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.