MÉXICO Mexico
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OF REMEDIES
C HUR C H O F O UR L ADY
Iglesia de Nuestra Se単ora de los Remedios This is the Iglesia de Nuestra Se単ora de los Remedios (Church of Our Lady of Remedies), also known as the Santuario de la Virgen de los Remedios (Sanctuary of the Virgin of Remedies), which was built by the Spanish in colonial times (1594) on top of the prehispanic temple. The church is a major Catholic pilgrimage destination, and the is also used for
the celebration of indigenous rites. The Iglesia de Nuestra Se単ora de los Remedios (Our Lady of Remedies Church) is a 16thcentury Mexican Catholic parish church built atop the Tlachihualtepetl pyramid in the municipality of Cholula located in the central Mexican state of Puebla. The church was built with brada stone and decorated with
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laminilla of 24 carat gold. It has an altar in the neoclassical style. It was built between May 1574 and August 1575 and consecrated on March 25, 1629. The base on which the church is built is the largest pyramid of the ancient world, being 54 meters high, covering 54 acres and shaped by several superimposed structures over the course of six centuries. 5
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FR O GS
//A L L E Y O F
LOS SA PO S This street is a popular antique shopping area by day and provides a lively musical atmosphere at night. And let’s not forget about the name. Some stories say that in colonial times, the waters of the Rio San Francisco frequently overflowed flooding the alley 6 Sur (Los Sapos). People contributed to the river flooding and installed some mills there to prevent it. However, stagnant water and activities performed therein attracted a lot of toads, a fact that gave rise to the current name of the road. The renowned street gains more life during the
weekends. This is the time when an artisanal market takes almost every space of the floor. It is the perfect time to shop for pieces of art and rare objects hard to find anywhere else. A visit to the Pasita bar around the corner is also desirable. Over the years, the popular hole in the wall has been visited by artists, students, political figures, and tourists from all over Mexico and the world. La Pasita is the oldest cantina in Puebla—and, although it specializes in Mexican liquors, you won’t find the usual shots of tequila or mezcal on the menu. Instead, barkeeps pour locally
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made libations, such as the house’s namesake pasita, a sweet raisin liqueur that’s served with a cube of salty aged cheese and a shriveled grape on a toothpick in the glass. Other flavors include lime, pineapple, coconut, anise, almond, eggnog, and the more exotic blackberry with jamaica flower and quince with apricot. Each caballito goes for 25 pesos (about $2). Legend has it that La Pasita became famous for serving drinks according to the number of blocks that a patron could walk without falling down after consuming them.
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he houses lining the streets showcase colonial facades and bright colors. There is a smorgasbord of vivid peach, soft lilac, pistachio green and mustard yellow. Each building is neatly painted and pots of flowers appear at every centimeter. Puebla is full of concentrated hues. However, at the Callejon de los Sapos, all the colors of the city converge in a way designed to overload the senses. These characteristics have contributed to the theme park fame of the area. Furthermore, you can dine, have a coffee and even sleep in the area. From 10 am, every Sunday, you can find plenty of items in the flea market of the Alley of the Toads. Predominate antiques, crafts, art and numismatics. It is a traditional walk when visiting the capital of Puebla. On Friday and Saturday evenings the square is filled with music that can be enjoyed in a bar or cafĂŠ.
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T E CA L I
COYOACÁ N
“PLACE OF COYOTES” Coyoacán refers to one of the 16 boroughs (delegaciones) of the Federal District of Mexico City as well as the former village which is now the borough’s “historic center.” The name comes from Nahuatl and most likely means “place of coyotes,” when the Aztecs named a pre-Hispanic village on the southern shore of Lake Texcoco which was dominated by the Tepanec people. Against Aztec domination, these people welcomed Hernán Cortés and the Spanish, who used the area as a headquarters
during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire and made it the first capital of New Spain between 1521 and 1523. The village, later municipality, of Coyoacan remained completely independent of Mexico City through the colonial period into the 19th century. In 1857, the area was incorporated into the Federal District when this district was expanded. In 1928, the borough was created when the Federal District was divided into sixteen boroughs. The urban sprawl of
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Mexico City reached the borough in the mid 20th century, turning farms, former lakes and forests into developed areas, but many of the former villages have kept their original layouts, plazas and narrow streets and have conserved structures built from the 16th to the early 20th centuries. This has made the borough of Coyoacan, especially its historic center, a popular place to visit on weekends.
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T E CA L I
PUE BLA
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uebla is the 4th largest city in Mexico with millions of inhabitants, while Cholula is a small town with an ancient history. The city is officially called Puebla de Zaragoza, after the general who won the Cinco de Mayo Battle. However, most people call it Puebla de los Angeles (its original name based on a legend) and some even Angelopolis. Poblanos are known by their accents. Some say they started to speak a rhythmical Spanish when they used to mock the accent of the French (which attacked and ruled Mexico for some time). Puebla City is only second to Mexico City in number of universities. That gives the city vibrancy, youthfulness and tons of taquerias open till dawn hours.
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4 Sur no. 106 Cholula
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GR EAT C I T Y
Cholula is Mexico’s “city of churches,” a prized jewel of Christianity.
Cholula was second only to the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City), possibly with a population of up to 100,000. The great city stood at the foot of what appears to be an earthen hill that is, in fact, the largest pyramid ever built, covering over 46 acres and spanning an incredible 405 meters on each side! In addition to this great construction dedicated to Quetzalcoatl, the city had a reported 365
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temples. After taking the city during the Spanish Conquest, Hernan Cortes vowed that it would be rebuilt with a Christian church to replace each of the old pagan temples; less than 50 new churches were actually built, but the Spanish colonial churches are unusually numerous for a city of its size. Cholula is actually divided into eighteen neighborhoods or barrios, each with a patron saint.
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MÉXICO
PUEBLA
H I STO R Y & L E G E N D S Legend has it Tlaxcala’s bishop Julián Garcés dreamt one night with angels, and they were taking him to a beautiful field with three rivers running in the middle. He watched as the angles pointed to where he should build a city and then they drew it and delimited its borders. The very next day, Garcés told a group of Franciscans about his dream and together, they started looking for that unique field. They found it, and some time later, the city was founded. That’s how this beautiful city got the name “Puebla de los Angeles”. Originally, the city was created for wealthy Spaniards who needed a place to live between Mexico City and the main port Veracruz,
therefore the richness you can admire walking through Puebla. It was during the sixteenth and seventeenth century when some of the most beautiful buildings were built. Around 1550, a group of wealthy Spaniards realized that clay was abundant in the region, and asked some Spanish potter from Talavera de la Reina, a municipality in Spain, to come to Puebla and teach the natives some European techniques so they could have fine ceramics to decorate their palaces. This glazing technique in blue and white, known simply as “Talavera”, combines European methods with local designs, and became rapidly famous. Some of the most beautiful buildings have tiles of talavera on the facade, the floor, the indoor
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walls and the patio. The patterns created by the tiles are hypnotic and beautiful. The talavera became the distinct of the city, and was also used to make pots and plates. This kind of objetcs can still be found at the traditional markets and plazas where artisans, some of them descendants of a long line of talavera makers, sell this and many more traditional products. You can’t come to Puebla and not visit the main craft market, you won’t get tired of admiring the amazing textiles, the onyx crafts, the typical mexican toys and of course the never-ending variety of typical candies. I guarantee anybody with a sweet tooth will feel, once again, in heaven.
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Cholula 24
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C UI SI N E
Puebla is also famous for its cuisine. The sauce known as mole is Puebla’s main dish, and has become one of Mexico’s representative dishes. Though there are many legends of where in comes from, there’s no doubt it most come from divine inspiration. Mole is made with
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chili peppers, spices, chocolate and many more ingredients, and is poured over turkey or chicken meat. Another famous dish in Puebla is the Chile en Nogada. Again, how anybody came with it can only be explained by mixing many legends, but it is a known fact that it
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was first served at a banquet for Agustín de Iturbide, the first Mexican emperor, to celebrate his birthday. This colorful dish, representing the Mexican flag, is made of poblano chili pepper filled with minced meat, and with walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds on top.
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C HOLULA
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uebla and Cholula go hand in hand, visiting one without the other would be like visiting Rome and skipping the Vatican, The analogy is especially appropriate when you consider the outstanding number and variety of churches in the small town, which has earned Cholula the moniker sacred city. There is a popular local legend that there are 365 churches in the town, one for every day of the year. In fact there are roughly 40 (the count varies depending on how you define the city limits), which still makes Cholula the city with the highest concentration of churches in Mexico. While you can easily make a day trip to Cholula it deserves more than a few hours or even a day. You might consider staying here thanks to some excellent boutique hotels, a roaring nightlife, and one of the most indigenous centers you’ll come across.
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P UEB L A
CAT H ED R AL 30
Construction on Puebla Cathedral began around 1535 and was consecrated in 1649, Puebla Cathedral is the second largest in Mexico. The cathedral is the second-largest in the country after Mexico City Cathedral and its twin bell towers are the tallest in Mexico at 226 feet (69m). One of them can be climbed for excellent views of the city and surrounding volcanoes. It has a fairly austere exterior, but the spacious interior includes 14 chapels and an interesting octagonal altar.
Puebla Cathedral was built in the Renassiance and Baroque styles, with some transition to the Neoclassical style visible on the facade. Legend has it the angels not only brought holy inspiration to the project, but the latest surveying techniques as well. It’s said they used string lines to lay out a grid of streets accented by parks and fountains, all surrounding blocks where the cathedral would be built. But as things turned out, it took quite awhile - 44 years - to wade through the red tape to get the
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green light to build the cathedral. Actual construction took quite awhile, too. Finally, much of the cathedral’s interior was completed and its two 200-foot-high towers were ready to welcome the masses. One problem remained: how to get an 18,000-pound bell up to the top of one of the towers (the other was bell-less). Sure enough, the angels showed up again and raised the bell.
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CIUDAD de MEXICO Mexico City is the densely populated, high-altitude capital of Mexico. It’s known for its Templo Mayor (a 13th-century Aztec temple), the baroque Catedral Metropolitana of the Spanish conquistadors and the Palacio Nacional, which houses historic murals by Diego Rivera. All of this resides in and around the Plaza de la Constitución, the massive main square also known as the Zócalo. Revamped public spaces are springing back to life, the culinary scene is exploding and a cultural renaissance is
flourishing. Mexico City is, and has always been, the sun in the Mexican solar system. A stroll through the buzzing downtown area reveals the capital’s storied history, from its pre-Hispanic underpinnings and colonial-era splendor to its contemporary edge. Organized chaos rules in this high-octane megalopolis, yet rest assured that the city offers plenty of escape valves in the way of old-school cantinas, intriguing museums, dramatic murals and boating excursions along ancient canals
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