we arrived in puebla on saturday evening, with ozzy still feeling like crap, alf wasn't a lot better, but at least wasn't bed-ridden. didn't do too much that night, went for a wander down to the zocalo (which has a pretty impressive cathedral on one side, though we didn't really have a look) for dinner, but not much else, it was busy, but by the time we went back to the hostel, it was quieting down pretty rapidly. we only had one full day in puebla, the options were cholula and volcanoes. the volcanoes seemed out of reach, so we (excluding the sick ozzy) just went to cholula to see the church on top of a massive pyramid.
the lonely planet said there were a lot of churches in cholula (as well as puebla), and it became apparent that it was correct pretty quickly. we eventually made our way to the base of the pyramid, this particular pyramid has such a massive volume because of it's width, moreso than it's height, so the climb up the stairs wasn't as steep or harsh as previous or future climbs. first, we went up to the church for a view of the town and surrounds, it's a pretty good view, and you could probably get a good sunset/sunrise as there are views all the way around the church (not 360 degrees). it was sunday, so we got into the archaelogical area for free, overeall though, the site isn't particularly inspiring, it's really hard to imagine, as the pyramid is pretty much completely overgrown. before we left town, we grabbed some tshirts at a tourist shop.
got back to the hostel, and ozzy was still lying in bed. we eventually got him out of bed, and headed up to cerro de guadalupe to try and get a long distance view. we went well past the stop, and had to walk a couple hundred metres back up the hill to get to the turnoff. according to lp, there are good views of the two massive volcanoes, popo and izta, as well as fresh air. i'm not sure how fresh the air was, but i didn't see two big volcanoes to the west, the view was pretty obscured by gum trees. we did see a big mountain/volcano to the northeast (according to my compass and the sun), which i think was la malinche, it wasn't a clear view though, very hazy. also, the fort (where the famous cinco de mayo battle was fought) was closed, so it was a pretty disappointing outing.
we went back to the hostel, did one more round of the zocalo for dinner, and left it at that for puebla, we had a morning bus ride to oaxaca. i don't think we saw the best of puebla, it would've been good to see the volcanoes closer up, as well as some of the other stuff around town.
picture of the church sitting atop the cholula pyramid, if you can imagine how far the base (and that's only a small section of it) is from the bottom of the church, that is a massive structure.
#33 dtra (david tran)
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