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Puebla is a beautiful little city. The buildings are decorated with brightly coloured tiles. Did a self guided city tour, pretty impressive. Puebla has over 75 churches which if you compared to the size of the city is amazing. There is literally a church on every street. Went in quite a few - felt like I was on a pilgrimage. One really stood out. This was the Iglesia Santo Domingo with its stunning Capilla del Rosario. As I walked into this chapel I was rendered speechless - not a very common occurrence I know. The chapel was head to toe covered in gold. The dazzle from it was blinding. It had a marmite affect on people though as you either loved it or hated it. I loved it. The Church was on the Avenue of the 5th May - a very important day as this was when many years ago 2000 Mexicans defeated 6000 French! Mainly because the French had diarrhoea.
The tour went a bit down hill from here as everything seemed to be closed. The Museo de la Revolution (the exterior of the building was covered in real bullet holes) - closed for restoration; Teatro Principal - closed for restoration; Barrio del Artista (Artist Area) - too early for creative types; Casa del Alfenique (Meringue House) - closed for restoration, Mercado EL Parian - only just setting up at 10.30am; Museo del Amparo - only closed on Tuesdays (guess what day it was!!). We had a moment of excitement when we thought we were wrong about the Meringue House being shut. Just because it's covered in scaffolding does not mean you cannot go inside. So when we saw the open door , off we went. There were a lot of children but perhaps they were on a school trip. The passage way lead onto a lovely courtyard - out came the cameras. There really were a lot of children. Yes we had walked into a school and were taking photos. I could see myself being carted away as we rapidly left the building with the kids laughter ringing in our ears.
The sights of the city were not the only buildings undergoing renovation - so was our hotel. This was mainly during the day. However one evening someone started to knock down a walk at 12am and then remove the rubble. The noise was deafening as we faced a courtyard and it echoed. I finally lost my patience after about 5 minutes. So clad in nightie, jeans and hoodie, I went down armed with my Spanish dictionary. I found our security man, glared and said "Ruido". He nodded and I went back to bed. It took him 20 minutes, a very angry exchange of Spanish words and finally there was silence!
Outside of Puebla was a town called Cholula - famous for it's church which was accidentally built on top of a pyramid. When the Spanish came to town they hadn't realised the pyramid shaped hill with a flat top was not actually a hill. The church was nice and had good views of the city. They have excavated some of the pyramid and it was strange to see the church and the exposed parts of the pyramid.
On our last day we finally made it to the Museo del Amparo. It was not the greatest of museums. The funniest part was trying to get in. We arrived at the museum early not realising it didn't open until 10am. So we formed an orderly queue. I felt like one of those mad people who go and wait for the Harrods sale. At 10.03am the doors opened and we surged forward - all 4 of us. This place is popular! We paid but as we were trying to get in, Jonathon was stopped and was told that his doughnut in his bag would have to be put in left luggage. Doughnuts have a reputation for being dangerous in Mexico. So the offending item was removed. Start again. Jonathon this time gets apprehended for being in possession and use of a camera. This you will be glad to hear is the last false start and we finally make it into the museum!
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