Walking Puebla and The Turibus Rides

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We really got in our steps yesterday.  We fixed a croissant for breakfast and headed out towards the Centro Historico.  As soon as we stepped out on the street we heard drums.  Up the street, they were forming a desfile (parade).  On May 1st we celebrate Labor Day.  The streets were filled with marchers, bands, cheerleaders, and good followers of the system.   One parade had loudspeakers playing a laboral song from Cuba (an indication of where we might be headed).  

I like marching bands, especially those with wind instruments and you have to have at least one tuba.

I believe we were walking down Avenida Juarez, a wide avenue with many old but well-maintained mansions.  It is so nice to see the conservation of these homes from the past.  It must have been a great time to live in Mexico for the middle and upper classes.  People seem to forget that those people provide hundreds of thousands of jobs well-paid or not.  I've never had a problem with the so-called 1%.  Off track here, Bezos and Gates have donated billions of dollars, Gates alone 60 billion.  That's a lot of money to give away.

A clock tower donated by the French 100 years ago celebrating Mexican Independence.

A textile owner from the 19th century donated funds to build the Casa de la Maternidad.  The story says he had seen a woman giving birth in a ditch alongside the road and from then on it was history in the making.  The hospital is now part of the UPAEP, University of Puebla and also Christus Mugerza.  

I don't know who this woman was, but she refused to move.  We were on the Turibus and had only ten minutes to get off and take pictures.  Well worth the 100 pesos.  The tours change a bit each time.  The good thing is that they give you a bracelet.  With the bracelet, you can ride as many times as you want.  It was hot and sunny so we sat down below but in the evening we took the Turibus again and sat upstairs.  What a difference between night and day!

Also, the tour is very informative.  A lot of things we knew about but many were new details to us.  Waiting for the bus to depart you could see the mass of people in the zocalo or main plaza.

This is a new place for us that we will visit on Friday.  It is the Mercado del Alto and is filled with small food stands representing all the delights of Mexico.  It is similar to the Mercado San Miguel in Madrid that we visited and had some real treats.  By the way, good food is very inexpensive here in Puebla.  The further south you travel the prices drop.  We had a quick lunch yesterday, sopa Azteca, and Juan had a plate of three types of chicken con mole with drinks and tortillas, it was 140 pesos.  I'm looking forward to this one.  Nearby is the Templo de San Francisco and the first chapel in Puebla that had a Catholic mass.

On the evening bus tour we drove up to the convention center which is on top of a hill.  I gave several conferences there over the years.  Good memories.  The sun was setting and we were given a treat of seeing Popcatepetl, the famous volcano that continues to erupt.  The national advisor system works extremely well and people are accustomed to evacuating.  

The cathedral in the zocalo lit up at night.  What a beautiful sight.  

A quick history lesson on Mexico's Monte de Piedad.  The national system is a chain of pawn shops.  The history goes back to Italy in the XI century.   A Franciscan monk by the name of Bernabé de Terní to combat the tax system from robbing the poor who had needed to pawn something.  They were being charged extremely high interest rates.   In Mexico there are 300 shops and 2000 employees.  You can find just about anything there.  Once in Morelia we forgot our camera and we picked up a cheap digital.  Worked for the trip.