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| arriving Aeropuerto Internacional Puebla |
Marie and I left Cancun on the 31st March for a very early flight into Puebla on Volaris, Mexico's domestic airline, arriving safely after a three hour flight. We had thought Anais (César and Rosalia's daughter who lives in Puebla with her husband David and daughter Aitana) would meet us as planned but we were pleasantly surprised to see her parents waiting for us instead as we exited the terminal! Gracias Compadres! We visited for a few hours with Anais and Aitana then left with César and Roslia for our Airbnb downtown, getting lost on the way but eventually arriving outside what would be our home for the next three weeks. But the best laid plans of mice and men as they say...but that later. Through massive wood doors surrounded by the
Talevara tile typical of the city we had to knock for Carlos, the
conserje, to open up for us, past the restaurant and up the wide, dimly lit stairs to our landing. We had two floors, a winding staircase from the kitchen to the bedroom and main bath upstairs and lots of room, decorated in what I would call Mexican mishmash. Sufficient for our means as it was a fifteen minute walk to the school on the other side of the Zocalo, the main square.
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| Cesar and Aitana, Puebla |
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| Aitana and Anais, Marie and Rosalia, Puebla |
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| Peekaboo Aitana with Marie and Rosalia |
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| view of restaurant below our Airbnb |
After saying goodbye to Cesar and Rosalia Marie and I decided to check out the route we would be walking to school to familiarize ourselves with it before setting out the next day. We walked through the Zocalo, the main square of the historic centre of the city where the school was. The Zocalo was until the end of the 18th century the main market for the town but today is a tree-filled plaza with many sculptures, the most notable the San Miguel Arcangel Fountain, placed there in 1777. Surrounding this plaza we would come to spend every day passing through on our way to school was City Hall and the Cathedral of Puebla, considered one of the most beautiful in the world, with the tallest towers on the continent. When we did find the school's entrance, on 11 Oriente #10 in the
Centro Historico, it was an unimposing black door behind protective iron bars and a camera\buzzer system for entry, in an old and historically preserved building. Contented we knew how to get there we returned the next day to meet our teachers and start our first day of three weeks of Spanish lessons. Classes began at 9AM until 1PM, then lunch till 230PM when we would walk to the Zocalo to meet up with our individual guides, local people assigned to spend two hours conversing in Spanish with us. The school facilities had numerous classrooms equipped with audio-visual aids and WiFi, a computer lab with software for Computer Assisted Language Learning and self-access files for private study. Various trips were also planned, one per week, the first an hour long bus drive north to Tlaxcala where we would be trying the local drink,
el pulque!
gws
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| San Miguel Arcangel Fountain |
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| Capilla del Beato Sebastian de Aparicio |
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| entrance to school |
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| school food lineup |
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| Ali, Sarah-Cate and another student, noon meal at local Mexican restaurant |
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| view of the Cathedral of Puebla |
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| school top floor |
