A Weekend in Puebla
(view from the road)
Puebla is a small city two hours from CDMX by bus. It was built in the 1600s as an experimental commune by the Spanish to motivate indolent conquistadors to farm and support themselves instead of enslaving and brutalizing the local indigenous peoples.
The commune idea never took root, but Puebla grew into a Mexican vacation spot famous for its artisanry, its food, and its geography — including a nearby active volcano (the world's smallest!) and pyramid ruins (the world's largest, by volume!).
Puebla is like a cross between a trendy, young city and the kind of place your mom would want to go on vacation. The streets are dotted with markets and vendors hawking embroidery, earthen kitchenware, and sartorial accoutrements for women of taste. But, on the other hand, it's also a university town that's filled with attractive twentysomethings who drink, make out, and play music on every other corner. There's a little something for everyone here, although there are a few moments where partners may want to part ways to allow for a little personal shopping/downtime....
In the evenings, crowds of Mexican tourists and young people pack into the squares and plazas to eat every imaginable kind of street food (with lines of people of all ages snaking around one particular block for freshly fried late-night churros) and to drink beer, tequila, or pulque. It's a hip place, but there's only a smattering of foreigners here. Puebla is a place Mexicans go to party and to shop.
For us, the real charm of the city is its unique flair when it comes to food and drink (and folk art! — more to come on that). There are backroom bars that serve the viscous, milky, fermented drink known as pulque (which deserves a post of its own) in gigantic wooden mugs or Styrofoam roadies.
The food is all about the mole. While Puebla’s claim to be the birthplace of mole is disputed [Oaxaca is likely the true madre de mole (more on that later)], there’s no denying that eating pools of sweet, spicy mole off of the traditional blue, hand-painted Talavera dishes as part of a four-course dinner that costs less than a Happy Meal is pretty freaking awesome.
~ T (& A)
