Ooh Lala Cholula

Jan 12

 Today we hired a car and driver and drove to Cholula, about two hours SE of Mexico City. This will be our base camp for two weeks. The drive was interesting. It took a long time to leave the city as it is so spread out with its 24 million residents. In addition we had road construction and other public works projects that added to the traffic jams. The haze/smoke/smog was horrendous. I think part of the problem is the topography of the surrounding mountains which hold in the bad air. We went through a beautiful mountainous region when we got to see blue sky and pine trees. Along the way we saw stucco houses stacked wall to wall, delineated only by the various colors showing where one house ended and the next started. But oh the colors: raw concrete, deep rich aqua, bright orange, persimmon, hot pink, azure blue, yellows and ochres, peach, lime, tangerine. It was a feast for our eyes.

In the rural areas we could see remnants of harvested agriculture: dried corn stalks and perhaps some grains. At lower altitudes we saw agriculture coming to fruition. There are snow covered volcanoes here. At least one appears to be active. The pollution is here but nowhere near as fierce as Mexico City.

We are in a great hostel with a private room and en suite bathroom. It is so much warmer than our place in Mexico City. We are in old town and what a lovely setting. We walk nine blocks to be in the heart of Cholula San Pedro (the historical area). There is also Cholula San Andreas which is newer and where the University of the Americas is located. Basically one town with two sections. Here we plan to explore the option of living in this area, focusing on Puebla which is about six miles from here. We took it easy today as Ron is fighting a cold. We walked to town looking for a restaurant and popped into a place that looked okay. Another mediocre meal. We strolled downtown and then back to the hotel to rest a bit. Neither of us wanted much dinner so we tried a tortilla soup and salad. The soup was okay but not special. The salad was great. 

Jan 13

 We are at 7,000 ft in Cholula and Puebla so we have a temperate mountain climate. Right now it is about 41 degrees at night and mid 70’s during the day. We have had sunny days with some light breeze. Downright great for folks from the ‘greyt’ NW where we have gray skies and light rain from October until June or July.

Today we had breakfast at our hostel. It is a simple but good offering with fresh fruit, white or whole wheat toast, two cereal choices and scrambled eggs. Since our room is a whopping $34 a night having a free breakfast that is this good is amazing. We have a decent sized room, a large shower, sink and toilet in the bathroom and a large storage area for clothes and unneeded luggage. We have a desk that holds both laptops and a wooden bench for catch all stuff. We are happy here.The town looks very "Mexican" and is characterized by lots of churches.  Many are lit up at night too.

After breakfast we headed for our Americanos in the zocalo, town square. We tried the Italian Coffee Company. The coffee was good but the Americano was too weak. We will make that correction tomorrow. Espresso seems popular here as most restaurants have the big machines. We went to the tourist office and got maps of Cholula and Puebla and learned how to catch the bus for Puebla which is a short hop from Cholula (and all of 50 cents US). We decided to wait until Ron is feeling better as he has a cold which I do believe he caught from me. Best to keep those germs in the family.

Next we walked to the Container City, a small development near the university. It was quite novel but nothing is open until 1:00 apparently and we wee thee in the morning. Then we decided to climb the hill to the church that sits atop the archaeological  site of the Great Pyramid Tlachihualtepetl. After the Spanish conquered Mexico they either destroyed monuments or built on top of them. This was no exception. At its base, the pyramid is 1300 ft on each side and 200 feet high. This makes it larger than the Cheops in Egypt. We walked to the top of the hill on a ramp and I had to stop a couple of times to catch my breath. There is a great view of the region from the top. We are surrounded by volcanoes here. Two of the places we are considering have volcanoes nearby. I remember when I initially was searching for places to explore I thought ‘gee maybe we should eliminate these two places because of the volcanoes’. Then I realized we lived under the shadow of Mt St Helens which erupted in 1980. HA! We came to the hotel to rest before heading out to lunch. Today we tried a restaurant that our book had recommended and had our best meal yet in Mexico. At last! Then we came home to rest because Ron needs to get well. He slept for a while and I worked on the blog for two hours. Then I wrote some postcards and piddled around until time to go to dinner. We want to try and eat our main meal during the day and eat light at night so we returned to the place we ate last night because they have a great big fresh salad with moist shredded chicken, leaf lettuce, carrots, avocado, string cheese and tomatoes. Yum! We shared the salad and took photos on the way home. Another great day in Cholula!