Day 16 – Teotihuacan to Cholula
We woke up and Viki finished the end of her permanent residency application. It took a while, including a photoshoot in the carpark, so we set off around 11am. Cholula was just a two hour drive away.
Cholula is the home of the second largest pyramid in the world. However, it doesn’t much look like a pyramid as it had been left to the forest for many centuries. It is now essentially a hill with a lovely colonial church on top. Interestingly, the church is a UNESCO protected monument, so the land underneath cannot now be excavated.
We had a late lunch in the beautiful town square in one of the touristy restaurants. Still only 88 pesos each, or $4.50 for a three course meal. We tried our first mole of the trip, mole poblano (did you know – poblano means “from Puebla” and we were in Puebla, so the meal was rather appropriate.) After lunch our plan was to head up to the hilltop church, but right as we left we were beseiged by a tropical downpour and had to take refuge under a taught section of tarp in the central park.
Once the rain had stopped we went back to the van for an episode of Game of Thrones, followed by a late night corn on the cob. Elote, sold by street vendors, is pierced on a stick, covered in mayonnaise, dusted with powdered cheese, and slathered with a bit of chili – it was very tasty.
Day 17 – Cholula to Oaxaca
We woke up around 7am to see the church in the early morning light. We hiked up to the top, along with many people in exercise gear, and had beautiful views over the city and the two nearby volcanoes, Popocatapetl and Iztaccihuatl.
Hiking down, Viki was famished, and we searched for a breakfast stand. Unfortunately it seemed like the whole city was still asleep at 8am. After many blocks walking, the only eatery we could find was the tourist restaurants in the main square, so we settled on eggs and chilaquiles there.
Our last chore before leaving was to buy mosquito mesh for the car, which we had seen the day before in a random little hardware store along the road. We bought enough mosquito mesh to cover both the driver and passenger side windows along with 12 magnets to attach it to the car for around $7.
We then set off for Oaxaca, taking us 7 hours or so, of (Viki says beautiful, I say frightful) winding roads through the mountain range that we had to cross to get to Oaxaca. Nearly in Oaxaca, we figured we could probably do with a new front right tire, as the outer edge had been rubbed bald due to some issue with something to do with the axle. We bought the new tire for $77 + $3 for a valve + $20 for alignment being checked. We’ve found that up until now the car has tended to drift to the side and it takes continued force on the steering wheel to keep the car straight. After changing the tire, the car seems to track straighter than before.
Arriving in Oaxaca at the end of the day, we settled on a nicer hostel than normal, called Azul Cielo. It was 620 pesos per night and we’re staying for two nights.
