From Tehuacán to Beautiful Puebla.
My bus was scheduled for noon, so I worked on my blog for a bit, and around 11 took the one mile walk downtown to the central bus station for my bus to Puebla, and got there in plenty of time. Carrying my backpack seems fine, but it’s the briefcase slung over my shoulder that makes it more difficult. Just too heavy and awkward. I’ll have to think about this some more before I go to Japan and Vietnam with Laurence, which is just two weeks after I arrive home from this trip.
Good thing I gave myself enough time to get to the bus station. I went to the ADO bus station I came into, not realizing that the two transportation companies, ADO and AU, arrive and depart from two different terminals. Oy! The woman at the ticket counter said it might be too far to walk with just 15 minutes to spare, so I grabbed a cab, although later checking the distance between the two stations I could’ve walked, but that seemed to risky, with now just 15 minutes before departure. I thought I’d made the mistake, but looking at my bus ticket, it was the ticket that was in error, as it showed the wrong bus station. But, no worries. By cab, I got to the AU station just in time and with a little to spare, and I’m now just waiting at this fairly busy station for my bus to pull in. Like the central bus station in Oaxaca, this is a large, modern, and clean station.
The journey was smooth and easy, on a regular (not first class) bus, but nothing to write home about, so I won’t. With traffic, it was about 2½ hours, and was flat and kind of boring much of the way,and I arrived in Puebla around 2:30, and got a cab to my hotel. Here, at the bus station at least, you prepay for the cab at a window and then present the ticket to the driver. Nice.
My hotel, the Casa Pepe Hostel Boutique, was in a very nice location, and as I walked in I was happily surprised to see what a great place it is. It’s a hybrid hostel, with hostel-style shared rooms and common spaces and hotel styled individual rooms, which I had. And it’s a really nice place and room, with a nice atmosphere, and of course with generally young guests, as it’s a hostel. In the lobby area, which is mostly a large gathering place for guests and others, is a chalk board reading “How to be a Poblano,” with daily local walks, food tours, and activities colorfully chalked on the board. A Poblano or Poblana is someone from Puebla. I later saw that word on the menu at many restaurants and cafes, and I thought it was some sort of Mexican dish or vegetable. Hah! The menus are referring to local food specialities.
At any rate, the hotel was really nice, as were the surroundings, and well located in the central area, which is the place to be. This is really the heart of Puebla, in terms of city life, events, attractions, food, entertainment, arts, shops, and the feel of the place, which is beautiful.
Puebla, in Puebla state, is the fourth largest city in Mexico, with a population of over 3 million in the greater metropolitan area and a little less than 2 million in the municipal city. Compare that to Tehuacán at around 300,000, and Mexico City at 9 million in the city and over 21 million in the greater metropolitan area.
Once settled in a little, I took off to explore, and I was again pleasantly surprised to learn just how close I was to to very center, just a five-minute walk (and a lovely one, at that) to the central square, which is commonly known as the Zócalo de Puebla, but is officially the Plaza de la Constitución, It’s the main square in the historic center, and where the Catedral Basílica de la Inmaculada (Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception) is very prominently located, more typically just known as Puebla Cathedral.
Before walking and exploring further in the beautiful, just right, and also just right, slightly breezy weather, I sat for maybe 30 minutes and watched and listened to this guy wailing on the electric guitar, playing many of my favorite electric guitar pieces, including Santana, one of my all times favs. He was excellent, and when I passed the the plaza again later, he was still there. He must have been playing non-stop for at least two hours.
Lots of activity in the plaza, including a couple of fashionistas being photographed against the backdrop of the Cathedral.
I probably walked for a couple of hours or more, until it started to darken and I headed back to the plaza. The streets are what you might expect in a Spanish town built in the 16th century, when Mexico was still New Spain, filled with buildings and churches built in the Spanish colonial and neo-colonial styles, with local Talavera tiles adorning, or actually covering, building facades.
By the time I returned to the plaza , it was growing dark, and the square and its buildings were becoming lighted. Always looks magical.
Finally, before heading back to Casa Pepe Hostel, I had to try a well known Poblano dish, chiles en nogada. It’s made with roasted poblano peppers filled a sweet-savory meat and fruit mixture, and covered in a creamy walnut sauce, topped with pomegranate seeds and parsley. Those are the colors of the Mexican flag *red, white, and green), and the dish is especially associated with Mexican Independence Day on September 16, this year marking the 216th anniversary of the start of independence from Spain in 1810, although Mexico did not become independent until 1821.
Very full, as the meal came with a small dish of Mole and rice as a starter, and I could only eat less than half of the chiles en engada (the mole and rice would have been enough, actually), I headed back to the hotel. Buenas noches.
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