A Brief Sojourn in Puebla – The Perennial Pilgrim

I was able to spend a couple of days in Puebla, Mexico’s 5^th largest city and only about 2 hours from Mexico City. It was a great stopping point between Oaxaca and Mexico City. It doesn’t have the charm of some of the smaller colonial cities, but its central area has some wonderful architecture and it’s a really nice place to spend some time in.

The building my Airbnb apartment was in was first built in the 16^th century. So its foundational areas are about 200 years older than the US. The building collapsed a number of years ago and the family that owns it rebuilt it. One of the daughters is an interior designer and they redesigned it keeping part of the historic base in place while creating a beautiful living space.

The actual apartment with all the attention to detail.

Preserving some of the original 16th century Spanish foundations in the inner courtyard.

The magnificent hospital across the street from my Airbnb (you can see part of it from my apartment window in the first picture above).

The main cathedral is the second largest in Mexico. Construction started on it in 1562 and, unfortunately, it took almost 100 years for the Spanish to complete it. As you can see from the pictures, the exterior is pretty grey and dull, but the interior has much more charm.

Below are some general street pictures from around the central area of Puebla.

A really nice urban park a few blocks from my place.

One of the highlights of visiting Puebla is the Museo Amparo. It has the largest private collection of pre-Hispanic Meseoamerica art in the world as well as temporary exhibits from some of Mexico’s top modern artists.

A self portrait looking into a mirror with some graphical exhibits behind me.

Parque Ecologico is a very large park a couple of miles from the historic center. It has an arboretum, all kinds of ball fields, really long running and bike paths, and some nice woodsy areas.