As planned we slept in a bit. Can’t really remember exactly what time we got up, but I think we were on the road by around 10 am or so. May have been closer to 11…
We had rented a bus (the same bus that picked us up in Puebla to drive us out to Velsequillo) to take us all to Cholua. Turns out the bus driver was a friend of Luisa’s father and the bus was normally used as a city bus. A permit had been obtained stating that the bus could be used as a private charter bus for the day.
I believe the original plan was to take one bus there but for some reason when it came time to get going there were two buses waiting for us, the smaller 19 passenger one I talked about earlier, and a huge tour bus. Turns out there was a mixup about who was supposed to arrange for the bus. :) At any rate, a bunch of us piled into the 19 passenger and everyone else jumped into the big boy.
Our first adventure of the day came fairly soon after we left Finca San Jose de las Margaritas when we got pulled over by the cops. They wanted to know why a city bus wasn’t stopping to pick people up. When the bus driver explained that he had a permit to use the bus as a private charter for the day the cops didn’t seem to be buying into it. He showed them the permit but they still refused to let him go. They kept saying that something didn’t seem right and that they’d have to go down to the station to make sure everything was in order. When the bus driver said that he couldn’t really do that since we were supposed to be going to Cholula the cops said something to the effect of, “well what can we do about this then?” Needless to say they were looking for some cash. 100 Pesos later we were on our way. Crazy stuff!
Our first stop on the way was at a little church in Tonantzin. I’m not sure what the name of the church was but it was quite something. All the walls and ceilings inside the place were covered with scultptures! Outside the church people were selling different things and Amy picked up a couple of bracelets, one for herself and one for Shelley.
Our next stop was Cholula. It was a crazy day to be visiting because it was the spring solstice and there was a huge celebration on the go. Cholula is the site of ruins of an Aztec pyramid. So people who practice Aztec rituals were gathering on this site to celebrate. There was all kinds of dancing and even some make shift temascals on the go. There was a makeshit market set up with lots of crafts to be bought. Steve ended up buying an Aztec calendar make out of some sort of stone I think for a good price.
At some point in the past (I have no idea when but it was quite a while ago :) ) Christians came along and built a church right on top of the pyramid. I think they were trying to show the superiority of the Catholic church or something. Anyways, since religion, and particularly the Catholic religion is such a strong part of the Mexican culture, the government is not prepared to tear down the church so that excavation of the old pyramid can happen. As a result only a small part of the pyramid and the surrounding area has been excavated. There are some tunnels that go inside the pyramid but we didn’t get a chance to check them out unfortunately.
After a few hours of checking out Cholula we piled back into the bus and headed back towards Puebla. Jay, Julia and Seamus had plans to catch a bus down to Oaxaca a little later on that evening so we figured we’d go back to Puebla and get a bite to eat before they left.
We ended up going to Sanborns again. Amy ordered a drink called SQUASH that her brother-in-law, Gus, had suggested she try. I think it was fruit juice with all sorts of fruit chunks in it. A bunch of other people ended up ordering it too. After supper Jay, Julia and Seamus headed off to the bus station to catch their bus and the rest of us got back on our own pus and went back out to Finca San Jose de las Margaritas to crash for the night.
Pictures of the trip to Cholua can be found here.