We are staying in the Condesa neighbourhood so I thought it would be a good idea to get our bearings and do a walking tour around the area. First we needed to understand the public transport system where there is the metro, metro buses, local buses, trams and trains. Luckily Citymapper works in Mexico City just as well as it works in London so it was relatively easy to get around once we got a metro card.

We started in the Roma neighbourhood near the Plaza la Romita and saw evidence of earthquake damage on the Rectoria San Francisco Javier and many of the other old buildings near Plaza de Romita. There have been 3 major earthquakes in Mexico City; 1957, 1985 and 2017, but more about those in tomorrows post. The church is constructed with a lot of local stone taken from Aztec buildings which were demolished by the Spanish.

Roma is one of the oldest neighbourhoods and used to exist in Aztec times. The city was originally built almost entirely in the lake. It was founded on an island, and then surrounded by a grid system of crops growing in the water. Over the years each block built up enough soil to support buildings without the need to anchor on the lake bed below. When the Spanish arrived they deforested much of the surrounding land and did not maintain the Aztec drainage systems, which led to increased flooding. To reduce the flooding the Spanish constructed a drainage system, but it was badly maintained and flooding was a big issue for centuries. In 1629 thousands of people were killed in floods, so the lake began to be drained and the canals filled in. It wasn’t until the 1900’s that the project was completed under the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz and the current Mexico City layout began to be formed.

We learnt during our walk that almost all the land in the Roma neighbourhood was owned by only three people in the 1800s. They were part of the Porfiriato (people in favour/support of the dictator Porfirio Diaz) and organised the rebuilding of this neighbourhood with funding from Europe and depending on the country providing the funding it influenced the architectural styles. You can see examples of Art Nuevo, Neo-Colonial and Porfirian (mix of French, Roman, Moorish & Gothic) and the district was essentially built as an alternative for the wealthy from a declining city centre. It certainly makes it interesting just staring at all the different architecture mixed together.

Between the 1850’s and 1870’s Mexico fought an internal War of Reform, between a liberal constitution which removed church priveliges and those who wished to maintain its dominance. After 1867 when the second empire fell Benito Juarez and others could enact their liberal consitution and effectively seperate state and church. The laws were severe though, removing all property from church ownership. When Porfirio Diaz came to power in 1877, he did so with church support, so he left the laws in place but didn’t enforce them in reality.

We visited the Parroquia de la Sagrada Familia church, here the murals were painted by Padre Gonzalo Carrasco, the only Mexican Jesuit painter of the 19th & 20th centuries.

We finished the walking tour at Mexico Park which is very close to the supermarket where we went to yesterday. We had some churros while planning how to get to Tlatelolco ruins.

In 1910 the Mexican Revolution began against the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz who supported only the rich in the cities and disenfranchised many rural groups and native populations of their lands and rights. In 1910 Madero, Ortega, Orozco, Zapata and Villa joined together as revolutionary leaders to oppose Diaz and his cronies and prevent their continued rule through sham elections. The revolutionary war lasted a bloody 7 years and concluded on paper at least with the creation of a constitution in 1917, although conflict between the revolutionary groups continued for years after. At the time, Lenin and Trotsky in Russia looked at how the revolution in Mexico progressed and used this to inform how they went about the Russian revolution in 1917.

<p value="<amp-fit-text layout="fixed-height" min-font-size="6" max-font-size="72" height="80">By 1968 there had been 39 years with the same PRI political party in power. It was viewed as a soft dictatorship since although the president changed the policies didn’t and it was very repressive. People couldn’t walk down the street if they looked like they could be part of an opposition organisation or stereotype such as students or intellectuals (indicated by having a beard). They were taken off the street and often not seen again for years. During this year the Olympics were held by Mexico City and people protested, demanding revolution rather than Olympics. A student protest culminated in the massacre at Tlateloco in the north of the city where the army shot and killed an unknown number of civilians.By 1968 there had been 39 years with the same PRI political party in power. It was viewed as a soft dictatorship since although the president changed the policies didn’t and it was very repressive. People couldn’t walk down the street if they looked like they could be part of an opposition organisation or stereotype such as students or intellectuals (indicated by having a beard). They were taken off the street and often not seen again for years. During this year the Olympics were held by Mexico City and people protested, demanding revolution rather than Olympics. A student protest culminated in the massacre at Tlateloco in the north of the city where the army shot and killed an unknown number of civilians.

No one is entirely sure how the shooting started or even how many people were killed, the government claimed protesters in the buildings shot at the troops, while protesters claim government snipers shot into the crowd which panicked. The events were largely concealed by the government who only acknowledged 28 deaths, in reality the death toll is thought to be closer to 400 people.

Around the Plaza of Three Cultures was a memorial to the people killed in 1968.

The Aztec buildings at Tlatelolco include a temple dedicated to Ehecatl, the god of wind. Although not a rain god, Ehecatl was worshipped because it was believed his control of the winds could help attract rain to the area.

Tlatelolco fought a war in 1473 against neighbouring Tenochtitlan, so there are a lot of graves from that period. One pair has been dubbed “the lovers” though as their remains were found in an embrace

We then walked to Vasconcelos library because it was close to the bus stop. It is noted on Atlas Obsucra as being a mega library with over 38,000 square metres of floor space dedicated to books.

On the way back Dave was ill on the bus. I hope he gets better soon since we are already booked on another walking tour tomorrow.

Urgh we are leaving so early it’s still dark. I’m not sure this was the best idea we had but we wanted to try and fit in a walking tour in today at Mexico City. We had chicken burger for breakfast as the most palatable meal in the bus terminal. It’s cheap at least.

On the way we passed by the volcanoes of Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl and their national park area, this time early enough in the day that there weren’t any clouds hiding the top.

As we passed through the national park we gained elevation until we are around 4,000m (13,000ft) above sea level, dropping back down to 2,250m (7,400ft) when we arrived in Mexico City itself . We then grabbed the metro to where we were staying and had to wait 20mins to be able to fit on a carriage with our bags. The carriages were very full but once we were on most people left after 3 stops so we got seats. 

I love our apartment in Mexico City which we found through Airbnb, its in the very hipster neighbourhood of La Condessa. The window niche is definitely looking like a great place to perch and look out over the street.

Unfortunately it took us longer than we planned to get here so even with the very early morning get up we didn’t make it for the walking tour. But we have a good kitchen in the apartment so we went food shopping so we could cook some pasta. Sadly on the way we found a little shop selling Alfajores – a sweet snack from south america which is really a very high end wagon wheel with a caramel filling – so tasty!

We put our lovely kitchen to some good use and cooked up a big batch of chicken, bacon and pasta with some vegetables and plenty of lime juice!

 Well we are officially halfway through our trip. Looking back we certainly have achieved more than I thought by this time!

Our accommodation is lovely but it’s right at the wrong end of town for any of the bus terminals and we have visited all of them. Today we had a brief stop at the Cathedral because we weren’t in a rush and Dave started up a conversation with a Guatemalan illegal immigrant. He was trying to make it to America because he can earn 10x as much in construction as back home.

We had the worst bus ride so far of our journey in a bus with absolutely no suspension. I literally felt ill afterwards because we were on it for nearly 2 hours to get to Cacaxtla. We were then treated with some of the steepest hills yet to get there. So steep it’s pedestrian only and frankly they should have just given in and made it stairs.

Cacaxtla was inhabited by the Olmeca-Xicalanca from 400BC and took over as the regional power centre from Cholula after it fell around 650-750AD (it might have helped in that fall). Cacaxtla wasn’t a large city though, suporting maybe only 10,000 people at its height until it declined around 900AD and was abandoned around 1000AD.

Unlike every other ruin this one has a roof. This modern roof was built to protect the detailed murals in place there, which the site is famous for.

The murals survived so well because they were part of an older temple complex which was built over at some point in its history. When the newer buildings were constructed, the older ones were carefully and respectfully back filled and this preserved the murals. It also helped that they were only discovered in the 1980’s and have been well looked after since, so there is minimal degradation from exposure or weathering since their discovery.

This staircase mural is painted on the entrance to the governors rooms in the red temple, it is also reproduced in the on-site museum so you can get a closer look at it.

The largest murals are actually a storyboard detailing a vicious conflict between jaguar and eagle warriors. The battle mural dates from around 700AD and was presumably drawn by the jaguar warriors as most of the eagle warriors appear to be brutally dismembered.

The other famous murals here also include Jaguar and Eagle warriors in separate murals this time, one on either side of a doorway. The characters include some animal body parts, such as the eagle and jaguar claws replacing the human feet. The Eagle warrior is also shown with a feathered serpent, usually representing the form of the god Quetzalcoatl.

After a slightly better bus ride back to Puebla we rounded out our day with some typical Pueblan food from the local food market. Cemitas are a kind of mexican sandwich. The bread bun is called a Cemita and its typically filled with grilled chicken, avocado, salad and chillies. The food market is very relaxed, just pick a table and then pick one of the food stands to order from, a small production line of ladies will then manufacture your sandwich. So effectively a Mexican version of Subway only better.

It’s a Sunday so everything is busy in Mexico with families going out to attractions so we took a easy day and set off late for Huejotzingo. This was our 15th UNESCO of the trip and I have to say it’s not a particularly spectacular one.

The Ex-Convento de San Miguel Arcangel had a museum at least and was surprisingly busy with tour groups going through. The mission was started in 1526 by Fray Juan de Alameda and completed in 1570 by the architect Toribio de Alcaraz. The mission was made a UNESCO as an example of the architectural style adopted by the catholic evangelists in Mexico in the 16th century.

There are several Franciscan, Dominican and Augustinian monasteries or missions as they are known in the nearby area around Popocatepetl volcano.

The most enjoyable bit of the museum was the examples of parade costumes. Huejotzingo has a carnival every year, 12,000 locals dress up to re-enact portions of the towns history. Its famous for the crazy costumes as well as the tonnes of gunpowder used in fake muskets to make the party go off with a bang. The festival starts on ash wednesday and runs until the end of shrove tuesday, which is the same time that pre-hispanic civilisations petitioned their gods for fertility in the coming year. The pre-hispanic civilisations also enacted mock “flower wars”, so the carnival has a long history in one form or another.

We tried to take a look around the chapel, but it was closed for renovation. With a little effort we did get some photos through an upstairs window though if we held the camera out far enough.

We decided to go back a different route via Cholua so we could go back to the same place, Ocho 30, to have pizza this time. We chose a pretty safe choice of all the meats and then an unusual choice with nuts and pesto. Surprisingly the nuts and pesto was the best pizza by far – it pays sometimes to take a chance. Unfortunately the pizzas were so filling we couldn’t fit in a slice of pecan pie though.

On our way back to the bus for Puebla we saw several churches preparing for a festival of some sort. Everyone was very industrious in testing out the gunpowder bangers at any rate.

Amusingly Dave ran out of clothes because all of the lavandarias we tried yesterday before the walking tour were closed (despite google telling us otherwise). So off Dave went last night to search for a T-shirt to wear or I would be walking several paces behind him. Luckily our host offered to wash our clothes for us at a reasonable rate so saved Dave from having to go shopping everyday.

We went to Cholula today which is only 8 miles outside of Puebla. Fun fact the hill you see here is actually a pyramid which has been grown over. It’s the largest pyramid in the world by volume and the largest structure in all of the Americas.

Cholula grew to become one of the largest trading hubs in Mesoamerica, linking both the Pacific and Gulf coasts as well as the cities both north and south of it. It is located in a valley near the volcanoes of Popocatepetl and Iztacihuatl. The volcanic soil and rivers provided irrigation and fertile land for agriculture.

They have excavated some of the ruins and we could see some reconstructed altar stones as well as a preserved section of painted stucco. There is even more of the ruins still underneath the hill.

Then we had a lovely uphill climb to the top of the hill to see the church. The church is a protected building so the ruins can’t be further excavated which is why we can’t see the whole pyramid.

In 1519 Cortez met with the leaders of Cholula in the central plaza, being a friendly fellow he then massacred all of them and burnt large parts of the city. He claimed it was because they planned to betray him later, but likely it was an effort to terrorise the next largest city Tenochtitlan and ease his conquest of the Aztecs there.

Cortez then vowed to replace every pyramid in the city with a catholic church (he didn’t manage it as there were too many pyramids), but it has ended up with over 50 churches. After that the Spanish founded Puebla next door to Cholula and the colonial city quickly overtook poor Cholula.

The church wasn’t all that impressive but the views were at least. We could see all the way to Puebla and the volcanoes Popocatepetl and Iztacihuatl.

While the pyramid isn’t uncovered you can go through one of the excavation tunnels within the pyramid to see how the pyramid was gradually expanded upon over time. However I don’t rate the experience as it was very stuffy and everyone moved at a snails pace and that was when it wasn’t a super busy day.

After ice creams we went to the Cholua Regional Museum. Most of the signs were in Spanish but had a few rooms detailing the history of the pyramid and the stages of its construction. Also the museum had bonus weird art.

We learnt that the pyramid was built in stages throughout the centuries and was last expanded in the classic period, though the city reached its largest in the post-classic. By 1200AD it covered an area of 10km and had a population of over 100,000. When Cortez arrived it was the second largest city in Mesoamerica after the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan.

I much preferred the smaller Archaeological Museum despite it being a lot older because it had a model which easily contextualised the site. Like an onion it has many layers.

I had a recommendation for a great place to eat in a Cholula and it didn’t let us down. It’s called Ocho 30 and we had macaroni cheese and mushroom risotto and it was seriously good. The margaritas and the pecan pie just made the day even better.

After our bus back to Puebla the rain clouds closed in fast and we quickly booked an Uber across town to avoid the rain. I have to say so far Puebla has been the worst for rain; at least it’s in the evening but it’s been full on thunderstorms each night.

We are in Puebla and to get a feel for the city we went on a walking tour with our old friends Estacion.

The tour started as usual by the cathedral, the design was first penned in 1557 and construction started in 1565 but they took their time and it wasn’t finished until 1690. The cathedral towers are the tallest in Mexico, but only one has bells in it. The local legend is an underground river runs below the second and everything would collapse if you added the bells, not quite sure that would actually happen.

After the cathedral we stopped nearby to look at an old library. The Biblioteca Palafoxiana was founded in 1646 and is certainly the first library in colonial Mexico, possibly in all of the Americas. It was started by Juan de Palafox y Mendosa, the bishop of Puebla. He left his 5000 book strong collection to the university when he returned to Spain after the cathedral was consecrated, on the express condition they be made available to the public. The library building is very impressive and was built on the orders of Francisco Fabian y Fuero who also donated his own book collection.

After the library we went straight to the Calle los Sapos. Calle los Sapos is the street of toads/frogs and is the area of town where people buy and sell antiques or artesanal objects. We were too early in the day to see much, however the area is very pretty and even has an old map of the city hand painted on porcelain tiles.

The area also has the city’s oldest continuous bar. Its a local institution and opens when the owner feels like it.

We then crossed the Puente de Ovando, over what used to be a river but is now mostly a ditch. The bridge has a legend associated with it, it was originally built by a rich family as a private shortcut to get across the river. The legend goes that the family had a son and a daughter, to the fathers displeasure the daughter wanted to marry a middle class man and she was forbidden. However one day the brother hid in the closet and caught the daughter and her lover. Enraged the brother took his pistol and tried to shoot the lover, but the daughter took the bullet and died. So the brother had to strangle the lover instead, quite an inconvenience.

The father was distraught and turned to drink, one night returning across the bridge a woman asked him for alms. The woman the said “do you not recognise me father” – it was the daughter returned from the grave and promising to ask all his decendents for alms as the family had taken her life. The father tried to flee, but was dragged into the river by a strange force and died.

Nearby the bridge are some of the entrances to the secret tunnels below Puebla. Until recently they were only rumoured or suspected to be folk tales, they were rediscovered recently and opened to the public in 2016. The earliest parts of the tunnel system dates to 1531 and it is thought they were used to evade the inquisition or to transport syphyllis patients. They were used to great effect against the French in the 19th century, as they connected to the city’s fort and could be used by Mexican troops to harass the French and to resupply the fort. Sadly they were closed this early in the day though.

Further along the street from the bridge is a big sculpture. The sculpture is supposed to be of an angel, but all the locals hate it and I’m not sure I disagree.

We stopped by the Sanctuary of San Francisco church, then looped back to see the artesanal crafts market and the area for painters. The city rents out small studio/cubby hole spaces to artists which provides a street where people can go to see (and hopefully buy) their art. Again we were reasonably early, so things were quiet.

Our next stop was at Casa de Alfenique and then on to the house where the Serdan Alatriste family lived.

The Serdan brothers were part of the early anti-reelection groups which started the Mexican revolution. In 1910 Francisco Madero led a campaign to not re-elect the dictator Porfirio Diaz, the Serdan brothers supported this idea and the revolution began on 20th November. However the first battle of the revolution can be said to have been at this house on the 18th November when police uncovered the conspiracy.

When discovered Aquiles and his brother Maximo along with Aquiles’ wife, mother and sister Carmen (who had helped get funds for their movement by going to Texas) with nine co-conspirators defended the house. Aquiles had previously been imprisoned by the regime and was presumably not keen on the idea. Soldiers and police surrounded the house and fired at them from the windows and roofs. Ultimately all 14 of the conspirators were killed, but in the process of the drawn out siege they astonishingly killed 158 government troops. When told the news Madero said “It does not matter. They have shown us how to die”. The house is now a museum to the revolution and the bullet holes have been left as a reminder.

The final stop on our walking tour was the Calle de Dulces – or street of sweets. The nearby convent used to make traditional sweets and sell them to raise funds. This has spiralled into an entire street of traditional Mexican sweets – a wonderful thing! We got to try a few things too.

After the tour we were close to the Capilla de Rosario, Santo Domingo church – looking inside its very bling. So much gold.

I then had a mighty craving for nachos and pina colada. However the nachos were drenched in American canned cheese which was weird, definitely not cheddar as the menu promised.

We then walked halfway across town to Fort Loreto. In the 16th century the Franciscans built a hermitage on the west of the hill and later a shrine to San Cristobal. The building passed to the Belemites and so the hill eventually was renamed from its pre-hispanic name Acueyametepec to the hill of Bethlehem. A second shrine was built on the east of the hill to the Virgin of Loreto and the original shrine re-dedicated to the Virgin of Guadeloupe (she’s a big deal in Mexico). Eventually in 1816 the mayor ordered defensive walls built around both sites to convert them into forts and defend against insurgents in the war of independence.

Strategically the two forts at Puebla were the gateway to Mexico City for any invaders from the Gulf Coast. When the French invaded in 1862 they made a bee-line for Puebla. On the 5th May 1862 the Battle of Puebla took place outside of the city. Although the French didn’t directly attack the forts, Fort Loreto served as the command centre for the battle. While the French did go on to take Mexico City, the Battle of Puebla was the first battle that the Mexican forces won, despite their supposedly inferior troops. Hence every town in Mexico has a 5th of May street and it is celebrated widely!

Although they didn’t manage to take Puebla in 1862, the French returned with reinforcements in 1863 and undertook the Siege of Puebla. They setup artillery and basically smashed the forts into rubble, then headed on to Mexico City to install Maximilliano as the first (and only) monarch of the second Mexican empire in 1863/64.

To finish the day we had ice cream looking out over the whole city.

Oh it was a very long day of travel to Puebla. There was only one bus a day from Papantla to Puebla so we had to make sure we hit the bus in time. So I decided I wanted a nice breakfast which we just about managed to squeeze in time before we made a brisk walk to the bus terminal.

It was a good 5 hours on the bus so we watched some shows on the iPad but Dave kept on falling asleep. Once we arrived in Puebla we grabbed a taxi since the bus terminal is at the wrong end of the city for our Airbnb place. Turned out this was a wise choice because the heavens opened on the way and it was torrential. Dave was like a bull in a china shop trying to get into the accommodation and out of the rain and broke a pot plant. For the rest of our stay the plant was kept in tin foil – it was very sad.

I enjoyed being out of the rain so much that Dave got sent out to grab take away pizza. Our accommodation is quite nice but weirdly made out of chipboard and had a Perspex roof which echoes so loudly in the thunderstorm I hid under the covers to dampen the noise.

At least we have a nice kitchen out on the terrace so I can have a cuppa tea. I’ve been missing this!

So there was an unexpected problem with the accommodation in the morning and that was the chickens. We left the windows open to get a bit of a breeze since it’s so humid in Papantla but that meant that at 4am the chickens started calling out. Their pen is on the terrace right outside our room and they were so noisy I couldn’t get back to sleep.

Today we are going to our 13th UNESCO at El Tajin. But first we had a lot of confusion as to where to grab the local bus with some saying it was by the convenience store and others by the market. I just wish there wasn’t a hill between these two places as we tried them both. It ended up that by the Oxxo convenience store is the place to wait but the bus isn’t very frequent.

El Tajin was an active city from 600-1200AD, built on a plain between two streams which supplied water. It also sits on the major trade route between Pacific and Gulf Coasts which was so important in mesoamerica.

Like others, the city thrived after the fall of Teotihuacan, however it met its end in the early 13th century as it was beset by fire. It is believed the fire was started by the Chichimecs as part of an invasion, though the city was already in decline before then.

The site was made a UNESCO primarily due to its unique architecture which is characterised by the pyramid of niches. The temple has seven levels and is characterised by small windows on each level. Originally painted red all over the windows were painted black to enhance the depth and shadow within. The staircase is a later addition, as it was built over existing niches.

Caves are traditionally associated with entrances to the underworld where gods may dwell, so it is thought that the niches represent such entrances. Some people believed that idols might have been placed in each niche so offerings could be made, but archaeological evidence doesn’t support this. Sadly the top of the temple has been destroyed, so no one is certain what was there or what the temple was truly for.

Other buildings around the site haven’t survived quite as well as the temple of niches. Indeed one seems to have suffered so much subsidence it looks like its been sat on and squashed.

At the top of the site there are some very well preserved painted murals, which still show the original colours.

It was very muggy so by midday I wanted to get back. There were some voledore guys preparing to fall from the pole but we waited 10 minutes and they were still playing a flute and trying to drum up a crowd so we left before they fell.

We tried a different place for dinner after the failure yesterday and I had a very nice pasta. I have to say I’m missing vegetables like back at home so I appreciated the spinach and mushroom – yummy.

The rest of the day was just spent lazing in the chair and enjoying the fans. It isn’t quite a hammock but it’s still comfy.