My jetlag continues to haunt me, though at a much better hour. This morning I awoke at 4.30am! I am going to stay up till 12am tonight in an effort to stop this rubbish.
At 7am I woke Tom, who had been blissfully & loudly snoring all morning & we got ourselves ready to leave Mexico City.
We had plans to walk, then to take the metro down the blue line for 40 minutes to the Terminal Central de Sur, where we would catch a 2 hour bus to Puebla.
After what happened yesterday I was a bit nervous. Tom looked at the cost of an Uber & to our surprise it would only cost us $5 AUD from our hostel to the Terminal Central de Sur.
This was much more ideal & the way we did it.
At 7am I woke Tom, who had been blissfully & loudly snoring all morning & we got ourselves ready to leave Mexico City.
We had plans to walk, then to take the metro down the blue line for 40 minutes to the Terminal Central de Sur, where we would catch a 2 hour bus to Puebla.
After what happened yesterday I was a bit nervous. Tom looked at the cost of an Uber & to our surprise it would only cost us $5 AUD from our hostel to the Terminal Central de Sur.
This was much more ideal & the way we did it.
On our arrival we found the ADO bus ticket counter, which is the one we've read the most about & which has one of the best safety standards for the drivers & passenger's. These bus's even go longer routes to avoid areas of recent conflict. Money is time, time is precious, but our lives are more precious & we would alway's much rather pay more money & take more time, to arrive safely.
Tom went to the ticket counter & bought our 2 tickets, the lady behind the counter couldn't speak English, but we're getting good at point language!
We've downloaded some apps to help us learn Spanish, out of all the places we've been & all the languages we've heard. Spanish is one we both want to learn. After getting our tickets we had 35 minutes before the bus left.
After passing through security we successfully used our skills of deduction to work out which gate & which bus was ours.
Before boarding the bus our carry on luggage was searched & Tom was told to keep his hat off while on the bus for video recording purposes. The bus was really really nice!
It had nice big chairs that were clean & reclined back nearly all the way, lots of leg room, fake hardwood floors, TV's & USB charging ports.
Very snazzy! For both of us the ticket was just under $30 AUD. The best part was large drink bottle holder's, perfect for the art in the document cylinder to sit in. I wasn't joking when I said it would be carried the whole way round the world with me.
After 45 minutes of travel, we've left the city behind & instead there is gorgeous green grass, rolling hills & sunlight out the window.
After leaving the city & the valley that the city is in, we realise it was actually smoggy. Not as bad as Delhi or some places in China, but definitely noticeable after we left it behind.
The bus ride was on time, very comfortable & as an added bonus, we didn't get hijacked!
Funny enough, the police didn't board to video record our faces for this journey. Maybe they only do it in certain areas ?
After we left the bus, we organised a pre paid taxi to take us to our hostel which was about 15 minutes away. The taxi's in Puebla City are yellow & white, not like the hot pink ones we've left behind in mexico city. Puebla has a totally different feel & based on what we've read is a lot safer than Mexico City.
Our hostel is really cool!
It's an old building with lots of renovations mingling old & new. There is stained glass windows & roof, plants everywhere, paintings on the walls & a water fountain. As well as being a mash of old & new, it's got elements of outside, while inside. The only bad thing is that Tom is once again too tall for the doors !
We eat some of the gigantic pizza left over from last night & make a plan to hit the streets!
This afternoon we want to explore a nearby cathedral, a museum/art gallery & an old library.
The streets are cobblestones, there is lots of trees & gardens & the houses both residential & commercial are of an older style & are 2 - 3 storeys high. The front of the buildings are plain but kept in very good condition & in bright colours with contrasting window & door frames. Some of them have little juliet balconies on the 2nd and 3rd storeys with pot plants & overflowing flowers a strong theme.
We walk down the street from our hostel & reach a central park or a Zocalo, in the midst of some sort of celebration. There's balloons, live music, jugglers & people everywhere.
Mexico is known as a country with more festivals & celebrations, than there is days on a calendar.
A zocalo is the main square, plaza or the main park in a city within Mexico.
Across from the park is our first sight seeing stop. Cathedral de Puebla, a giant cathedral with bell towers & angel figurines on all the fence posts.
We've downloaded some apps to help us learn Spanish, out of all the places we've been & all the languages we've heard. Spanish is one we both want to learn. After getting our tickets we had 35 minutes before the bus left.
After passing through security we successfully used our skills of deduction to work out which gate & which bus was ours.
Before boarding the bus our carry on luggage was searched & Tom was told to keep his hat off while on the bus for video recording purposes. The bus was really really nice!
It had nice big chairs that were clean & reclined back nearly all the way, lots of leg room, fake hardwood floors, TV's & USB charging ports.
Very snazzy! For both of us the ticket was just under $30 AUD. The best part was large drink bottle holder's, perfect for the art in the document cylinder to sit in. I wasn't joking when I said it would be carried the whole way round the world with me.
After 45 minutes of travel, we've left the city behind & instead there is gorgeous green grass, rolling hills & sunlight out the window.
After leaving the city & the valley that the city is in, we realise it was actually smoggy. Not as bad as Delhi or some places in China, but definitely noticeable after we left it behind.
The bus ride was on time, very comfortable & as an added bonus, we didn't get hijacked!
Funny enough, the police didn't board to video record our faces for this journey. Maybe they only do it in certain areas ?
After we left the bus, we organised a pre paid taxi to take us to our hostel which was about 15 minutes away. The taxi's in Puebla City are yellow & white, not like the hot pink ones we've left behind in mexico city. Puebla has a totally different feel & based on what we've read is a lot safer than Mexico City.
Our hostel is really cool!
It's an old building with lots of renovations mingling old & new. There is stained glass windows & roof, plants everywhere, paintings on the walls & a water fountain. As well as being a mash of old & new, it's got elements of outside, while inside. The only bad thing is that Tom is once again too tall for the doors !
We eat some of the gigantic pizza left over from last night & make a plan to hit the streets!
This afternoon we want to explore a nearby cathedral, a museum/art gallery & an old library.
The streets are cobblestones, there is lots of trees & gardens & the houses both residential & commercial are of an older style & are 2 - 3 storeys high. The front of the buildings are plain but kept in very good condition & in bright colours with contrasting window & door frames. Some of them have little juliet balconies on the 2nd and 3rd storeys with pot plants & overflowing flowers a strong theme.
We walk down the street from our hostel & reach a central park or a Zocalo, in the midst of some sort of celebration. There's balloons, live music, jugglers & people everywhere.
Mexico is known as a country with more festivals & celebrations, than there is days on a calendar.
A zocalo is the main square, plaza or the main park in a city within Mexico.
Across from the park is our first sight seeing stop. Cathedral de Puebla, a giant cathedral with bell towers & angel figurines on all the fence posts.
There was a service in progress, so we just walked in the front foyer admiring the huge detail on the roof before leaving. As is the case with nearly all the cathedrals, photos are prohibited.
I really like visiting cathedrals & churches, even though I'm not religious. They are places of great wealth, architecture, art, history & blind faith, which I can appreciate, despite feeling like I don't quite belong in them.
The next stop was the Museo ampro. A museum & art gallery about the Mesoamerican history. Unfortunately not a lot was in English, so a lot of the educational points were wasted on us. However it was free & it took up at least 2 hours of our time, which we would never regret. While inside a thunderstorm came down over the city & we ascended to the top floor for coffee & to watch it through the glass roof.
I really like visiting cathedrals & churches, even though I'm not religious. They are places of great wealth, architecture, art, history & blind faith, which I can appreciate, despite feeling like I don't quite belong in them.
The next stop was the Museo ampro. A museum & art gallery about the Mesoamerican history. Unfortunately not a lot was in English, so a lot of the educational points were wasted on us. However it was free & it took up at least 2 hours of our time, which we would never regret. While inside a thunderstorm came down over the city & we ascended to the top floor for coffee & to watch it through the glass roof.
We still feel like we have so much to learn about the history of Mesoamerica, particularly it's ancient civilisations & how they were conquered by the Spaniards, which is still felt to this day, despite their independence.
Our 3rd stop was the Biblioteca Palafoxiana. Arguably my 2nd love of life is books! I love collecting, recommending, gifting, sniffing & of course reading them. This old library had 3 storeys worth of ancient books & scrolls, mahogany shelves & of course a sliding ladder. All the essentials & well worth the visit.
It was founded in 1646 & was the first public library in colonial Mexico & arguably the first in the America's.
The city of Puebla has got it all!
After this final stop we head back down through the city centre to our hostel & get ready for the night in. We finally finish off the 2 family sized pizzas that Tom ordered the night before.
Tom chats to one of our room mates, a guy who was born in Australia but moved to the states with his family when he was young & is now solo backpacking through Mexico. He's only 18, but looks a lot younger. He has a lot of positive & comforting things to say about Mexico & his experiences which is really good & puts our mind to ease.
By 10pm, were both well & truly ready for bed.
- Alli
By 10pm, were both well & truly ready for bed.
- Alli
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