One thing we learned about our hosts was that they changed their minds a lot, so we were never really sure what we were doing till we did it. It became a running joke between R.'s parents and A. and I. Initially we were supposed to stay in Mexico City for the day, check out of the hotel, put our luggage in the van that was in valet parking at the hotel, take a tour bus of the city, go in some museums and then in the evening drive to Puebla, spend the night there and tour Puebla the next day. Instead, as we checked out, we were told that we were going to skip the tour bus(aka turibus, a double decker open on top tour bus) since they had pretty much shown us everything in our drives around the city and head right to Puebla, do the touring and then eat dinner there before heading on to Orizaba (the area where our hosts lived) that night.
Along the highway we stopped at a place called The Italian Coffee Company for coffee. Ended up that everyone (except A., Z. and I) had ordered sandwiches for lunch (by the time we figured that out all them were done being made it would have taken too long to order them for ourselves so I got some energy bars from my backpack in the car and we made do with that). We sat up on the rooftop patio and had some beautiful views of the mountains (to the left of the mountain is a volcano). There was also this round ring around the sun, you can kind of see it here:
We headed on to Puebla, which I was excited to see for a couple of reasons. I know some women here who are from Puebla and I have heard that the food there is very good (home to Mole Poblano and Chile en Nogada. After parking the vans we walked a few blocks to a pedestrian mall area with lots of stores. There was a church N. wanted to take us in, but it wasn't open at that time so instead we walked a few more blocks to a plaza where the turibus was. We just missed getting on one so hung out for a bit for the next one. We were the first ones on and went right to the top of the bus where we waited about 25 minutes for it to start and for others to get on. They had given us these little earbud headphones to listen to the tour in English, but most seats did not have working jacks (or any jacks at all). A.s' worked and mine didn't so I had him tell me once in a while what we were looking at. Without the headphones I could hear the tour on the loudspeaker in Spanish, with some easy listening style background music. I was tired, a bit hot in the sun, hungry, and once in a while dozed off to sleep. The oddness of the experience was making me feel like I was in some old 1960 Italian movie, it was very strange. But Puebla had some beautiful old buildings and I took a lot of photographs in between catnaps.
After the tour bus ride we walked back to the church, Iglesia de Santa Domingo, which had a section that had the most gold leaf I have ever seen in one place before.
A.-Sr. and L. and their sons hadn't taken the turibus (they had done it a couple times before already) and had spent the time shopping, they met up with us as we left the church. So back into the minivans and on to dinner at La Casita Pueblanas. It was a huge place but hardly anyone was there because most people eat their big meal of the day between 2 and 5pm and it was later than that (if I remember right it closed at 7:30pm and we all left around 8pm or so). We let our hosts do the ordering so they ordered 2 orders of 3 main dishes that they felt were typical of Puebla cuisine. They also ordered some appetizers that were passed around. Something with worms and ant eggs (which until we were almost done N. had told us was snails). Most people at least tried them but I just couldn't bring myself to. I ate the little tacos instead, those were yummy!
The three main dishes that they ordered were chile en nogada, mole poblano, and a pipian (pumpkin seeds) mole. They were all so good that when asked which was my favorite I had a hard time choosing.
There was a netted trampoline right outside the dining area so J. and Z. spent most of their time there and didn't eat much (I can't remember if we ordered something for them, I think they ate the tiny tacos). For dessert they brought out some fried plantains with cream and sugar, oh my, those were incredible! For the most part I was careful not to overeat while in Mexico, but this meal was an exception, I just about rolled out of there!
I mentioned before that A-Sr. & L. did not go on the turibus and had gone shopping. At dinner they presented us all with gifts (souvenirs from Puebla). They gave Z. a small basket filled with candy & cookies from Puebla, A. a beautiful handmade mug that said Puebla on it, and me a glass rose. Some of the others got Mexican soccer shirts and R.'s mom got a pretty scarf. It was so sweet and generous of them and typical of how sweet and generous they were to us for the entire trip.
After finishing dinner we drove on to Orizaba, which is in the mountains. The mountains get VERY foggy, and it can be quite dangerous, particularly at night. The mountain roads are windy and one second you can see, the next second you are in total fog. I was sitting in the front seat (they insisted I sit there for most of our rides as it was the most comfortable seat and they were concerned about my back, this was one time I kind of wished I was all the way in the back) so had a front row view of all the twists and turns.
Orizaba is a small city in the state of Veracruz and the town next to it is Rio Blanco (which is where A-Sr., L., A-Jr., and A. live) and the next town after that is Nogales (which is where Mamacita lives). Orizaba has a few hotels but N. said the Holiday Inn was the nicest, so that is where we stayed while there. It had a traditional Mexican feel and when we walked along the 2nd floor corridor that overlooked the courtyard to our room Z. exclaimed, "This reminds me of Disney World!" (we had stayed at the Coronado Springs resort the last time we stayed in Disney and the section we were in had similar courtyards and fountains). The room was large and nice. Most of the hotel info was in Spanish and in English and we had some of those missing amenities like face cloths, a clock, ice bucket, pens and paper. Our room overlooked the outdoor swimming pool. We were all ready to go right to sleep but Miss Z. used the toilet first and proceeded to clog it, so while she slept peacefully in her bed A. was running around the hotel trying to figure out how to say plunger in Spanish. Eventually we got plunged and A. and I were able to go to sleep.
1 comment:
Your vacation reports always make me so hungry!
LOL about Z and the toilet. This happens to us ALL THE TIME when we are on vacation, courtesy of B. Ugh.
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