Puebla de los Ángeles

[bixaorellana]

Last week I took a quick, unplanned trip to Puebla. I've been meaning to visit it for years,
but somehow, perhaps because it's so close, it always got put on the back burner.

Anyway, when my friend called and said, "Let's go!", I quickly agreed.

I didn't do any real research and mostly walked around and enjoyed the beauty of the city, so that's what I'll show here.

Puebla was established by the Spanish in 1531 on the main route between the port of Veracruz and Mexico City and was the principal city of colonial Mexico. Its appearance is the most European of all the colonial cities, because it was planned from the ground up by a Spanish city designer rather than being built upon an existing indigenous community.

By 1539, Puebla had a university and was on its way to becoming well-known throughout Mexico for milling, textiles, exquisitely decorated pottery and tiles, and for the architectural beauty of its buildings. In the following century, it became the home of the remarkable Sor Juana.

Although modern Puebla is highly industrialized, its historic downtown remains a Spanish-colonial treasure filled with elegant 17th and 18th century European architecture and art. cribbed from www.sipuebla.com/travel.htm

The city made the Paul Simon song run through my head: there were angels in the architecture.
Come see for yourself, and I hope that you ..........

We set off Thursday morning in a trusty ADO bus and arrived around 2 pm.
The bus ride itself was pretty boring, with few of the grand vistas afforded by some routes.


Because of the lack of research, I didn't realize Puebla was the fourth largest city in Mexico.
Coming from dinky little Oaxaca, I was even awed by the taxi area outside the Puebla bus station ~

[bixaorellana]

So, here we are on the zócalo (main square). It's huge and it's beautiful.
The fountains directly in the street, like so much else in Puebla, exist to be pretty and fun.


The cathedral takes up one whole side of the vast plaza ~


But what is this in the middle of the beautiful green park that constitutes the center of the zócalo?


It's a big white lacy artwork. Little kids love to walk through it, but it draws everyone to it ~




I am delighted by this city. It has such a light, cheerful air about it.
As you can maybe tell by the wall art in the OP, there is a witty, lively influence from all the university and art school students.


But at the same time, it has a dignified but unoppressive elegance ~

[bixaorellana]

We had an early supper of the famous tacos Árabes ...which originated in Puebla in the 1930's from Lebanese-Mexican cuisine.
Tacos Árabes use shawarma-style meat carved from a spit, but are served in an oversized thick flour tortilla called pan arabe. -- Wikipedia.
The meat was good, but the dish suffers from a lack of the onion and ciliantro we're used to in normal Mexican tacos.
Meal out of the way, we went out to take in the city before it got dark.

One of the reasons I was never terribly enthusiastic about seeing Puebla is because guidebooks
make it sound as though it's all churches and historical plaques. Well, yeah, but what churches!








It appears that Poblanos can take their religion sweetly ~


But also bizarrely. I would say this is tongue-in-cheek, but I suspect it’s done in earnest.
Go get all that old silverware from the wind chimes of the 80s and turn it into pious art!
   

[bixaorellana]

Wandering further, we came upon this delightful square, well, rectangle. Some of the arched doorways on the left housed little eateries, but most of them were devoted to the cranking out of hack art. The right side of area had some cafés and also an art institute.


My friend snagged a table at a café and ordered coffee while I went to see the rest of the plazuela.
Oh, about the coffee ~~ unlike coffee in Oaxaca, which is strong and comes in smallish cups, Puebla's coffee was milder and always came in huge cups. It was so consistently excellent and fresh, though, that even my friend-the-espresso-lover pronounced it good.

Um, have I mentioned that Puebla is pretty? The colors, the architecture, the late afternoon light ~~ wow.


This café was at the end of the plazuela. Like so many places in the city, it featured live music, in this case a singer and his guitar.


This has a solemn title, but looks to be a side effect of too many art schools in one city. That hair!








Even the traffic control bollards are pretty!

[bixaorellana]

We wend our way back toward the main square as the golden light intensifies.
There are squares and places to sit everywhere. It's a friendly and inviting place ~




There is bustle, too, but not the crowded sense of rushing that can happen in a big city ~


I realize I'm not identifying much, but that's true to the mood in which I visited, just happily taking it all in.
I'm pretty sure this is a municipal theater, though. or a church.








All things done with tile are not necessarily good ideas ~


One of the many details that give Puebla a European air, the news kiosks ~




It's a city, so it's hard to keep everything really clean ~

[bixaorellana]

Back at the zócalo, we take in an art show.
This piece is mostly crochet ~


More needlework. The clothes hanger says in English, "Music was my first love".


This was my favorite piece, taking up three walls and part of the ceiling ~




Notice the delicate pencil work on the wall ~


Thus ends our first day.






More days in Puebla and many more pictures to come. Stay tuned, please!

[bjd]

Great, Bixa. It looks like such a pleasant place to visit. I especially liked the pictures with the yellow/orange walls and the purple tree.

[Deleted]

Great report, Bixa. It really looks like a wonderful place to visit, remarkably 'clean' (not that it is a priority for me) and civilized (which does have a certain importance in terms of my personal well being). Although Mexico City would probably be my priority for a comprehensive visit to Mexico, this would certainly go on my list as well, just for the charm factor.

[fumobici]

Wonderful report, great photos. I knew nothing about Puebla and now I really want to go there.

[bixaorellana]

Thank you all so much. I hope you will come back to this thread, because there is much more to show. I was ready to go back anyway, and reviewing photos to post here is reminding me of how lovely it really is.

Bjd, you'd have your head swiveling and your camera snapping, with your instinct for color. What I've shown so far is rather restrained.

Kerouac, I know what you mean by "clean". Funky, scuffed, worn, & "patina" are all fine, but it's nice to feel that basic hygiene and pride of place are observed, too.

Fumobici, I think it's a place in which you'd feel instantly relaxed, yet energized. Wait till you see one of its hallmarks, which I only got to dip into on the last day. You'll book a flight immediately!

[bixaorellana]

Day 2, Friday, March 25 ~~

Passed a miserable night in our beautiful but inadequate hotel. The hotel we'd reserved lost our reservation and had no room. It turned out to be a dump, so we would have had to traipse up and down looking for something else anyway. After viewing some grim and over-priced rooms, we were thrilled to find La Alhondiga. Here's a pic from their website:


That was our room, the yellow door on the left. See the broom leaning against the wall? That's how challenged the place is on the details, that they didn't notice the broom in their publicity photo. The room was postage-stamp sized with terrible lighting and a clanking hugger ceiling fan on the double-height ceiling. But it was the noise from a group of people in the hall, combined with the floor clerk's indifference, that was most infuriating. Do not stay in this hotel when you go to Puebla!

I was out the door at 7 am, hoping to find coffee.
No luck, there, but I took off walking to see the city in the morning light & to seek another hotel.

Puebla was still full of churches and still beautiful ~~






This kind of white plaster ornamentation is called alfeñique, after a type of almond sugar candy.
I could feel my Bauhaus sensibilities crumbling in the face of the exuberant curlicues.


As I walked, I kept looking down the side streets for hotels, which didn't stop me from enjoying the morning light illuminating this lovely city.


Here's one of the news kiosks just opening for business ~

[bixaorellana]

This is the old downtown market. I was disappointed to find that it's now a Vip's restaurant.


Grace notes everywhere ~




Pink!     Let's paint the church pink!




I aimed the camera at this building because of its beauty. Then I noticed that the bas relief figures bore a scary resemblance
to the large-coifed genesis statuary group in Reply #3, although these caryatids are surely older.

[bixaorellana]

Back at the zócalo, I admire this cheery bronze statue. There are good examples of bronze work here and there, but I didn't see any of the monumental hero figures one would expect in a city of this size.

There is something to catch the eye everywhere you turn ~






And talking about bronze and about eye-catching, fun, and useful -- how did I miss seeing this yesterday?!

[bixaorellana]

Under the arches on the zócalo ~


It's a beautiful afternoon. We set out looking for an early supper.

Even the justice building is too lovely to be forbidding ~


We found one of the restaurants recommended to my traveling companion, but neither of us can remember the name right now. It was inside an old smokehouse, with deep barrel ceilings. The decor was great -- mostly left as is, but with track lighting and big spangles on parts of the wall. The menu was more Spanish than Mexican. We had brie quesadilas (tiny and disappointing), morcilla, and chistorria to start. The morcilla was interesting and tasty, with a nicer texure than Mexican moronga. It was served in two balls, each resting on some overly-sweet pureed quince, and with two artsy smears of mole on the plate. There's got to be something stupider than mole served as a smear, but I'm not sure what. The chistorria was okay, but a bit too aggressively flavored. The main dish is what really shined. We both had the huauchinango in epazote broth. The fish was perfectly done, and the tomato-based soup part was perfect with it.

[bixaorellana]

Puebla abounds in religious supply stores. It also features a type of statue I'd never seen before, that of a poor soul in Purgatory.
This figure was close to the front door and facing out of a church I passed ~




All the religious supply stores had BIG stuff for sale.

I had always vaguely supposed that the graphically bloody statues were all antiques,
but it appears that there's a demand for that sort of thing even today.

The statue of Jesus bound over for judgment seems to be extremely popular in Puebla.

I don't know if this is done in any other part of the world, but many, if not most Mexican churches have a reclining Christ in a glass casket.
You can see one of those caskets on the left side of the Purgatory statue, and a couple of the reclining statues in the pictures below.






Thus endeth the second day of the visit.

Tune in tomorrow for the rest of it, please!

[bjd]

I have seen stores with religious supplies before, but this is overwhelming! Did you buy a large Jesus to put in your living room?

The city looks lovely though.

[bixaorellana]

Of course! Get the sofa out and the bleeding image in.

The city is lovely, with a friendly, responsive population. Photos taken on a trip are usually selective, but in downtown Puebla you can almost point the camera at random and come up with something photo-worthy.

I was trying to figure out why the activities for Friday seemed so skimpy, then I remembered that was the day we went on our Quest for Plant Nurseries, which was the main reason for the trip. That was pretty much a bust, although in my last few minutes in Puebla ..................... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

[onlymark]

Reply #12 Bronze statue in the park -

Does she know someone's nicked her baby?

[bixaorellana]

I see what you mean, but I don't think she was cradling anything. The angle of the photo is deceptive, but if you magnify it, you'll see that her right hand & wrist are resting on her hip and her left arm and hand are held out in a gesture.

Go look at the model of the city. That is some impressive bronze work!

[onlymark]

Maybe she had wind then.
Or stitch from running too hard.

[bixaorellana]

Day 3, Saturday, March 26 ~~

Just a few artsy shots from the morning, then on to other things ...

We had to go buy our bus tickets for the next day, and happened upon a crafts fair near the ticket office.

Puebla is full of such fairs, plus plazas and nooks given over to everything from kitsch to antiques. This building is now used by IAIP -- the institute of traditional arts and crafts of the state of Puebla. I was greatly taken by the building as it's in a very rustic state, so presumably closer to how things looked back when, before they were considered charming.

I commented on the place to a lady who had a stand there. It turned out she's keenly interested in history, so told me all
about the building and even gave me a brochure. Finally -- some facts to add to this thread!

It was constructed for the Charitable Order of St. Hipolyte, the first Mexican religious order.
A license was granted in 1567 to begin construction and stated that:
[this hospital is for] the insane, the mentally retarded, decrepit priests and the elderly in general. With time, reception will be extended to all sick people
(except for lepers and antoninos), also housing poor teachers and students. Don't know the word 'antoninos'. Will try to find out.

This was yet another building with a huge courtyard being used for a one-day crafts fair.
This is NOT a tree:


Nope, it's a venerable bougainvillea! Look at how the trunk was formed:

[bixaorellana]

Here I am back at the zócalo. This is how the weather was for the whole visit -- bright and beautiful, but hot.




Those pics were taken around 2:30. Things were starting to pick up for Earth Hour, plus work was letting out and there were more people about.


Here's a quick video from the internet (not mine) that also shows some of the crafts fair activity ~


And they sent in the clowns!

[mich64]

Bixa a wonderfully entertaining account of your trip. I loved all the photos but the one of the "trunk of the bush" was especially interesting. It seemed to me the more that I looked at it the more I felt the shapes looked like men, women and children stretching up to the leaves. Beautiful.
Cheers,
Mich

[bixaorellana]

But I couldn't hang around to save the planet. I was on a quest. It was like pulling teeth to find out where the non-touristy places to eat downtown might be. At the tourist office, the very fact that I was a tourist made them snap to with answers such as, "All the tourists like to go there", no matter how I phrased my question.

So I simply struck off to see what I'd find.
As I was ambling along, I saw a sign for exotic animals and crossed the street to look ~~


Toucans! My favorite bird in the whole world. Two toucans at that.
They hopped back and forth and back and forth as I tried to get a picture, so I took a quick video.


Not only were they wonderful, they had a pretty impressive guardian atop their cage ~






Oh, let's go inside!

Oooooooooooo ~

There were also regular pet store goldfish and little turtles -- all very interesting, but this wasn't helping me find my desired typical Poblano fare.

[bixaorellana]

On the way out, I stopped to get some more pics for insurance.

Then I stood on the sidewalk and dithered, as is my wont. It's a good thing I did, because while I was standing there, a man came out and started petting
the iguana(?) under its chin, which it seemed to really enjoy. I asked the guy about a regular place to eat and he said I wanted the Munich, where I'd get straightforward Poblano fare, despite the name. Okay!

Goodbye big lizard ~


Goodbye cool birds ~


Of course, just walking down the street in this city is a delight.
Interesting name on that building ~


and just look at the place next to it ~


An ice cream and ices stand was set up in front of the gate ~

[bixaorellana]

None of that for me. And soon afterward, I arrived at the Munich ~


There were some tempting things on the right-hand side, but I needed to try the famous mole of Puebla. I told the waiter I'd never had any, nor any real Poblano food. He said that I wanted the bean soup followed by the mole. Okay!

First he brought out the bread. Let me see if I can talk about the bread in Puebla without burbling on for pages, or fainting from desire. It's quite simply perfect -- real, honest, old-fashioned bread with a crisp crust and dense crumb, tasting of wheat and yeast. The one served with food is called, very plainly, pan de agua.
          

          

                      Bean & spinach soup with bacon. Good ~
                     

                                 Rich rice and the lovely mole poblano ~
                                

I can really only describe the mole by comparing it to the Oaxacan moles. It's definitely in the same family, but also definitely different. You can see by the items on the menu that there's a definite European slant to the food in Puebla. By the same token, the mole is more toward the subtle spectrum of flavors. It's truly excellent, mild at first, then the bite and the complexity of flavors sneak up on the tongue deliciously.

           And look, dessert came with the meal. It's just the right amount of classic, milky Mexican rice pudding. I'm very pleased with the whole experience.
          

It's the weekend in real life, so I hope everyone is out having fun.
But I also hope you all will continue looking in at this thread, which has far to go yet.

[hwinpp]

I'm bowled over. What a great story you've started.

If I come to Mexico I'll engage your services as a guide!

The fourth picture above, with the condiments, tissues and menu looks exactly like here. Only the bread needs to be replaced with baguettes.

[cheerypeabrain]

I can't believe that I missed this! A stunning and comprehensive report Bixa....crammed with colour and astonishing images. I feel that I was there with you! The bronze map/miniature landscape is fascinating, ooooh and I can taste the bread and the mole pablano...numnum

[bixaorellana]

Hi, Mich ~~ I was putting together the next post when you posted, so didn't see your lovely compliments. Thanks! And you made me go back & look at the trunk. You're right -- it's almost like cloud pictures.

Engage me, HW? You wouldn't be able to shake me off, I'd be so thrilled that you were here! You're a natural for this place. Actually, in Oaxaca you might lapse into ordering in Khmer, so much of it -- even the look of the people -- might remind you of Cambodia.

Oh, thank you so much, Cheery! Puebla was certainly one of the most congenial and pleasant places I ever visited. And there is tons that I didn't get to do on my short trip there.

That said, there are tons more pictures to show, so please check back into this thread. Not right this minute, though. The outside water will come on in a couple of minutes, and I have to go water my gasping plants, suffering through the 90° days. That heat caused us to skip a great attraction of Puebla -- Africam Safari.

[lola]

Stunning, bixa. Where to start? Your beautifully composed photos of the vases in the stairway, the lilac colored tree (what is that?) against adobe color, that great crucifix/table setting. I hadn't seen those soul in torment statues before either. Is there a sign that indicates Purgatory, or could they be in, you know, a worse place even?

Afraid I kind of like the Genesis group. Maybe my town has too little in the way of naked statuary. Of course, that bougainvillea has a nude purgatorian torment sort of look, too.

From the website, La Alhondiga does seem very elegante. Just skimming, I don't see if you had better luck with your next hotel.

The food, the tiles! Thanks for taking us along, bixa.