Our next day trip was to the beautiful city of Puebla, about 2 hours south of here. We caught a 7 am bus and met our good friend Carlos from the Casa, who was our ‘tour guide’ for the day.

Carlos works in DF during the week for a large multi-national company but lives in Puebla and goes home each weekend.

We’ve told Carlos he should be a docent – he is simply a wealth of knowledge, facts and all things Mexico.  He’s been an invaluable source for catching the right bus, tips on culture, sights to see, etc.

We loved Puebla! Our first stop was to start at the ‘centro historico’ which extends for blocks and blocks, with cobbled stoned streets and many streets only open for pedestrian traffic. A number of pedestrian streets were actually artisan streets where pottery, painting and other crafts were being created.

Scattered around the centro historico were plazas with families and kids (take a look at the little boy in the background chasing the pigeons!) and students with assignments to accomplish!

Walking under the colonnade of one plaza, 2 school girls (high school age) stopped us (Moms were with them) and with Carlos acting as interpreter, they wanted to practice English on us with prepared questions.

We’d been walking for awhile so Don said let’s just walk across the street to the plaza (lots of big trees) and sit on a bench and we’d love to answer their questions.  Lots of laughs and giggles later, they’d asked us some questions (where are you from, etc) and wrote our answers in their school notebooks, while the Moms video’d our ‘interview’ on their phones!

Don likes pipe organs.  Inside the great cathedral Carlos took us to, a service was underway and the organ was playing.  Don whispered if we could stay and listen so we sat off to one side in the huge sanctuary.

The organ was massive, not at the front of the cathedral, but literally in the middle and on the ‘second floor’ of the cathedral.  It’s hard to describe the location – just very big and up high!

But Don was disappointed because the postlude selection was quite ‘tame’ and ‘sedate’ and Don was wanting to hear a full volume, booming, majestic selection worthy of such a magnificent instrument.

By this time we were ready to eat, and we already knew Mexico had a different time culture for what we’d call the noon meal.  They eat that meal around 2-3 pm or so and we did too!  Carlos took us to a wonderful restaurant for our mid-afternoon buffet.

Then on with the tour!  Like I mentioned earlier, Carlos would make a great docent.  He explained a lot of the significance of Puebla in the history of Mexico.  We went to the hill (now a large park) that overlooks the city (and an active volcano steaming in the distance) where one of Mexico’s greatest battles was fought on May 5th, 1862 defeating the invading French, thus Cinco de Mayo is celebrated.

Then on to the south of Puebla to Angelopolis which is the ‘high end’ part of town. Sprawling malls, high end stores and a huge Ferris wheel (much like the London Eye) were a stark change from all the historic buildings and setting of downtown we’d just been in.

But night had come and it was time to head home.  We caught a 10 pm bus back to DF and were back at the Casa by midnight. A great day trip!  Thanks Carlos!