Heading towards Mexico City

Heading towards Mexico City

Two choices – the autopista or the ‘free’ and windy parallel old road. We chose the latter and enjoyed the slow trek through very beautiful countryside to Tehuacán, where we spent two nights at the Cactus Biosphere (really nice, except for the Mosquitos!), home to 80 different types of cactus.

During this time, we unfortunately had more technical problems with Big Bertha (another post) and we spent time camped in the Tehuacán Walmart carpark. Walmart are generally very friendly to overlanders and we have spent a few nights in their carparks around Mexico. We also celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary in the carpark (surprisingly, we managed to keep those beautiful flowers alive for over a week, even though it was a challenge when we travelled)!

Orizaba, a Pueblo Magical, was our next stop and we stayed there for the Mexican Independence Day celebrations. The town has a picturesque river flowing down through the middle with a free zoo either side. Quite interesting, but we can’t help but feel that the cages were a little small for some of the animals (which, according to the information, were all rescue animals). The town was nice to look around, with an iron “palace” (designed by Gustav Eiffel, made in Belgium, dismantled, shipped to Mexico and reassembled) as its centrepiece. Orizaba also had a very interesting old ex-convent and we took a cable car up to the peak of Cerro del Borrego for a view over the town, with a walk on a glass floored promontory(snazzy footwerar included).

Next stop was on the lower slopes of the Malinche volcano. We camped here (3000m) and set off early in the morning to see how far we could hike up to its peak. We made it to 3875m and had a snack, before descending down to Big Bertha. A group of “Bomberos” (firefighters) bid us a “buenos dias” as they strolled past us, as we huffed and puffed uphill – but then they do hike to the peak (4400m) twice a week!

On the way to Cholula, a satellite town of Puebla, we visited the ‘Park of Giants’ – a Mexican park with models of domestic and international monuments – it was quite fun.

Our camping spot in Cholula was just below the “Santuario de la Virgin de los Remedios” church – which sits on its own hill from which there is a magnificent view of the Popocatepetl and Malinche volcanoes, as well as down to the town below. Cholula was our base to visit Puebla – taking an Uber there and back. Puebla has a pretty historic centre – founded in 1531 and designed to attract Spaniards to “New Spain”. It’s known for the decorative “Talavera” tiles on the many Colonial buildings; a thriving artists quarter; it’s “calle los dulces” (where there are many shops selling “camotes” – sugared fruit jellies, amongst other goodies) and for being the centre of “mole poblano” – the spicy savoury chocolate sauce that traditionally accompanies chicken. Deciding we were a bit peckish, we wandered into a restaurant to try their mole and later found out that it had been established in 1925 and they were making mole to a recipe passed down through several generations. We tried enchiladas with three different moles – brown (traditional), green (made with courgette) and orange/red (made with peanuts and sesame). Yum!

Leaving Cholula we took the Cortes pass between the two volcanoes, Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl. Aztec legend has it that the warrior, Popocatepetl fell in love with the Chief’s daughter, Princess Iztaccihuatl. The Chief agreed that they could marry, if Popocatepetl proved himself in battle. Off he merrily went into the fray, only for a love rival to tell the Princess that he had been killed, causing her to die from grief. On his victorious return, Popocatepetl placed her body on a mountain and the Gods transformed both of the lovers to volcanoes – Popocatepetl “the smoking mountain” furious at having lost his love and Iztaccihuatl “the white woman” forever turned towards her love. “Popo” (as it’s affectionately known) is Mexico’s most active volcano, continually spewing fumes. We dropped down into Mexico City for our appointment at the garage, spending a week camped inside the workshop whilst the work was completed to Dave’s satisfaction. Then we continued north for Teotihuacan.