Hola!
Up this morning about 6, and down to breakfast about 7. Robert had quite a bit of Caltech work to do, and we also wanted to be at the Cholula pyramid site when it opened at 9 am.
Well, traffic being what it is around here, we arrived just about 9:15 … but – silly us, the ticket office was still locked up tight. We had to wait about 10 minutes for someone to come and open up, but fortunately we were very close to the front of the line, so it wasn’t too crowded … yet!
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| Loved this little guy! |
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| Layout of the pyramid with church |
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| Into the tunnel! |
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| Excavated staircase |
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| The church ... WAY up there! |
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| Stairs and platforms |
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| Again ... not church ... WAY up there! |
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| One of three remaining altar stones |
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| I loved this guy! To me, he is smiling! |
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| Second altar stone with steps |
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| You can still see the stars! |
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| Excavation and reconstruction of a corner |
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| My favorite traveling companion! |
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| Volcano Popo... with steam coming out! |
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| Finally reached the top of the hill! |
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| Love those Magnum Classics! |
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| View over Cholula from the top |
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| Lovely restaurant and wine! |
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| The chalupas we split |
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| R's dinner |
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| Gotta love that mole! |
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| My Oreo Cheesecake |
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| R's wonderful carrot cake! |
First, we went across the street to the small site museum. It had some interesting finds from the excavations, as well as a map of the pyramid then and now. As it turns out, Cholula was abandoned (for some unexplained reason) somewhere in the 12th-13thcenturies, and the huge pyramid (with the largest footprint in the world!) was covered over with vines and undergrowth to the extent that when the Spaniards came in the 1500’s the pyramid wasn’t visible to the naked eye! The Spaniards eventually constructed a church on top of the “hill” which remains to this day, La Vergin de los Remedios.
Once the pyramid was “rediscovered” in 1881, archeologists basically had to work around the church at the top, and dug tunnels to explore the substructures. To get to the pyramid, one has to go through a really long tunnel (and hope that no earthquakes happen, like the most recent one in Puebla in 2017!) and pop out near the excavated ruins. As you walk through the tunnel, you can see various different staircases and other excavated remains. It is interesting, albeit a bit difficult to imagine.
The pyramid had basically six different levels of construction, with various altars all around the site. There was even a boulevard of altars, where three different altars were on display. The stairs went every which way, which was definitely confusing, but the construction was just superb as was the restoration of several different sections.
We walked around the pyramid’s base, and made our way to the steps UP to the church on top. It was quite a hike, but as people were coming down, I noticed some of them eating what definitely looked like Magnum Classics – more than enough incentive for me to get to the top!
The church itself is truly superb – unfortunately, there is signage everywhere that NOphotos are allowed! And it’s a shame, really, as the decorations were so beautiful, and the church itself had so many windows and beautiful chandeliers. There were several small shops at the top catering for the hungry/hot/tired tourists, and even there, we were unable to find a guide book that had photographs of the church! Really, truly worth seeing!
And all around Cholula are volcanos – Popocatepetl in particular, was spilling out steam! Really a stunning spot!
It was past lunchtime by now, so we caught an Uber back to the hotel for some well-deserved rest. I took a nap, and Robert worked … not exactly fair, but he was able to get a lot of work done!
The one other thing that we had to do today was to pick up our laundry later in the day. We left the hotel around 4:30, and it honestly only took us about half an hour to get out into Friday get-away traffic, find the lavanderia, and get back to the hotel. Yeah!! Success! Only problem – and I’m not exactly complaining, mind, is that our laundry smells to high heaven of whatever scented products they used … UGH! We will definitely be smelly tomorrow!
We decided that as this was our last night in Puebla, we would find a really good place to have dinner. Tripadvisor to the rescue! I somehow stumbled on to CasaReyna, which was rated #1 of over 800 restaurants here in town. It was possible to make a reservation through Open Table, so I booked us in at 7:15 pm.
Left at 6:15 pm to Uber in, and it was a good thing that we did, as it took us over 45 minutes to get there in Friday night traffic! Got dropped off right at the door, and we were seated immediately. They have a series of indoor and outdoor rooms. We choose indoors, and it was still pretty cool.
Truly lovely place! Nice decorated and excellent staff. For starters, we split an order of Chalupas Poblanas, four pieces of small fried corn tortilla with salsa, onion and shredded beef. They were fabulous! Then for mains, I ordered Abuela Angela Mole Poblana, a house specialty of grilled chicken breast covered in their wonderful mole sauce, along with some excellent rice.
I ate up every bit, and truly – it was fabulous! Robert ordered the Poblana Chicken Breast, a grilled chicken breast stuffed with cheese covered in a creamy poblana chile sauce. Didn’t think we would have room left for dessert, but I couldn’t resist their Oreo cheesecake, and R went for their excellent carrot cake. All washed down by a lovely bottle of Mexican Chenin Blanc. I think the entire bill was something like $880 pesos … or around $44 U.S. Unreal!
Ubered back to the hotel, only to find that the entrance was jammed to overflowing with vehicles! Not sure what is happening here at the Hilton tonight, but it seems like a party to us!
On to Oaxaca!
m
xxx
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| Interior of the church! (Thanks, Bob!) |
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