When last I wrote we were on our way to Puebla, having eaten a four course Mexican meal in Teotichucan (pronounced Teeohteewakan) and all feeling completely stuffed - all that is except TC who was starving and munching her way through a packet of biscuits!
After a few hours we reached the hotel, dumped our stuff in the rooms and gathered for an orientation walk around the main square (Zocola).
Puebla is the capital of the state of Puebla, it is East of Mexico City, with two main Volcanos: Popocatepetl and Ixaccihuah - try saying that after a few tequilas, or even before! Luckily the names can be shortened to Popo and Ixta. I read that Popo has still been a rumbling since 1994 causing the whole city to be on yellow alert since then - I didn't tell TC that bit.
It is the fifth largest city in Mexico with architectural style ranging from Renaissance to Mexican Baroque and in 1987 was claimed a world heritage site.
There were plenty of churches to see but to be honest I am feeling a bit Churched out and only managed to take a quick peek in at the Church of Santo Domingo, then hurried off for a hot chocolate, due to the rather low temperature in the city.
Puebla is known for its special dish of Mole (pronounced Molay), which is a sauce made from chocolate and chillies. However, I was quite tired that night and opted out from joining everyone for dinner and had an early night. And by all accounts from everyone else's reports on the food the following day, it sounded like my packet of corn chips was the better option.
The following morning (Tuesday) I woke up freezing cold and with another nose bleed! (I think I am built for sunnier and lower places?!) breakfast was served in the hotel, which consisted of two Melba toasts and a packet of strawberry jam! I was starting to crave cheese and refried beans!!
Then we were back off on the coach for a long journey over to Oaxaca (pronounced 'Wohaka').
Oaxaca is the largest city in the State of Oaxaca. South East of Mexico City, it is at this point that we start to travel into Central America leaving the North behind us.
Oaxaca relies heavily on tourism, it is also the city where there have been many teachers protests held. Some of you may remember hearing back in 2006, during one of the 'peaceful' protests the police/government clamped down pretty hard and many of the protestors were gunned and mowed down.
It took another three years before tourists started returning and thankfully since then, all protests have resumed to non-violent ones. (The last protest TC and I were close to while travelling was in India and I ended up on page two of the local newspaper!)
After dropping our belongings off at the hotel, we gathered in the main square - yes you guessed it, The Zocola - and Neil took us on an orientation tour of the local area.
He took us into a shop selling Mezcal (type of Tequilla) where we were each offered a shot of your commoner garden variety, followed by a shot of creamy mango flavour, then a shot of chocolate, then coconut, then pineapple and finally strawberry flavours too! Heather, one of the Irish girls in the group (I was delighted to find out earlier that she is a Gastro- entomologist, so now I have someone I can chat to about bowel movements! Those of you that know me will know it is my favourite subject and those of you that followed my blog through India will know why - oh ok I admit it, I was always a bit obsessed before then) anyway, she and I were starting to feel a bit 'squiffy' after six shots and happy to move onto the next stop, giggling together at the back of the group. However we sobered up pretty fast when we reached the Fried Cricket stall! I politely refused the 'local delicacy' of crunchy insects, hoping I hadn't insulted the stall keeper, but as I am sure you can imagine TC was quite happy to participate. She even seemed to enjoy it?
Next stop was to try out the local cheese, which I had no probs with, nor the final stop ... The chocolatier! I was quite happy to sample the various kinds of chocolate bars, syrup and finally chocolate milkshake - which eventually soaked up all the Mezcal. (Though I have to say, I still prefer Cadburys).
The Zapotec and Mixtec are the main indigenous peeps in this area and it was to the archeological site of Monte Alban that we were headed to the following day ( yet another World Heritage site).
Built by the Zapotecs, who leveled out the top of the mountain, they built their city and raised their pyramids and altars - without the use of the wheel!
We were taken over to see the ball court, laid out like a capital 'I' where opposing teams would play a game involving hitting a ball from various parts of the body up against the outside walls and seeing how long they could keep on going til the ball dropped. The winning team however didn't win any kind of trophy or bottle of champagne, instead they would have the honour of the team leader being beheaded and sacrificed to the gods - go figure?
There were more steps to climb up to the observatory, my only incentive at this point was that it would firm up my gluteals, we reached the top and gazed at the amazing view across the ruins.
All round us we could see more mountains and hills, most of which would probably have more ruins within them!
That afternoon TC and I went for a walk around the square again and ended up at the cultural museum. Unfortunately for me, nothing was in English. It was getting a bit tedious and difficult for TC to have to translate everything for me, so instead we split up and went at our own pace, so I just dealt with making up my own stories behind the artifacts I was looking at - needless to say a lot of them were obviously from the time of The Inquisition.
Then it was back to the hotel to get layered up for the 11 hour coach journey to San Christobal. With comfy clothes on, snacks in my bag, the first episode of Broadchurch downloaded onto my ipad and a stack full of travel sickness tablets and an emergency sick bag, I was raring to go!!
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