2015 May 16-20
Nota: publicado en Inglés: vamos a
editar e incluir versión en español pronto.
We were to be in Mexico City for several days, and took
advantage of this to spend a weekend beforehand in the area. We had wanted to
visit Puebla for some time and so rented a car at the airport and took off for
the weekend.
Puebla (“
Puebla de los Angeles“)
is a UNESCO World Heritage site, with a rich history dating back to 1532 CE in
colonial terms and no doubt long before this prior to colonization. It’s famous for its food, ceramics, and the “China Poblana”, and has interesting baroque architecture. It’s the
site of the battle against the French in 1862 on May 5th, giving
rise to the celebration of “Cinco de Mayo”.
Additionally, the Biblioteca Palafoxiana,
established in 1646 CE is known as the first public library in America, and
remains open today.
We explored this attractive city on Saturday, enjoying good
food with live music that evening. We did some further investigation of places
to visit in the area, having previously thought of visiting the Great Pyramid
of Cholula, and discovered that there is a significant archaeological site at
Cantona, about an hour and a half from Puebla via an excellent tollroad. On
Sunday we visited the Iglesia de Santo Domingo then took off east to Cantona
(or Caltonac).
The site is amazing: despite being mentioned in various
annals as far back as 1790 CE, and obviously known by the residents of the area
from its establishment, it is not well-known as a tourist destination, having
been open to the public only since 1999. It was built, it seems, between 600
and 1000 CE by the Olmec-Xicalanca, and was abandoned ca 1050 CE, presumably as
a result of loss of water supply. It covers an area of 12 Km2, of
which only a small portion has been excavated and opened to the public. The
main “acropolis” includes 10 ball pitches, of at least 24 found so far, and
hundreds, if not thousands, of structures including pyramids in large numbers.
From our perspective, it was fascinating to discover the
network of cobbled streets, numbering at least 500, with the principal
thoroughfare being 563m in length. In our investigation of cobbled streets in
the Americas, this is a fascinating site.
The site was almost deserted, there must have been no more
than 20 or 30 other visitors, to a site which is contemporaneous with
Teotihuacan, which receives as many as 20,000 visitors in a day. After an
afternoon wandering round this site, we headed back to Mexico City, where among
other things we enjoyed a visit to Marce’s favourite restaurant in the world,
Quintonil.
Photos may be used for
non-commercial purposes with credit to alanymarce@gmail.com
