Down in Mexico (Part 3): A “Small” Town in Mexico

This is Part 3 of a 3-part series. To best enjoy it, please read Part 1 and Part 2 first, in that order.

On the third day of SSCS’s trip to Mexico, we took a side trip to Puebla, a destination two hours or so southeast of CD Mexico. We went some other places after that, but we’ll get to those a little later.

Our tour guide told us Puebla had the flavor and atmosphere of old Mexico, full of historic buildings with narrow streets and little shops. We’d never heard of it, but it sounded like a small, even remote village. Imagine our surprise when we found out it was a city of about 3.5 million people, but it didn’t matter. The description ended up being spot on—once we got to the city’s historic downtown:

That’s a colorful, crowded skyline, all right, and you’ll notice it features a fair amount of churches. The town has around 325 Roman Catholic churches alone[1]! Almost every one of them is of historical and architectural interest, and they always have their own distinctive look:

The town’s multi-block plaza, the true heart of Puebla, also functions as its commercial hub. It’s a sprawling place, big enough to have a park-like vibe in spots. The surrounding perimeter of retail shops and restaurants share an overhang that keeps the customer comfortable:

As was the case in CD Mexico, walk just one block away from the town center and you’ll encounter the kind of small, intimate streets our tour guide was talking about. Each has its own thriving approach to retail—literally—and it’s a scene that includes street vendors…

…as well as c-stores, both familiar and unfamiliar, demonstrating the same minimalist approach we saw in Mexico City:

Puebla also features entire streets dedicated to specific crafts, textiles, and traditional foods. We wandered around and found one avenue dedicated to office products and decorative paper, another to camera equipment. Neither was as popular, though, as famous, “Calle de la 6 Oriente,” and for good reason: it is exclusively devoted to sweet treats and candy shops:

While downtown Puebla strongly reflects its Spanish influence, civilization in the city started long before, pre-dating the Aztecs and Incans by centuries. We bring this up, because our last stop for this blog, the Teotihuacan Pyramids, dates back to that earlier time.

There’s really a complete ancient city here. The main thoroughfare stretches approximately 2.5 miles. The day we went here, we registered 20,000 steps, and there are two major pyramids: the Pyramid of the Moon and the Pyramid of the Sun. The latter gets most of the attention. It’s pretty massive:

In keeping with the theme of ancient Mexico, we went to a nearby restaurant located in a cave. It’s called La Gruta Teotihuacan, and is devoted to keeping the cooking traditions of ancient Mexico alive. The cuisine included starters like grasshopper tacos (surprisingly good and crunchy!) as well as other courses we didn’t try, like caterpillars and sour prickly pear soup.

On that savory note, we’ll bring to a close the SSCS Blog’s three part detour to Mexico City and its surroundings. Next week we’ll be back in the States, re-focused on the U.S. industry. See you then!

[1] Which could have clued us in about how big this city is.