Danielle and I spent a week around Christmas with her family in
Puebla, Mexico where her parents and brother are serving as full-time missionaries. What follows is a pictorial tour of our trip, with a brief caption under each picture to guide you on our journey. Enjoy!
First off, let me introduce you to the characters in our story. From left to right: Keith and Dawn (D's parents), Danielle, Tyler (D's bro), and Kara (D's sister). Here we're getting settled on the top of double-decker tour bus which took us throughout Puebla...
Here's a shot of Puebla from our tourbus. For you history buffs out there, the Battle of Puebla was fought on May 5, 1862, and was a defining moment for the Mexicans in their battle for independence. The victory is still celebrated today as Cinco de Mayo...
This is the beautiful basilica in Puebla. Every major city in Mexico has a Catholic basilica, as about 90% of the population is Catholic. Major city's also have zocalos, or town squares. In Puebla, on one side of the zocalo is the major government building, and on the other side is the basilica. Interesting church-state relationship they have. One last note - the Puebla basilica was originally supposed to be built in Mexico City, but plans got mixed up so Puebla actually has the "better" basilica than the much larger capital...
There are numerous statues of angels surrounding Puebla's basilica. According to legend, the workers building the basilica left the bells outside overnight and planned to hoist them into the towers the following day. When they arrived at work the following day, the bells had been installed. Sensing a miraculous occurrence, they credited angels for the construction help....
There are stray dogs everywhere...
Alright, another cool (albeit far-fetched) story for y'all. Puebla is surrounded by three volcanoes. Two of them are pictured above - Popo (left) and Ixta (right). Both Popo and Ixta are shortened versions of the real names, but I'm not even gonna attempt to pretend like I know how to spell the unabridged versions!
Popo was a warrior and Princess Ixta was his significant other. Off goes Popo to war, while Ixta pledges she will stay true to him until his return. Well, word gets back to Ixta that Popo has fallen in battle. Ixta than dies from grief. Unfortunately for her, Popo didn't die. But when he returns, he finds his lover dead and grieves himself. Legends vary from this point, but the one we were told is that Popo took Ixta in her arms and walked towards the horizon. The next day, the two volcanoes appeared - one taking the form of woman lying down, and the other a gallant warrior kneeling next to his beloved. I'll leave it to you to decide whether you believe that story or not...
Here's a picture of the third volcano surrounding Puebla. It's still active. Sorry, I don't have any cool stories about how it was formed...
We got to try lots of new food in Mexico, most of which I liked and Danielle didn't. To her credit, she did try most everything. She even tried what I'm holding above. It's called a cemita - basically a huge sandwich with ham, chicken, cheese (lots of cheese!), hot peppers, and onions. It was delicious, and incredibly filling. We got these from a food stand in downtown Puebla, and they must make hundreds of cemitas everyday.
We also got to have some Mexican food that Americans are little more familiar with - you know, tacos and tostadas. But this ain't Taco Bell food, let me tell you. We also got to have a traditional Mexican breakfast, which isn't exactly pancakes and eggs. Try refried beans and tortilla chips instead. Mmmm...
Oh, I almost forgot about the fried grasshoppers. What a delicacy...
We also visited Cholula, a city about 20 minutes from Puebla. Cholula is known for its pyramid with a Catholic basilica on top. Here's a view from the church from afar. As you'll see, this isn't a Egyptian-style pyramid, but it is one of the largest pyramids in the world according to the size of the base...
Here's a cross-section model of the Cholula pyramid. Civilization after civilization continued to build layer upon layer of the pyramid, until finally Cortes conquered the area and capped the pyramid with a Catholic church...
You can even walk through a portion of the pyramid. Just be warned - not for the claustrophobic...
Here we are on the side of the pyramid. Those steps are narrower than they look, and the top is higher than you might think. Not that I was scared or anything...
We showed up to Cholula on the day of the Winter Solstice, and we were treated to a couple of interesting demonstrations. This one is an actual Aztec ceremony with some sort of reverence to the sun followed by a baptism of some sort. The reason we don't think that it was a tourist attraction stems largely from the dirty looks we got after taking pictures...
We also some New Agers doing their thing. Interesting day, to say the least...
Here's a group shot of us at the church on top of the pyramid. It was a great view from the top...
Feliz Navidad! Our first Christmas in Mexico was a real treat. We spent the day with other missionaries and their families, exchanging White Elephant gifts, eating some good ol' American food, and smacking around a pinata. The traditional Mexican pinata has seven spikes, each representing one of the seven deadly sins. The kids have to knock off the spikes before going in for the kill, and the candy that follows...
The day culminated with an acoustic rock concert featuring Tyler and his buddy Daniel. Their rendition of "Carol of the Bells" blew the crowd away...
Our last day in Mexico was spent in Mexico City, touring the grounds of the city's basilica. It is the second-most visited basilica in the world, trailing only the Vatican...
Inside the basilica is what millions of Mexicans pilgrimage to see every year - the "Tilma of Guadalupe." A tilma is basically a robe or cloak, and this one has historical and religious significance. More on that below...
So a few hundred years ago, this guy Juan Diego had a vision of Mary who appeared to him as the Lady of Guadalupe. She told him to build a church in her honor, so Diego went and told the local priest. The priest didn't believe him. So the Lady appeared to Diego again, but this time she walked him to a spot in the mountains where some roses were growing. These weren't your ordinary roses - these were only found in a region in Spain (not Mexico), a region where the priest happened to be from. So Diego gathered the roses in his tilma and walked them back to the priest as proof that he had the supernatural vision. When Diego let his tilma down, the roses fell to the ground and on his tilma was an image of the Lady of Guadalupe (illustrated above)...
When the Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Diego, she was wearing clothing that had Aztec symbolism on it. Many believe the Lady of Guadalupe, with her Aztec wardrobe and basis in Roman Catholicism (i.e. Mary), was concocted by Cortes to gain control over the Aztecs by focusing their worship on one entity - the Lady of Guadalupe. The picture above has two waterfalls, one representing the Aztecs' religion and the other representing Roman Catholicism, with the Lady at the base uniting the two. Her image is located all over Mexico, and she is still considered the mother of Mexico...
Here we have Danielle, Kara, and Tyler showing the world their amazing talent - the ability to bumple their chins. Apparently they believed this was some sort of gift they had that no one else could do, but then I did it too. Oh well, they're good at other stuff...
Our journey ends, fittingly, with this picture. In Puebla, you can't flush your toilet paper because their plumbing system can't handle it. Let me tell you, getting used to pitching your paper in a trash can takes some time. Just one of the many things we grow used to here in the states, and one we should be extremely grateful for. This picture also represents the place where I spent the better part of 3 days following our trip, as I happened to meet Montezuma...and he had his vengeance.
