Semana Santa part 1: Puebla/Cholula

Last week was our spring break, also known as Semana Santa (Holy Week) because HOLY MOLY it feels good to have a week-long vacation.  Just kidding, it's because of Easter.  Luckily for me, Colorado high schools have spring break the same week, so my lovely sister Rita and my wonderful mommy came to Mexico to visit for the week.  Unfortunately, although it was 80 degrees and sunny here, it was blizzarding in Denver on the day they left.  But after a long delay and little sleep, they arrived safe and sound in Mexico City a day later than planned.  They took the bus to Puebla, got connected with Jake and a taxi, and made it to my house, only to be whisked off for a cookout at Arcelia's mom's house.

YAY!

We all stuffed ourselves with yummy food, relaxed, had a beer, and soaked up the wonderful Mexican sunshine.  We also ate birthday cake, which I must say, was one of my better creations.  Jake and I translated and we ended up being able to communicate pretty well.  After lingering over cake and coffee, we cleaned up and headed back.  We checked Mom and Rita into their hotel (Posada Senorial, good value and location) and then walked around the UDLAP campus so Mom and Rita could stretch out their airplane legs.       The next morning I met them at their hotel for their desperately needed run.  I suggested running up the pyramid then to the garden for breakfast, which, from my sister's sad puppy eyes, was not enough to compensate for not exercising in 2 whole days.  While I huffed and puffed and blew my lungs out, my chipper sister ran up and down the pyramid THREE TIMES. The only thing that kept me alive was knowing that food was coming soon.  The garden was beautiful as always and we reminisced about my great aunt Peg's magical gardens while chowing down on yummy food.

My host mom Arcelia met us and Jake at the hotel to take us on a tour of some things in Puebla and Cholula that I had never seen before.  First up: Tonantzintla, a beautiful church a few minutes away from downtown Cholula.  It's famous for the thousands of indigenous children's faces carved into the interior of the church, which is also beautifully decorated.

Exterior

Interior

From there we went to see the world's smallest volcano, located right here in Puebla! When Arcelia told me we were going to see the world's smallest volcano, I kind of pictured an ant hill with a sign next to it.  The real deal was equally funny.

According to the sign, the volcano is called Cuexcomate, which is Nahuatl for "crock pot."  I love bad translations.  Despite Arcelia's wheedling with a security guard, we couldn't go inside because it's under renovation. We headed into downtown Cholula where we walked around, tried chapulines for the first time (crickets roasted with chile and lemon...they taste like chile and lemon), and went out to lunch where Mom and Rita tried mole poblano for the first time.  Good thing I had Pepto Bismol...Mom's stomach is not used to changing her usual diet of coffee and peanut butter to something so foreign as mole poblano.

The next day we had a really great day in Puebla.  For my birthday, Jessie and Eric surprised me with a cooking class, which we got to all do together in a beautiful hotel/restaurant Mesones Sacristía.  We even had a translator.  We learned the art of salsa rojo and verde, mole poblano, chalupas, and habiscus juice, all in a beautiful kitchen decorated with talavera tiles.

It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.  Our instructors were great and very patient, and the finished products were delicious! The mole recipe we used wasn't as complicated as I anticipated, although it did involve blending up burnt tortillas with the other ingredients (chiles, tomatoes, onion, plantain, and chocolate).  I think if I made it again, I would leave out the burnt tortillas; they made it a little bitter.

The restaurant used glasses that I have seen a few times before in Mexico: thick handblown glass with a colorful rim.  The factory ended up being just a few blocks away, in a really gorgeous area with lots of colorful colonial houses.  We continued our lap of the downtown by going through the Gardens of San Francisco, walking through El Parian (the artisan market), down the Calle de los Dulces, and into the zocalo.  When we went into the cathedral we got a wonderful surprise: a group of classical singers were practicing for a performance.  They were excellent and the acoustics were amazing, so we sat around and watched them for a while.
We met up with my host family at a Spanish restaurant Eric had recommended for a yummy meal and a nice chat.  Honestly, it's nice to have not Mexican food every once in a while.

It was great to show Mom and Rita where I've been living these past three months and get to explore more of the area.  Up next, a real exploration: in Cuetzalan!