Puebla

Puebla appears to have only one campsite and so choosing where to stay was easy. The campsite is nearer the adjacent town/suburb of Cholula, but is a short bus ride from central Puebla. The campsite is nice, with some lovely trees providing shade for some of the day, but despite its monopoly and reasonable facilities we were the only people there when we arrived. This may have been unusual, but nevertheless, Puebla is clearly not hugely popular with travellers. Having spent a little time there I certainly don’t understand why; it is Mexico’s fifth largest city and it has everything you want from a Mexican city. Naomi and I have both longing for some beaches, forests and general relaxing for a while, and when we were leaving La Malinche we were undecided about whether to bother going to Puebla. When we had made the decision to go, we agreed only to spend a couple of days there. I don’t regret this decision, but having spent a day in Puebla’s beautiful centre, I’m certain we could have spent a week there without getting bored.

 For a start Puebla is a great city to walk around; with some huge public parks and squares to relax in, some sizeable pedestrian zones, and the least traffic of any city we’ve been to so far in Mexico. Being laid out in an American style grid, it also pretty easy to navigate, despite being considerably bigger than any city we’d visited so far in Mexico. Wandering around for a day, we found an antiques market, a craft market, and a came across a parade of people dancing in obscure masks and costumes.

Puebla also has some beautiful churches, and the most impressive cathedral that I’ve ever visited. The cathedral is monolithic from the outside, huge and imposing, built from a dark stone with very little detailing or architectural flourishes, but the inside is entirely different. The inside of the cathedral has an astonishing level of detailing, with carvings and gold paint on almost every surface, and two huge organs.

But even if Puebla had none of these things, it would still be worth visiting for what is undoubtedly the best food we’ve had since arriving in Mexico. Pueblan food is renowned amongst Mexican’s and I can see why. We visited an indoor food market on the west side of the centre, which is a large space filled with open kitchens, each with their own seating area. The market is called Mercado de Sabores Poblanos, and it certainly offered us the broadest choice of Mexican food that we’d seen since arriving. Naomi and I both had mole based dishes (the Mexican sauce, popular in Puebla, not the small furry animal!), which were cheap and delicious. There is almost no Mexican food which does not feature tortillas in some capacity, and Puebla offered us a great chance to sample some of the more imaginative uses, beyond the tacos, quesadillas, enchiladas, tostadas, and chilaquilles that can be found everywhere.

We spent an evening drinking and eating at a Cholula cantina (traditional Mexican pub/bar) and left Puebla the following morning.