios!
Heather and John
