Day two

This is one of the nicest Mexican cities we have been to. Good roads, beautiful buildings lots of parks, clean. We went to the big Sunday flea market near our hotel in the morning, and then took a taxi to the International Museum of Baroque, one of the best places to visit. Since we didn’t have any breakfast, we started with their highly rated restaurant Barroco, which turned out to be really 5 star – one of the best meals in memory. The museum is also fantastic – the building the galleries and the interactive displays. The contrast between the very modern and stark white architecture and the exuberant Baroque art and design is very effective. The organization of the museum is also very interesting and thoughtful – 7 exhibition halls, each devoted to a different aspect of the baroque – baroque worldwide; baroque in Puebla; architecture; painting and sculpture; knowledge, arts and sciences; theater, clothing and decorative arts; and music and dance. The physical exhibits are not overwhelming, just a few examples to illustrate the main points, but there are huge screens with interactive visual displays that you can easily access and manipulate. Extremely well done. After the museum, we decided to check out the nearby Ecopark, a huge green area that is also beautifully designed with walkways, lawns and trails and it was full of picnicking families and lots of happy dogs. It is a big area and connects to the university campus and also to the elevated bike/walking paths. We are so far very impressed with Puebla and its city planners. After a short siesta at the hotel, we decided to walk a different part of the city. We first went to the big church we see from our hotel window. There was an enormous fiesta in front of the church with foods, crafts, etc. Then we walked to the artist village, which was a lovely area with huge trees and art studios on both sides of this pedestrian street. Unfortunately, the studios were closed. Dinner was at Los Mural de los Poblanos, a highly recommended restaurant, which has a very nice décor, but the food isn’t even close to Barroco’sat the museum. We decided to have a nightcap at our hotel and asked for the best tequila. They produced a beautiful bottle and the tequila was wonderful. The surprise was that the two glasses of tequila cost more than our dinner.