Mexico (2) – TRAVICARIOUS

We drove to Puebla, known for its hundreds of churches and a 400 year old UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Basilica Cathedral.

There was an actual full orchestra playing in a restaurant along the street.

These edifices don’t seem so big until you realize there is a little girl sitting on at the bottom of the middle column!

On the left you can see a ramp and a small bridge on support columns over the highway, specifically for bicycles.

Was a university that became a museum.

This is one of Starbuck’s competition.

The streets were decorated for Christmas and beautiful at night.

Note how clean and devoid of litter the streets are.

Some beauty in Puebla. The huge angel was a Christmas decoration.

Basilica Cathedral, A UNESCO Heritage Site. I was impressed with the ceilings!

Quite a scary saint (?) Martyr (?) priest (?)

It seems he’s coming out of flames!!

Or maybe he’s a she!

I love a beautiful stained glass….and angels.

Look at this ladder!! It’s a good thing God will be in the house watching over their safety while using it!!

The city was lovely, along with the weather.

The Christmas tree had my personal tree beat!! (it was a lot bigger!)

There was a story about a French woman who came to town and sewed a fabulous beaded dress for someone and became famous.

The restaurant ambiance was wonderful, but the food here could have been greatly improved!!

Bathrooms in foreign countries are always interesting. This was a lock on the inside of a stall. Strange.

This was a football (soccer) arena of which they are very proud.

The no smoking sign is on every window in the bus and ruins every photo. UGH!!!

Here’s another sign on the window. This is the Gulf of Mexico. (see map in Blog #1)

THIS was our pitiful lunch at a stop on a looooong bus ride. The coffee shop inside made delicious looking sandwiches — which Caravan Tours could have provided. But we ended up eating these sandwiches from the hotel we left that morning which were all bread with one slice of ham and a slice of cheese. We were disgusted.

Jane was not pleased to be in a bus with the raccoon on it. When living in California, a raccoon chased her, scaring her to death.

We saw and mentioned the 7-11 stores in Mexico and were told the OXXO stores were much better. I found the eggs sitting on the shelf very interesting.

The man who discovered these mysterious stone carved Olmec heads decided to plant a rain forest and have a little zoo while presenting the heads to the public.

The Olmec people preceded the Nahua, Maya and Aztec civilizations by thousands of years.

This poor jaguar had kennel cough and sounded horrible. I thought it was a black panther, but was corrected.

The tree represented three parts. The top and leaves represents Heaven, the body of the tree, our current life and the roots, the Underworld. They have a lot of superstitions in Mexico.

Inside under the statue’s head is a whole person. Strange.

We named him Angry Grampa.

I love a rain forest!

These crazy things are called Mexican raccoons. Their accurate name is coatimundis or kudamundi. They have the face of an opossum and a tail like a raccoon. The zookeeper had a wheelbarrow full of raw meat and these little animals, about 50 of them, came running from everywhere to follow the man.