INTRODUCTION

Delighted in 2003 by our 2 month visit to Peru we decided to tackle Mexico in May/June 2004 with a return visit in less hot weather in Nov/December 2004 including a month spent in Guatemala. Later we added a two week to explore the Yukatan in Feb/March 2008. Mexico remains a superb destination such a pity that the rise in violence has made it less attractive to visit.

Unfortunately for once I recorded very little in the form of a written diary so my record traces than anything else my attempts to extend my vocabulary in Spanish and to keep a check on costs. 

Apologies to early readers for a blog which was started only in November 2016 and will rely heavily on memories resurrected by a study of photographs and the written comments of my wife Joan. 

ITINERARY (May/June 2004)

MEXICO 40 nights
Mexico City 10-13 May 2004, Hotel Catedral
Tasco Friday 14-17 May, Hotel Posada San Javier
Puebla Wed 18-21, Hotel Colonial,
Cuetzalan 22&23 June,
Puebla 24 May 
Oaxaca 25-30 May
Puerto Escondido 31 May & 1 June, Hotel Arco Iris
Chiapa de Corzo, 2&3 June, Casa de Huespedes Los Angeles?
Overnight Bus 4 June
Tuxtla 5&6 June, Hotel Regional San Marcos
San Cristobal 7-9 June, Posada San Cristobal
Palenque 10 June, Posada Aguila Real
Overnight Bus 11 June
Vera Cruz 12-14 June, Hotel Imperial
Jalapa (Xalapa) 15&16 June
Mexico City 17&18 June, Hotel Catedral 

ITINERARY (October/November 2004)
MEXICO 7 nights
Mexico City 30&31 October, Hotel Catedral
Oaxaca 1&2 November, Antonio's
Overnight Bus 3 November
San Cristobal 4&5 November, Villa Real 2
GUATEMALA 21 nights
Quetzaltenango (Xela) 6&7 November, Hotel Casa Florencia
San Marcos la Laguna (Atitlan) 8-12 November, Chalets Ji Nava
Chichicastenango 13&14 November, Posada el Arco
Nebaj 15&17 November, Pasada de Taranza
Acul 16 November, Pasada Ixil Dona Magdalena
Coban 18&19 November, Hotel La Pasada then Hotel Alcazar
El Estor 20 November, Hotel Vista del Lago
Rio Dulce (Lago de Izabal 21&22), November  Hotel Rio Dulce
Flores 23-26 November, Hotel Villa del Lago
MEXICO 3 nights
Villa Hermosa 27 November, Hotel Madero
Mexico City 28&29 November
Overnight flight to London 30 November

ITINERARY (February - March 2008)
MEXICO YUKATAN 14 nights
First Choice flight from London 
Cancun 26 February B&B
Valladolid 27 Feb to 1 March, El Meson del Marques, Chicken Itza

Merida 2-4 March, Hotel Caribe
Ticul  5 March, Hotel Plaza, Uxmal
Valladolid 6 March, Ek Balam
Tulum 7-9 March, Les Arrecifes
Cancun 10 March 2008, El Rey del Caribe
First Choice flight to London

INTRODUCTION written in November 2016
Way back in the 50's three of young men drove across the USA largely along Route 66 returning a stolen car to its rightful owner. It the sort of adventure which left me with so many unique memories, San Francisco of course but none more so than the vibrant city of Santa Fe. In those days it was practically unknown as a tourist destination but to us it buzzed because of its Mexican vibes. 

That's what sent Joan and I exploring Mexico almost fifty years later in 2004 and the appeal of our first visit took us back twice in the following years to explore the south of that country including Guatemala which like Mexico's Yukatan is based on Mayan culture. As is our norm we traveled around solely by local scheduled buses and got as involved as possible in local life.  

Mexico then as now had a somewhat tarnished reputation of criminality largely drug related. We set out with some trepidation not improved by being told by a Mexican girl, met through Italian language classes!, that one even had to be careful about choosing taxis. But the overriding impression left is one of delight in the country and the welcome of the people, though there were occasional downsides. We would love to go again but sadly we have concluded at eighty that our long haul flying days are over and our now resigned to local travel within Europe. 

MEXICO CITY

MEXICO CITY 10-13 May 2004
Delays caused by bad weather made Lufthansa miss their slot in London leaving only 20 minutes to catch the connecting flight in Frankfurt, so were amazed to find our luggage had also made the switch.

It was I think the first time I had used Trip Advisor to select an hotel, then but less so more recently it's readers gave good and clear recommendation. Hotel Catedral was spot on, brilliant location off the Zocalo (main Square), the cathedral was in clear view from our bedroom. 

View of Cathedral from bedroom window

View of Cathedral from Zocalo

Cheap at the time we had to walk the last couple of streets as the taxi could not reach the destination for our arrival had coincided the a major renewal of city sewers.

We noted that the majority of taxis were green and white VW  Beetles 'taxi libre' of the type we had been advised to avoid! We were advised that restaurants would phone for reliable taxis, but gradually we developed an instinctive feel for judging the suitability of the inevitable green/white ones. 

Zocalo (on day of the dead)

Zocalo with VW taxi libre

11May, After breakfast that first morning we set out to view the Zocalo and spent the morning in the Palacio National. Its murals and black and white photographs depicting Mexican life in the past gave us a good insight into the history since winning independence from Spain.

The palace had been built by the Spaniard Cortes, having destroyed the earlier palace, and was the viceroys residence until independence in 1820.  

The major murals were painted by Diego Rivera, their most famous painter in the early 30's. 

We were able to view of the rooms of the second PM, the very popular leader Benito Juaraz (died 1872) who had especially high ideals on the running of a state.The old parliament rooms had been wonderfully restored from a fire just five years earlier.

After lunch we visited the Museo des Belles Artes the newly restored art deco building erected between 1904 and 1930. Diego Rivera's 'Man Controller of the Universe' dominated the third floor. Themes were mostly left wing politics, anti-war, anti-capitalism, anti-unemployment. 

Museo Bellas Artes

12 May, Took our first very successful trip from the zocalo on the metro, a 2P a ticket for journeys of any length, in this case to the Chapultepice woods to the Museo Antropologica, the sort of introduction to a new country which is becoming normal first steps.
It was an excellent introduction of the older civilisations which seemed parallel to those of Peru.
BC to 700 AD Toetihuacan with large cities but without the refinement of the Moche civilisation in Peru.
Tolteca AD 650- AD 1250
Aztec, right up to their conquest by Spain. Notable for impressive stone carving, more refined than before but Roman rather the Tuscan in a similar era. Cortes was welcomed as a god and presented with a beautifully feathered headdress.
Maya, They alone among the Indians of Mid and South America had a language with a grammatical structure, though pictoral in nature. The first written records across this Latin American subcontinent are in Spanish. 

That evening we returned to the Belles Artes to see the Ballet Folkflorique in a wonderful theatre with a stained glass cupola and
modern safety curtains reproducing a painting by Mexican artist Gerald Murillo. Dancing and music of a very high standard including that La Cucuracha by Carmen Miranda. 

Walking back the hotel at 10:30pm we saw no obvious danger, it seems that as in Peru the danger warnings in the Lonely Planet (the bible guiding world wide lone travellers at the time) were overblown.

13 May, Complemented for my Spanish in the tiny tourist office stand on the Zocalo asking above for suggestions about the journey to Tasco. No problem, no need to book for there were buses every hour, it was OK to take our large rucksacks on the metro. She gave me the San Javier hotel and gave me the telephone number and directed us to the Sanborn's to buy a phone card, we also bought post cards.


They directed me onto the wonderful brass Palacio de Correos (post office) to buy stamps. On showing our passports we were showed around the upper floor with a party of visiting school children. Thus seeing a collection of olden wooden stamping blocks and a set of olden day mail bags. There was a huge mural a collage made entirely of stamps showing a kneeling woman holding an ear of maize with a background of fields and mountains.

Palacio des Correos

Not only is Sanborn's a high class general store but it also houses a wonderful restaurant in Casa de Asulejos (house of tiles), with smart waitresses in starched dresses which became our favorite stop for coffee. It was originally a Chemists Shop with an old stone soda fountain in one wall it now has branches in most cities. 

Sanborn's store and Casa de Asulejos

In the afternoon we went to Templo Mayor, the original centre of Mexico City, a recently unearthed discovery from Aztec Tenochtitlan (1375) days, very close to the hotel and next to the cathedral.

AZTEC TEMPLO MAJOR

There had been seven levels of Aztec temples built one on top of the last, the lowest level still being excavated. The structure had been 40 metres high comparable with the catholic cathedral which is 65 metres high. For years it lay under the ruble of the Spanish houses built on top in the 1520's. 


Dinner at Cafe de Tacuba an excellent meal fine garlic soup with a raw egg and fillet steak, no wonder a large French group emerged from the other half from whence we were entertained by music and singing.  

Thursday 17 June 2004
An advantage of writing this account from notes and photographs made at the time of travel is the lack of need to write in strict diary sequence. I thus move to the very end of this first visit for the final two nights in Mexico City, and then skip onto the beginning and end of our second trip in November 2004.

So this written following an overnight bus ride from Jalapa. Joan records the journey through the mountains as very green with cows sheep and horses and mainly pine trees. Past a wonderful mountain lake edged with white rocks in the crater of an old volcano. A gradual descent to vast fields around Puebla with maize, which is even grown in the mountains, broad beans and cabbage. An authorised taxi from the bus station brought us to the Zocalo where we discovered much of the road works was leading to the hotel was now complete. The zocalo was full of huge tents and a stage presumably in preparation for a Saturday night event by which time we would be on a flight home.

The only record of eating yet again at the Cafe de Tecuba where we ate too much, with pleasant entertainment from a group of troubadours with their guitars, table by table if my memory is correct.  

18 June, Took underground then a surface train/tram to La Noria where we walked through  to the fabulous privately owned Museo Dolores Olmedo Patino. A wonderful sixteenth century house with a huge landscaped garden of grass with peacocks and fine trees and an enclosure for what Joan terms as 'old' meaning original dogs, completely bald before hair developed as we had seen the previous year in Peru. 

Dolores Olmeda Patino, she still lives in part of the building, her apartment of was full of the treasures collected on the travels of this rich lady.

Furtive record of a quiet room

Photos of her family and one of Diego Rivera whilst painting her. Paintings of her and daughters. (My wife tells me one daughter married Zac Goldsmith another Imran Khan probably Pakistan's best ever cricketer come serious politician.)

The galleries were full of originals and is considered to be the best collection of the works of Diego Rivera. Normally there would also be her collection of the paintings by Frida Kahlo but they were currently on loan to an exhibition at Frida Kahlo's house which we visited on our next trip.

Wonderful ivory carving particularly the tiny Japanese ones, Wooden screens inlaid with ivory Cranes a wonderful comic elephant with short legs and a screwed up trunk.

Items stored in beautiful oriental cabinets. A reclining Buddha looking very Thai, and a wonderful impression of a reclining woman in reddish brown wood - no touching or photography in this house. There were lots of pieces of frogs which I was told were symbols of luck, good fortune and wealth. On leaving we noted the gate posts were also frogs.

Our final shots were of the statue of a bald dog which provided partial shade for two live dogs of the same type.

Bald Dogs one statue two live in garden

The afternoon was spent in that unique playground of  Xochimilco, where Mexicans come to relax in colourful boats. To reach take the metro to Tasquena station and Tren Ligero to the very last stop. 

Xochimilco, a back water on a quiet day

The Parque Ecologico the surrounding fertile botanical gardens (using the techniques used by Aztecs) are in fact floating though they seem solid enough.

Floating Garden?

Floating gardens a reminder that centre of Mexico city itself was built on a small island in a lake, because the nomadic Aztecs spotted a Eagle standing on a cactus eating a snake and took it as a sign to stop wandering and build the city of Tenochtitlan. Hardly the ideal place to build but mystic imperatives prevailed! 

Joy and a sense of relaxed fun afloat is everywhere with the odd jazz band thrown into the mix. Obviously a place Mexicans come to celebrate special events. First stop on any further visits we make to the city.

SECOND TRIP to MEXICO CITY in 2004
From Joan's Notebook for once my record is sparse, Monday 30 October
The day started well with an upgrade to first class by KLM, now her favorite airline. For some reason the hotel Catedral (my telephone Spanish?) they had us booked for the 20/21 but quickly found us a room.

Halloween not the same as home though there are small children collecting in plastic pumkins. There was a  big concert with an audience of 2000 though we left at 9pm for bed.

31 October breakfast in Casa de Asulejos (Sanborn's), especially wonderful on Sunday morning but when we left there were queues waiting for one of the tables, twenty five downstairs many more in the three rooms on the floor above. 

The zocalo was a hive of activity being prepared for All Souls Day. 

Brick ovens had been built for  baking 'pan de muertos'

The baker was particularly welcoming to passers by.

Men were dressed appropriately for their role as Aztec fighters.

Xochimilco next stop where were asked to share a punt by a welcoming Swiss couple. 

They lived in Mexico city with their young daughter and on their first visit to Xochimilco.

The man was extremely wary of kidnappers and didn't like his wife ever to be out alone after dark and in the city he always travelled by taxi or underground for safety. An important man from his office had been kidnapped for months as the bandits argued for a ransom. That fear at least was real, perhaps more so given a likelihood of a significant cash return - as backpackers we felt safe.

A more worrying currently circulating fear for the likes of us was of a few days of temporary kidnap as the robbers took you each day to draw money from ATM until the bank ceased paying. Perhaps this was the time we altered our strategy from carrying valuables, credit/debit cards in a thin waist wallet and passports in a neck wallet, to leaving them in locked luggage in a secure room. Travelling 'pay as you go' we never had serious amounts of cash, and by now ATMs were easy to find all over the world.

1 November DAY of the DEAD

We were up early and breakfasted at the hotel with only a few minutes to revisit the zocalo before catching the bus we had booked for Oaxaca.

Time enough to see lots of activity, bread being baked in the ovens,

 Historical Performances and mock graves with offerings,

Three foot high skeletons with people dressed in old style Spanish or Aztec clothes. 

A pyramid being dressed with flowers and fruit. In one corner a large tent with altars for different periods of history.  

FINAL VISIT to MEXICO CITY
End of Trip Sunday 28 November 2004
Brian's thoughts for once, for Joan finished at Villa Hermosa
Unbelievable transition in the two days of travel from Flores in Guatemala to Mexico City. One from pre-industrial civilisation to tarmac roads, great landscape devoid of slash and burn farming, chicken buses to luxury buses meant we nearly starved for lack of visits on board from colourful peasants selling their produce, personal mobile phones everywhere, fly-overs and busy traffic for calm except for a ninety minute jam to Mexico Norte.

The big current issue across both Guatemala and Mexico is the huge occurrence of violence against women. 20% of females thought to suffer mental and physical violence and only slightly less sexual violence. 

Photographs alone remind us of one last visit to a study day for schoolchildren studying drawing in a wonderful setting surrounded by posters. Where exactly that was remains for the moment a mystery.

MUSEO FRANZ MAYER

GEORGE BUSH wasn't popular here either!

MUSEO FRANZ MAYER

MUSEO FRANZ MAYER

??

 


 












CONTINUING TRIP MAY 2004
14 May 2004 TASCO
To follow promise!




 

TASCO

Friday 14  May 2004
We went first to Tasco on the advice of neighbour Stefan whose daughter Lara had spent part of her Spanish university course in Mexico.

Leaving Mexico City we first took the metro to Taxquena, then walked to the Terminal Sur bus station and bought tickets for the two and a half hour journey to Tasco On arriving we took a collectivo (shared taxi) to the zocalo. My first thoughts were we have struck gold, or rather silver as this picturesque old town on a steep hillside was built for the mining of the metal. 

We looked for the hotel Posada San Javier having seen rave reviews in the Lonely Planet and struck gold again thinking is the nicest hotel we have had since .... in Bundi India. There were several small uniquely shaped bungalows sited around a beautiful garden of trees, flowers, ornaments, statues and a swimming pool.

SAN JAVIER HOTEL. POOL, GARDEN and MAIN BUILDING

Our delightful unit being five sided rhombic in shape with one long side, being wrought iron gates sealed with stained glass leading to the triangular bathroom. At the centre a pillar with a circular ledge surround, the furniture is wooden bold and heavy.

OUR SITTING ROOM

We bought Mamee fruit, new to us with skin and a large stone reminiscent of avocado, but a taste of that and date.

On exploring the town we found that the Summer Festival was starting tonight with an orchestral concert in the square followed by a firework display. We got there in time to hear the last number

15 May 
Breakfast was outdoor restaurant on the roof of the main building with many separate small tables and fabulous views of the town. 

VIEW FROM ROOF RESTAURANT at SAN JAVIER

An interesting friendly mixture, two Mexican girls Cecelia and Jessica studying at the Quick English School in Mexico city, two Americans were returning home after spending two weeks in Peru.

An Mexican with his American girlfriend shared our table.conversation. She like all Americans, she said, originally had a poor view of Mexico but on living there had grown to like it a lot. There was lots of advice on places to visit including Baja California in winter to watch whales in the breeding season. But Joan records the tremendous respect for Benito Juarez who became President in 1861.
'Benito Juarez is considered one of Mexico's greatest and most beloved leaders. During his political career he helped to institute a series of liberal reforms that were embodied into the new constitution of 1857. During the French occupation of Mexico, Juarez refused to accept the rule of the Monarchy or any other foreign nation, and helped to establish Mexico as a constitutional democracy. He also promoted equal rights for the Indian population, better access to health care and education, lessening the political and financial power of the Roman Catholic church, and championed the raising of the living standards for the rural poor.' (mexonline.com)


Wandering around town we found the streets full of wandering children and then a wonder concert by a group of young clarinetists, I record there were five different pitches, high soprano,alto, bass and contrabass the latter Joan sketched as being the shape and size of a thin baritone sax with the sound of an organ. Their classical reportoir of Chopin, Beethoven, Scriabin, Bach, Schubert, Carmen and tango by Albeniz got standing ovations.

TASCO TOWN

Next off we saw an outstanding modern dance troup, the most memorable being two women with a pitcher of silver dust dancing ever faster, finally unveiling their faces and gliding off stage. A different combination saw 4 men with 3 fabulous slim young women dancing faster and faster.

Joan records we finished the day with hot dogs, what a come-down!

Sunday 16 May talking to the American back from Peru about the war in Iraq, he saw Bush as a Texan farmer not a politician, we guess he voted for Al Gore. Back in the streets we listened to the most awful  free jazz band ever for a very short while.

Met the pleasant Mexican/American who gave us their address in Mexico City, they showed us a beautiful little bottle opener albalone with silver fish with interlocking scales. 
He conceded 'the Spanish gave us a wonderful language, but they don't know how to speak it' whereupon the American girl responded with 'We say the same about the English' 

Lunched at the Terrace Cafe on coffee and cakes and got into an earnest discussion with the owners.

At a concert a 'handsome pianist' (Joan) gave us a very ordinary introduction to the styles of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and Gershwin.

We ate a Mexican dinner in the Santa Fe restaurant with a fine pumpkin soup, Joan having stuffed chicken with a unique spicy taste, me with pork and prunes, with a large jug of refreshing blackberry juice.

Monday 17 May       The mixed race couple had left so at breakfast we talked to the pleasant Mexican girls anxious to practice their English, but all with very American accents! 

The silver ranch of Spratling (1900-1967) was reached partly by bus and then walk in country side with such fabulous tree blossom. 

JOAN ADMIRING COUNTRY DWELLING near TASCO

Spratling had trained as an architect but became famous as a designer of silver objects. He initially came to Tasco to encourage people to make good quality silver designs using traditional patterns. He was a friend of William Faulkner and Diego Rivera. There were several examples of his own designs on display ( Joan sketched several including elegant pots an engraved wooden box inlaid with strands of silver). A frail old man was making dragonfly and bird designs.

Walking back along the road we saw some very dehydrated looking cows and horses then an woman under a large tree, her husband had climbed high and was picking the pods. She gave us some to eat, they had a white fluid with black pips. We left the road for another hoping to find the other silver ranch but instead found a small friendly village and church, a carton of orange juice and some bananas before taking the bus back to Tasco.

Back then to our beautiful garden and a seat near the pool. 

That evening there was a talk in Spanish on old Tasco. We arrived late to find only five people there, including the very pleasant lady we had seen at several concerts, but more kept arriving. The talk was fascinating for fifty years ago the village had had lavendieras  for washing and laundry exactly as we had seen fifty years ago in Spain. In the same period VW Beetles had now replaced donkeys as beasts of burden.There was a long discussion about the way the town should be preserved and developed so as not to discard their heritage. 

(We later met a woman who recalled there were still donkeys when she had visited just ten years ago. and an American couple a looking at a place open for dinner at 10:30 pm - they succeeded.

Back to the zocalo for another concert and a delightful meal of pacos eaten on the verandah overlooking the square. A few days earlier we had had a long chat with the owner of a silver ornament shop who had invited us to stay at her house if we ever returned to Tasco. I took Joan back there to buy a present to mark  our fifty years together. She chose a heavy silver necklace and she records that she would enjoy wearing it - though in practice the suitable occasions have not been that frequent.

Tuesday 18 May
At breakfast talked to an American/Japanese couple who visited Tasco twice a year to buy silver goods, who said the current wholesale price was $3.7/gram, we had bought our necklace at just 10% above that.

We had decided reluctantly to move on today so I talked a long time to the pretty wife of the owner trying to sort out next move without returning through Mexico City. We had come NW to Tasco and wanted to go south and not further west to the coast and Acapulco. So we elected  to go by bus to Cuernavaca and then on to Puebla, which proved to be another wise choice - we were beginning to crack travel in Latin America on a our first visit. 

  

PUEBLA

Tuesday 18 May 2004 PUEBLA
Arrived after two bus rides (164M$ each) totalling several hours and three taxis (85M$0 between bus stations and hotels, the last part to Puebla being luxurious of the standard you would usually find in Mexico. Joan records bone dry fields, a cart used for spreading manure, stubble fields being burnt off in a hazy fume stretching to far off hills, but more fertile land with rose gardens as we neared Puebla.

PUEBLA CATHEDRAL

Initial night at the Colonial hotel which was M$570 for a poor room with small widows and a smelling like a hospital. Sought better tomorrow but found Los Angeles and Sovereign were full until happily settled in the friendly 3 star Royalty, right on the zocalo for M$ 640 including breakfasts.

OUTSIDE ROYALTY HOTEL PUEBLA, Start of Car Rally

Mole Poblano for dinner for the first time at Santa Clara, a Mexican speciality of chicken in a spicy chocolate sauce, too sweet for our tastes.

19 May
Walked to find the Ex-Convento de Santa Rosa and Museo de Arte Popular Poblano but had to wait with three Mexicans and a French family in a lovely courtyard for a wonderful guided tour in Spanish - no photos allowed.

We saw the huge tiled kitchens where mole poblano was first made, the large pottery bowls used when cooking for the nuns, the stone stands and rolling pins for making tortilla but the most amazing were the tiles themselves from floor to ceiling blue and white with bird motifs and yellow blue and green floral designs. The next room even had pictures entirely made of tiles.

 

There were rooms of basket work from woven rush mats. A 10x 12 feet room upstairs for baby orphans in folding cradles, some babies had been left at the door because their mothers were unmarried and couldn't afford to feed them.
Joan records a dinner set of fine china with a lilac motif, especially beautiful clay trees of life from Adam and Eve onwards and beautiful embroidery.

After the convent was closed the building was used for housing the mentally insane 

On leaving we went into the church next door with people praying to Santa Rosa and she noted a teenager cross himself as entered the door.

After lunch we went to the absolutely first class Amparo museum where the Colonial part had painted wooden carving and a Dutch painting on wood of Francis of Assisi praying in front of a small crucifix with stigmata on his hands and cat-o-nine tails which to Joan implied flagellation - a fascinating view of a saint she always thought of as having an idyllic life. The section on ancient
Mexican history was fabulous, concluding it's 6 pm and raining but we should return. 

Sheltering from the rain we found our first good coffee in an Italian Coffee bar. 

A good jazz quartet were playing from 8 to 11pm  in the street under the covers outside our hotel, led by an alto sax with a fine young American playing keyboards, plus bass and drums on backing track. We talked a lot to the American who initially came to Puebla for 3 months to learn Spanish but is still here 3 years later now teaching English at Puebla university. He gave two particularly good recommendations of must visit places in Mexico all of which we followed up, Jalapa for music and Altimevaye for access to Popocatepetl, and Cuetzalan.

20 May, Searching for El Popo
Taxi to side street stop of ORO buses to Atlizco where several people were very helpful in getting us to take a taxi of colour denoting that it was authorised for the particular bus station for Altimevaya, as recommended by the jazz pianist. 

A lovely ride with well tilled fields and well marked with signs saying 'ruta evacuacion' possibly because an eruption of Popocatepetl was thought imminent, passed lots of restaurants offering trout.  Ironically it was from this bus that we got our best view of the volcano at 9:30am but didn't bother to photograph it then, on our return it was too dark.

When the bus stopped at Altimevaya after enquiring the times of return journey we had a nice chat with a fellow selling chicken fom the back of a van, all the meat looked very fresh.

He pointed right to the fish farm but we left to the church on the hill and on arrival found ourselves on a very uninviting square with a derelict building with broken windows where martins and sparrows were nesting made special by an enormous ancient cypress tree. 

ALTIMEVAYA, OUR WALK STARTED AT THIS DERELICT BUILDING

We climbed the mountain road for two hours hoping to get a view of Popocatepetl but in vain. 

WE WERE WALKING CLOSER TO DANGER

JOAN POINTS IN DIRECTION OF POPOCAPEPETL

When we reached a plateau our view of it was blocked by high trees and increasingly dense cloud and the high peak behind it to the north. Since the sun was in the west the mountains were little but silhouettes.

LOVELY OPEN MOORLAND

JOAN REVELS IN WILD FLOWERS

Disappointed we decided to descend through a beautiful wild countryside. Joan recalls lupins, penstaman, trailing verbena, cornflowers and a thorny white poppy like flower.

WILD FLOWER WITH BEETLE

NEARING ALTIMEVAYA ON RETURN

CYPRESS TREE AT ALTIMEVAYA

In Altimevaya we fed on trout, the local delicacy, with a delightful salad of cucumber and lime. Joan's day was made by seeing a humming bird at work in the garden of that restaurant, a grey stoat on the wall, and lots of orange and yellow swallow tailed butterflies on the flowers. It was an idyllic place. 

IRONICALLY SAW SNOWCAPPED FLAT TOP of  POPOCATEPETL FROM PUEBLA BUSSTATION

 

On our return to Puebla I checked out the availability of buses to Cuetzalan and found Via goes hourly on Saturday and Sunday but didn't locate the once daily first class company. Joan was shattered but we somehow we refreshed ourselves by another trip to the 'Italian coffee company'. 

21 May A leisurely breakfast and walk down the 5 May to the Museo Casa Jose Luis Bell and son mahano next to Templo de Santo Domingo. A wonderful private collection of three generations of the Bell family whose fortunes had come from materials and cigars. According to Joan the women taking us round spoke in Spanish but slowly so even she could understand (starting from French and Latin) but we some English when we had not understood. It included, china glassware made in Puebla, carved chairs and settees, a bed after Napoleon Italian glassware and dining suite, Miesen china from Germany Wedgewood deep blue Etruscan ware, a cabinet of Japanese china, paintings by Morales with some from Italy, Spain and Flanders, a cabinet of paperweights and a beautiful set of miniatures.

Our guide suggested we went round the church next door. It too was very beautiful in a less ornate style not seen often enough in Catholic Churches.

PUEBLA, CHURCH NEXT TO EX-CONVENTO

The Museo Bello was closed for redecoration so Brian decided to buy a pair of spectacles in Spanish we can pick them up on Sunday.

PUEBLA CENTRE, AVENIDA 5 DE MAYO?

We lunched in a cheapy restaurant not expecting the fabulous meal of prawn (Joan's favorite food) soup, pasta, chicken and mushroom and milk jelly all for 26 pesos (must have been good value for her to make such a note). Then down 5 May where Brian played emails for three hours - I guess my notes of this holiday are still out there!! The hotel restaurant was very full so we decided on an early night and settled for a 7am call and left our  ready to catch an early bus to Cuezalan  

Sat 22 May Cuetzalan
A wonderful bus journey to the Sierra Norte de Puebla on highway 129, a plateau of fertile plains - still mostly horse plowed and tilled by hand. Mainly maize with some corn, broad beans and alfalfa.

The roadsides are looking green instead of brown as we get to Zaragosa and start to climb into lush green trees full of Friesian cows. The 45 degree hillsides are full of maize already with cobs and hassels on top, observable as we travel up and down the increasingly cloudy skies.

We are glad we left our heavy rucksacks behind for the long humid climb from the bus to the a zocalo, a pretty square with tall trees a wrought iron grandstand, a big old church and a clock tower. The square and main street still rising was full of stalls selling meat and vegetables, flowers and were pestered a little to buy local crafts.

CUETZALAN TOWN CENTRE

We looked at several places before deciding to stay at the Posada Cuetzalan, a good choice with two courtyards and a swimming pool. 

POSADA CUETZALAN

After lunch walked around town climbed above the Lourdes like church as far as a coffee plantation full of flowers and buds. Had coffee in a small shop which boasted of its own beans but it was not up to the standard of the Italian Coffee Shop in Puebla.

Whilst Joan was writing this diary I obviously lied down for a sleep as I almost certainly had during the four hour bus ride. In the evening we went to the pena for a Mexican social evening and learned that night was to be a performance by flying men around the 100ft tall concrete pole in the nearby square, there is a similar wooden pole on the zocalo which presumably is no longer used. We found a table nearby ordered food and beer and by the time it was dark observed that three men in costume were already climbing the tower. One man stood at the square top the other four were attached upside down by their feet on ropes at the four corners. As they swung ever out and round the ropes were lengthened and the man at the top beat on a small drum, just before reaching the ground they took up an upright posture landed took off their velvet caps and came round the audience using them to collect spectacularly earned money.

MODELS FOR SALE including one of  THE FLYING FOUR

In the street we saw a man selling models of the flying four.  
When the men were fully extended the dark was suddenly expunged by a spectacular 2 feet diameter light which flew off into the night sky.

Our conclusion was that initially as they climbed they had wound their ropes around the tower ready to release in the swinging descent. The rest of the evening a singer with guitar entertained the mostly 20-30 year old crowd, obviously very funny but the men took the brunt with the girls particularly tickled.

Sun 23 May, Market Day in Cuetzalan
Traffic was heard from6:30. here were so many stalls and people  dressed in white from thee surrounding area. Embroidered tortilla envelopes,bamboo and string serviette holder formed like letter racks, woodcarving.

CUETZALAN STREET SELLER, DAY BEFORE MARKET DAY

At all started at breakfast time when a woman arrived selling a bunch of exotic flowers for just 50p according to Joan I got it for 10 pesos (may be help in aligning the currency in this blog 1 Mexican dollar equal to £5?).

THE TORCH FLOWER, 'WAS SHE EVER PLEASED'!

The waiter told us it was called the torch flower symbolising the Olympic Torch. Joan records she loved it. 'it's in a water bottle at the moment opening more every minute, it's 6 inches across and 4 high on a very long stem'. Which magazine would rate it a 'best buy'.

CUETZALAN STREET ON SATURDAY MARKET DAY

The local people are small, some very thin and wiry but others quite fat, most are barefoot all are either buying or selling wonderful fruit and vegetables and handcrafts but some men obviously sit and chat!

OPTING OUT of CUETZALAN MARKET, as on my dining room wall

Some of the fruit obviously imported like Canadian apples and some we do not even recognise. Joan's notebook has sketches of the pole act, the torch flower and local people of either sex. Lots of green and red chilli peppers some flat and black though not sure if roast, dried or smoked. The meat looks clean, fresh and sweet but doesn't attract flies. Joan saw some vanilla pods and hoped to see some later just before returning home.

A man with a live turkey , looking happy enough though its head and feet were poking out of a square cloth. Babies and toddlers were being carried Welsh style in cotton shawls. We bought bananas and some churros. By midday it was getting hot and humid and the sky was clouding over. The huge ..... are starting to circle overhead, there are some yellow birds, song-thrush size with dark blue wings and eye stripes resting in the trees with red flowers in the zocalo. 

CUETZALAN SATURDAY MARKET

There are three people in the pool I wish I had my bathers she wrote. Swallows are flying down to scoop beaks full of water and I have just seen a humming bird up close 'two in one holiday, wow'. Back to Puebla tomorrow.

GARDEN OF 'POSADA CUETZALAN' OVER LOOKING SWIMMING POOL

24 May Puebla Again
Breakfast at our little restaurant overlooking the zocalo. Some still selling meat or flowers but all the steps in use yesterday for the market are empty and clean, the bandstand is deserted but my yellow birds are feeding their chicks in the tall trees, the log tailed black birds as noisy as ever.

We make our way down to the bus station passed nursery/junior school at playtime using merry-go-rounds and climbing frames. The boys wore shirts and long pants the girls in lacy dresses everyone in beautiful white, the thought of them being muddy obviously made her think of grandson Joe Browett.

CUETZALAN SCHOOLCHILDREN AT PLAY ON MONDAY

As the bus drove out of the village we noted several coffee plantations, even places roasting the coffee beans, but yesterday to our taste it was thin tasting. Joan enjoyed every minute of the four hours especially that high through the rain forest. 

Back in Puebla we take back our large rucksacks and our boots each still with the $50 notes in their inner-soles for security a memory of the £5 mum had sewn into my shorts as fall back on my first cycle tour to Europe with Keith Upstone 50 years previously. We had a different room on the second floor with less steps to climb, but with less light. We went back for my new specs and wondered if the woman was beginning to despair of us ever returning, but they were fine and she gave me a small leather purse for coins which I am still using more than a decade later.

We lunched at the same cheap restaurant it really is good the girl recognised us from a few days earlier. This time it was me who ate the poblano chicken in over-rich chocolate sauce leaving me in no great hurry to repeat it. Italian coffee shop for teatime and cake and then more jazz by the same pair outside the hotel. At the next table there were four young Japanese all jazz enthusiasts. 

PUEBLA CENTRE, AVENIDA DE 5 MAYO ?

Joan concluded we will never forget Puebla and it did remain in my memory but it's a lot sharper for having read her notes. For blog reconstructions so far I have used almost exclusively my notes (they scarcely exist for Mexico holidays) - Joan's records are different and with much clearer descriptions.