But we didn't reckon with two things; topography (rivers and mountains and such) -- and local people's focus on two things: where they are, and where they go... Which is all via their capital cities, In this case Puebla and Mexico City. So, when we'd ask the hotel of the local tour agency, or even the combi (shared local van) driver who had the route we'd start out on, what the connections were from the place they went, or what road conditions were after the rains, -- we'd get really blank stares. Huh? Why would you want to go there?
Here's a pretty view from the bus going back up to Puebla ... Blurry but you can see why putting roads over and through this network of wet mountains and deep rivers, was not so easy
After several days of inquiring, it was clear we likely could get to these places, via combis, with out luggage on our laps, and packed tightly with folks... Which we didn't mind,,, but with a lot of unknowns... what delays and such, who knew? So, suddenly it evolved: we'd head back to one of my very favorite little cities, a gem in a valley, Tlaxcala.
And I'm so glad we did. I love Tlaxcala.
Tlaxcala!
Tlaxcala is a small place, but it has everything I like: quiet street after quiet street of attractive colonial buildings, volcanoes to frame the valley, pride in its history and traditions, few tourists, very comfortable lodgings, and very, very very good food. It was the ideal place to sleep quiet, eat well and smile a lot. Oh, and it has a nice climate. Quetzalan has a lot of this but Tlaxcala is a small city, not a village.
We ate amazing food and drank amazing wine at Vinos y Piedra, we hiked up the valley walls, we visited the shrine of the Virgin of Ocotlan which is on top of a prehispanic pyramid platform from which you could see three volcanoes. Popocatepetl is puffing and pumping clouds of mist and smoke from its too, which makes me happy since this mountain a year ago somehow was a sign to me than eventually I'd get a lot better.
Adventuring around Tlaxcala...beautiful scenery and this isn't the half of it
Also, Tlaxcala flows. It's really pretty easy to walk around through its squares and staircases to its main attractions - nice ex convent, nice market, nice fairground, really nice gracious small churches, springs
And its restaurants-- did I say food? We had amazing modern concoctions like fresh ahi tuna encrusted with pumpkin seeds, barely seared, filet mignon with a sauce of coffee and orange juice with crunchy coffee beans...
And we also had delicious Chiles en Nogada, Pipian rojo with pork, etc etc. Paired with wine at the nouvelle cuisine place, paired with pulque at the more traditional Pulqueria de la Tia Yola.
We had a nice breakfast of tamales and atole de chocolate in the market standing by her pots and steamers on the corner.
Tlaxcala has a very interesting history actually. It was a region subject to the Aztecs who hated them for their high taxes and cruelty, so when Cortes showed up, the Tlaxcalan leader agreed to gamble on helping him... Some. And, it turned out, against all odds, Cortes kept surviving and winning skirmishes. So the older Tlaxcalan leader agreed to get all his family baptized (a younger one, Xochitencatl I think, pleaded fervently for them NOT to back the Spaniards, but he was outvoted), and, when the Aztecs crumbled, Cortes treated every tribe pretty equally badly, Aztecs AND their subject tribes, dividing up all if their land and enslaving many -- but, because of their help, not the Tlaxcala tribe. They kept their lands and titles. So they still have this little state, carved out of Puebla state.
And, they converted... when a European disease, typhoid fever, started wiping them out, the priests new the importance of clean water, so they convinced folks the Virgen had appeared to say, drink our of THIS spring and no other. And typhoid died out.. And the miracle of the Virgen of Ocotlan was born. And a huge church basilica went up on their holy site... Which is top right...
The basilica of Ocotlan now obscures the view of the volcano behind it, La Malinche. Ocotlan is important... A favorite town of ours in Oaxaca state is also named for this place, Ocotlan.
But... I think you can see a puff from Popocatepetl behind Craig, here. This must have once been an amazing point.
We had seen Tlaxcala's sights a couple of times so this time we used our free day for a field trip to the other Magic Town in Tlaxcala State, Huamantla. That involved a nice little hike up to the bus station (yes, we could have taken a cab) and an entertaining trip by local bus past and into the non-attractive endless town of Atzocingo (I think) and then out into the rugged cowboy lands of western Tlaxcala, with blue mountain ranges, pepper trees, cacti, grasslands, and great views of four volcanoes, now -- because to the east is majestic Fuji-like Orizaba, well blanketed with snow.
Very fun was our bus travel experience. Not only was the scenery interesting, -- even the grody industrial and recycling areas around the cities outskirts cause there they had imaginatively named hotels like "kairo" and "Luxor".-- the passengers were nice too. All along we got glimpses of smoking Popocatepetl and its sister, and then the whole trip around Tlaxcala state's own volcano, La Malinche, with great formations at its base, and then the northern mountain ranges and finally Orizabam were beautiful.
Here is La Malinche
Hacienda lands... Local sheep...
Once she woke up (most Mexicans prefer to go right to sleep on the bus), our neighbor and her son got into it helped us sneak a peak.
But also, as we stopped at a bus station or two along the way, we really enjoyed as vendors of ice cream and chocolate bars and drinks and homemade sandwiches would get on, do their amazing fast banter 3-chocolate-bars-for-just-10-pesos-special-offer-you'll-never-see-again-take-advantage-of-it -now, offer everything to you twice and get off quickly or at the edge of town.
Huamantla was pleasant -- a basic small regional city, very focused on providing basic services to locals, who are not very interested in sitting around enjoying coffee and culture the way people are in Orizaba.
It has a nice church or two.
It's got a nice town square and a very nice walking street and some really good bakeries with delicious fancy sweets.
But not a lot of places to just hang out, people watch, eat, or stay... It seems anyway. (And we've read this)... There's a boutique hotel...
I think it's most likely that Huamantla is truly magical during its feast when they carpet its streets with designs in sand or in flowers. We saw one of these while we were there...
And some great examples, once we got back to Tlaxcala's cultural museum: creations in sand
Kind of like the sand paintings by Tibetan monks, or Navajos... Designed to be enjoyed as an offering for the moment, then walked through by q procession
We had a dessert that was like a Tres Leches but with an inner and a top layer of dark chocolate and crunchy nuts.
Huamantla has something very unique-- the national Mexican museum of puppets! There was a man who grew up very poor in Huamantla, so he learned to make his own puppets, and then through his life he collected every variety of puppet from every nation, Mexico itself from the 1830s on made a lot of puppets which captured perfectly the things people liked to do, there was a complete Don Giovanni opera for example, and a 1930s band, and bullfights, all in puppets.
Even a cockfight, in puppets.
And even Pedro Infante!
Not quite so enjoyable on our return trip, when I was hoping to get some pics of the vendors, was a young guy with a guitar who was SURE he was Bob Dylan who emulated him with the worst campy songs a person could ever write about his life as a free spirit voyager and then one about how his girls eyes enchanted him. Everyone was rolling their eyes. Except Craig who could not understand, Craig COULD understand that young Bob Dylan was absolutely tone deaf and had no musical talent... At first he was tempted as he always is to support the musician... The difference is though, there are SO many good musicians in every country including Mexico who absolutely merit encouraging,,, and then there was this guy, who had us at his mercy on the highway fir twenty five minutes and did not stop once to check anyone was appreciating him. Everyone was polite... And silent.... He did several encores,,, without exactly being asked, oh well it makes for a great memory.
The worst ...
Anyway we made it easily back to Tlaxcala...
This week in Tlaxcala, they were celebrating their 490th anniversary with events for locals... lectures on feminism, a visit by the ambassador from Lebanon (Mexico has a lot of Lebanese), photo exhibits about the Middle Easr... Nothing aimed at tourists but all things we could enjoy people enjoying.
We are looking forward to whatever events they create around their 500th anniversary, in ten years!
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