The story continues from the Oaxaca area
City of Puebla: Jan 5, 2005
Note: the pictures of the toy cars and trucks along the highway that are posted the Oaxaca entry but I actually saw them on the way out of Oaxaca on the way to Puebla. I never could find out why they were there. The highway was good and we made excellent time traveling.
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I made it here to Puebla at 2pm today. The countryside is parched high desert. Pretty dry but the road was modern and real good. Puebla is the second pit of the world. Sorry, yall, to those who used to live here. I sure know why you moved. This is one of the loudest and most congested traffic cities I've been in. The taxi took me to the Hostel with out any problem. Couldn't get to the site of Cholula with the pyramid inside the hill with the church built on top, or find the museum so gave it up for a walk to the Zocalo instead. The walk was pretty interesting and had lots of colorful flavor. The buildings were wonderfully decorated with tiles and had great-carved doors and courtyards behind them. I liked the plaza that had the fountain and the church and buildings that surrounded it.
I didn't want to eat any of the fare offered that was being cooked on the sidewalk, but settled for a pizza cafe instead. Even that had a lot of hot poblana peppers on it that I promptly gagged on. I picked them off and ate the rest before the cheese had a chance to get as hard as a rock. I was given a carry out box and when I picked it up to put the last piece of pizza in it, I found a whole one in the box. Not sure whether I ordered two for the price of one or what. I put the left over slice in the box and took it with me. I would have purchased one of the Kings day bread rolls but didn't know how to carry it on the bus.
At least they had an Internet in the lobby of the Hostel Xacam Xe that I took advantage of to upload some more pictures. Only the owner spoke passable English. The rest of the staff didn't. I had to haul my eight bags upstairs to the second floor where I shared a room with another lady. I never met her as we passed in the night, so to speak. The room was a fair price at 10.00 and I could have cereal for breakfast.
The way out of town:
I left the next morning on the 6th of January 2004 at 9:00 a.m. on the bus. I still carried the extra pizza I was given in a carry out box. I thought I would eat it on the bus but the longer I carried it the heavier it became. I sat in the bus depot contemplating this dilemma when a deliveryman brought ham and cheese sandwiches to the deli counter. That sure changed my mind. I bought a sandwich for the trip. When I took my bags out to the bus to have them loaded I was still carrying the box of pizza. The bag handler looking at the box of pizza jokingly said, 'Oh, for me?' 'Yeah', I said, 'here you can have the whole thing'. He was so happy to get it, I thought he would jump up and kiss me, but he just grinned from ear to ear instead, saying, 'Thank you, Thank you' over and over. Kind of made me wonder if he hadn't eaten for a week. I already had my new freshly made jamon (ham) and queso (cheese) sandwich tucked into my bag to eat on the bus and sure was glad to get rid of the pizza. Considering I almost threw it in the trash inside the depot, but not wanting to waste food, the bag handler man hit the jackpot. That was my 976th ham and cheese sandwich on the trip, but it was really good. Lasted all the way to Poza Rica and when I settled in for the night ride I was glad I didn't eat the pizza. I didn't take any more pictures from Puebla on the way home. I had already crossed that section of country when I came from Poza Rica to Mexico City and then Mexico City to Jalapa and the pictures and narritive of that part are already in those sections.
The story continues with ‘Homeward Bound’. The pictures for this section are in the webshots.com photo albums and can be accessed by clicking on the Mexican hat on the first page of the web site.