Sheryl Update

On Saturday we went to the Calle de dulces or candy street. There were lots of stores with traditional Puebla candy.

The one for tje picture above was so bad I spit it out the second the picture was taken. It tasted like an almond joy. Gross. Jeff moved it. He was eating a chocolate covered fig which was delicious

There was a lot to try. The above was made out of sweet potato and really good.

Between free samples and what we bought we had a major sugar rush.

This cute mini tamale had some tamirand goo that was sweet, salty and spicy all at once.

We ate a lot of what we bought but then I put some in my purse for later.

Here’s Jeff comteplating the bullet holes in the building behind him. Or he was thinking about more candy. This is where the Mexican revolution started in 1910.

After Candy Street we went to the tunnels of Puebla. They were constructed in the 1600’s as an aquaduct to bring drinking water to the center of town six miles away.

We walked through then for about ten minutes and there were stairs to exit. I said to Jeff, “That’s perfect. Just enough tunnels.

Unfortunately, when we got to street level a gentleman directed us across the street where the tunnels continued. That was too much tunnel.

It didn’t help that the tunnels closed at 4pm and it was 3:45. I imagined them closing the tunnels and not realizing we were down there. It would have been a night in the tunnels with only tamirand goo and an almond joy. But we made it out in time.

We came out at a a park with this view and sign

Just kidding. You can’t check books out here. And even if you could they would mostly be in Latin. I have always loved libraries. Two of my favorite jobs were working in libraries. I still use the Seattle online library.

On Thursday we went to the Biblioteca Palafoxiana. This library was built in 1649 and is the oldest public library in the Américas. Now it’s a museum, but you can still see the books if you are a researcher and get government approval.

We had this great tour guide who not only spoke perfect English, he was a bit alternative with nail polish and makeup which was great.

The library was on the second floor of a building but had three levels of books, with really steep steps to get to each level.

The door on the right in this picture is where they kept the forbidden books. These were the books the Church deemed evil including books by Leonardo Divinci and Gallaleo.

This was used so you could have several books open at once, sort of like we do today with different windows open on our computers.

This door was the door going into the library. Our guide explained that in the 1800’s the Mexican president came to Puebla. They built this door to impress him. Bit he never came. He just ate in a restaurant and left.

So that was the oldest library we’ve been to. But below is one of the newest ones we’ve been to. It was established in 2014 as a Pop Up library

Our niece Joey and I created this library in her house for the enjoyment of our family.

We all got library cards but only a lucky few got color ones. We weren’t allowed to use the color printer for more.

As head librarian Joey checked everyone in and all the books out.

My entire family loves to read, so they all really did browse the shelves and pick out books.

Since then Joey had gone from mini librarian to a beautiful young woman. She graduates high school on Sunday. We are so proud of her!

On Wednesday night after we got back from Cholula, we went to a restaurant called Nuni. It was a highly rated restaurant with a tasting menu. I normally don’t like this because as I like to say, “I eat with gusto rather than precision.”

In other words, I scarf my food down so fast I don’t notice the flavors. But, this place was not expensive and the menu looked good.

First course was a watermelon and beet salad. Delicious.

Second course for me was ceviche. The little yellow things were not fish eggs but little fruits. So good.

Since Jeff is allergic to fish he had a duck empanada. Also amazing.

The restaurant was so small we sat right next to the chef. After each course Jeff would say in perfect Spanish something like, “Chef, this dish is exquisite. The flavors are astounding.”

I would point to my plate and say in Spanish “Good.”

This, was the fanciest tamale I’ve ever eaten. Really good.

Pictures of steak never look good. But this was delicious.

Mango passionfruit flan. Looked weird but incredible.

Chocolate mouse with ice cream and mushrooms. Yes I know that sounds bad. But it was amazing.

On Thursday night we decided to go out to a different restaurant and just get appetizers and salad.

We ordered the guacamole without grasshoppers but the waiter talked us into getting them on the side to try. Jeff went first. He was feeling pretty confident.

As you can probably tell, he didn’t like them a whole lot.

I was disgusted just looking at the dish of them but I went next and tried them anyway.

They weren’t bad. Sort of tasted like anchovies. I then tried them with chips and guacamole and the grasshoppers. I have to say, it was a tasty combo. Although that was enough. I won’t be chowing down a bag of them anytime soon.

On Wednesday we went to the nearby town of Cholula. There are the remains of an Aztec pyramid and then a church way up top. The plan was to start at the pyramid base and if we had energy walk up to the church.

Before we started we saw a lot of indigenous women selling handicrafts.

We should have known it was going to be confusing when we bought tickets. At first the ticket office was closed. When I asked around they said it was because the ticke seller had to go get lunch.

When he cane back I could only see or talk to him through this little hole.

Before we could see the pyramid we had to go through the museum

This statue seemed to know we were going to be tricked.We started up the hill which was not signed. We kept going up and up never seeing any pyramid.

Finally we got to the church which was beautiful, but was not a pyramid.

Jeff seems a lot less bothered that we just scaled a mountain by mistake. The church was beautiful. They didn’t allow photos inside which is good because I would post 30.

If it wasn’t cloudy you would see a volcano between the statues.

Also a very ornate door.

We walked back down the hill and asked around until we finally found what was left of the pyramid. It was interesting but woulds have been more so if we had not just walked up a very high hill.

There was a part you could climb which Jeff did. On his way down I mentally reviewed our medical insurance policy.

He made it down the 1500 year old steps without problems. Then it was on to tacos.

On Tuesday we went to the Parque Ecological for a nature walk. The park was great with trails and lots to see.

This aviary looked cool but it was closed. Or we couldn’t find the entrance. It could have been either.

It’s really dry here, but these flowers were popping up which was really pretty.

After our walk, we went to this mini mart for water. The sales lady was so nice and excited to talk to us in Spanish. She told us that her daughter was in dental school in Baja and then would come back to Puebla to be a dentist. She said , “I’ll show you. ” she opened a door at the back of her store and voila a dentist office.

It was all ready for her daughter to start her dental practice at the back of the mini mart.

Next we went to the market to buy Dragon Druit. We red that it’s a super fruit abd good for inflammation. In Panama one piece of fruit was $4. Here it’s in season and you could get 2 pounds for the same price. We tried the green ones but bought the red ones.

There were also a lot of flower vendors with amazing bouquets. We enjoyed the market but left before we got to the gross meat section

On Monday Jeff and I started the day at the cathedral. Jeff wasn’t as into the church as I was so he waited outside. When I came outside I saw him talking to a group of people. I assumed it must be a cult.

It turns out it was a group of nursing students that needed to give a presentation in English for their school.

After they gave us their presentation they took our vitals. We both passed.

After we wanted to find a place to see the square from above. It was 100% not our fault that McDonald’s had the best rooftop terrace.

After a quarter pounder and fries I had a Spanish lesson. Then later in the day we went out for a local drink made from raisins with goat cheese.

For dinner we went to this restaurant in a beautiful setting. It was a restored house from the 1600’s.

It was so gorgeous inside.

Unfortunately they must have spent all their budget on the design and had nothing left for food or waiters. It wasn’t good. So we left and went to a to another place with amazing food.

This is a duck empanada with mole sauce. Amazing.

On Sunday we walked around town and just relaxed and took in the sights.

Our hotel has a great breakfast included with our room. One thing I was not expecting was Jello. They love Jello in Mexico. I had a language mishap when getting coffee. They’re was a carafe of coffee but I wanted the waiter to pour it for me. I was afraid of spilling it. I should have said:

tengo miedo – I have fear, or I’m afraid.

unfortunately I said:

tengo mierda – I have shit.

I realized it right away but didn’t know how to explain it so I just took my coffee and ran.

After breakfast we walked around and I tried not to take photos of every building. We heard music and stumbled on a orchestra.

We also stumbled upon a fried grasshopper saleslady.

We saw several more vendors. I guess they are in season. We didn’t try them.

Puebla is famous for their pottery. I may need to buy some. It would be a nice addition to our storage locker.

For dinner we went to a Mezcalería which is like a wine bar but for Mezcal. Mezcal is like tequila but made from different kinds of agave. We told the bartenders what we liked in flavors and they brought us different ones to try. I don’t like Mezcal but they found one that I liked.

Almost every restaurant we go to I order chips and guacamole. I skipped it here. You can see why when you read the menu.

We got these instead. They did not have any grasshoppers in them.

Jeff and I got up on Saturday and packed our suitcases. They were so full everything would fall out if we opened them. We each put on the clothes we left out to wear on the bus and realized we matched.

There was no time to open our suitcases and repack so we had to just be nerdy gringos and match for the day.

The bus was like boarding a plane. We checked our luggage at a counter, went through a metal detector, and watched as our luggage was loaded.

Everyone got a bottle of water as they entered.

We didn’t match as much sitting side by side.

We watched the movie Shang-Chi and the Ledgend of the Ten Rings. It was so weird to watch a movie that took place in China dubbed in Spanish.

Three hours later we made it to Puebla. Thus bus was great. Lots of legroom, AC and cheap, only the equivalent of $10 USD.

On Friday we went to the neighborhood of Polanco. This is the upscale part of town with outdoor cafes and luxury shopping.

Even here on these tree lines streets traffic was bad. But it didn’t have the noise level of other areas.

Even the street performers were classy.

We strolled around, had lunch and then went to a park.

The ultra rich don’t wear tee shirts from Walmart and baseball caps from Under Armor but it was fun to pretend.

On Thursday Jeff and I went to the Aztec Temple which is right in the middle of town. It turns out Aztec is a term made up by a German in the 1800’s. The Mexican term is mexica.

The site is huge, seven city blocks.

And it’s truly in the middle of town. Here’s a wall of stone skulls with a church from the 1500’s behind it.

They were really into skulls.

As if a wall of carved stone skulls wasn’t creepy enough, they also did this.

The attached museum housed all the things found at the site which is good because the museum is air conditioned.

This stone tablet was so big you needed to be up.2 floors top see it.

And I think they must have invented the recorder we all played in third grade.

The green instrument is made of stone but looks exactly the same.

This guy might have invented corn on the cob

This was something to put an offering in. I love the face on it.

And of course one that looks really pissed off.

Then it was back to the apartment to have a Spanish lesson.