Teotihuacan and Puebla

In the evening on the first day we met with our tour leader Kelli.  Only 4 out of 7 made it to the meeting.  The other 3 were late arriving because of various issues.  Kelli went over the itinerary, dos' and don'ts', what to expect and so on.  Kelli is a young American from the Pacific Northwest.  She has lived in Central America, mainly Guatemala since 2014.  She just joined Tucan Travel about 3 months ago.  She speaks fluent Spanish and is familiar with the places where we'll be going.  There are a total of 7 in the group:  2 ladies from Florida, 1 young lady from Pennsylvania, 1 guy and 2 young ladies from Australia, and myself.

We had an early start at 7am on Day 2.  Our driver and guide picked us up at the hotel in a 12-seater van.  We drove about an hour to our first site:  Teotihuacan.  The city was thought to have been built around 100 BC and was a thriving metropolis with a population of over 100,000 people.  It finally died around 550 AD.  This is one of the better known ancient ruins in the area, showing that there were several ancient civilizations living in the area.  The lesser known ones are difficult to get to and may need a local guide and specialized transportation to get there.  Our tour guide, Juan, gave us an excellent background and history of the area.  We climbed a few of the pyramids.  Two of the major ones are the Sun and Moon pyramids.

Part of a ruin at Teotihuacan

A bird's eye view of Teotihuacan

A building on top of another building

Climbing "sun" mountain

A restored part of a building

Tourists climbing the mounting representing the moon

After Teotihuacan, we drove about 2 hours to the City of Puebla, which means the City of the Angels.    This is an old colonial town founded in 1531.  The historic city center is a UNESCO World Heritage site because of its impressive Spanish colonial architecture.  It is best known for mole poblano, a rich, spicy sauce containing chocolate, cinnamon, nuts plus other hot pepper.  It is usually served over chicken.  We spent 1 night here in a hotel that is about 50 meters from the zocalo.  A zocalo is the main city square of every Mexican town.

There are a lot of activities in and around the zocalo.  On the Sunday we were there, there was a street fair and flea market.  In the evening there was music and other entertainment in the zocolo itself.  The city's main cathedral and municipal offices are also located around the square.  In the evening we had a nice dinner at one of the local restaurants nearby.  As mentioned before, the specialty here is mole poblano, although you can get other types of poblano to go with your dish.  Mole is a type of sauce used in Mexican food that is made from different spices like chili pepper, black pepper, cumin, cinnamon, chocolate, etc.

Enchilada in mole poblano sauce

Mole spices sold in the Market

Antique Shop

Clowning around in Puebla

Woman selling figurines 

A street full of shops near the hotel

The city square or zocalo

The cathedral next to the zocalo

A nearby church

Another nearby church with a different design

A morning vendor selling juice

This street held a flea market the day before

A shrine in the plaza

A multi-hued street in the early morning

A pink hotel and restaurant

Snacks or pastries

Puebla is a lively city that has some beautiful colonial architecture.  Activities, though mostly around the zocalo area, also spread a few blocks away with shops, street markets, colorful buildings.  I find most of the people here, including shopkeepers and street vendors, very friendly.  I asked permission to take pictures many times and was almost always granted.  While we were there on a Sunday, the streets were full of people and music.  I wish we stayed an extra day or two here.