An Unexpected Surprise

Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2014--Puebla

As we readied to leave our room this morning, we went through the map of Puebla to mark the tourist sites we still wanted to see considering that this is our last day here.  We circled about 6 places of interest and headed out for the day--another sunny one.

Our first stop was probably the most famous tourist site in Pueblo--the Biblioteca Palafoxiana, the first public library in the Americas.  It is in a room that reflects the architecture of the oldest libraries in the world with ornate carved wooden shelves going to the ceiling.  Reading tables are topped with slabs of onyx.  It's a beautiful library with an important collection of books which is open to the public.

From the library, we went to the San Pedro Museo de Arte.  We checked the banners outside and were unsure whether the shows would be worth seeing.  We decided to go inside to see what the admission fee would be.  That's when the surprise of the day occurred.  I had read that the Puebla Symphony Orchestra sometimes plays concerts there.  Well, they weren't playing a concert, but they were there rehearsing for an upcoming one.  They were in the large, central courtyard of the building.  We listened briefly just inside the area, then we went upstairs to the wrap-around balcony and sat on a bench for an hour listening as they rehearsed four pieces.  It was a very enjoyable substitute for a concert, since no concerts are taking place during our visit.

From there, we headed towards an arts area known as the Barrio del Artista.  The city has built small exhibit spaces (about 4 m x 4 m in dimension which would be about 150 sq. ft.) which are provided to artists to show their work.  Tourists look through the doorways and enter if they see something that interests them. The city providing such spaces is a nice way to encourage arts, I think.

In that same area, we also saw the Mercado de Artesanias known as El Parian, which is a good place for buying souvenirs and has lots of colorful arts and crafts items for sale.  Also in the same area, we saw the Teatro Principal which has burned and been rebuilt twice.  The present building looks like the original on the outside, but it is completely modern on the inside.

Just outside the historical zone in that area is the Monastery de San Francisco whose grounds are now a park.  We walked through it, saw an art exhibit there, saw the beautiful chapel inside the Iglesia Franciscano.  Nearby, we tried to see an old market building that now houses small eating establishments, but what a problem it was.  They had no business, so about 10 eating stall owners were chasing after us with menus trying to get us to have a seat and order in their restaurant.

It was getting late, so we headed back toward our part of town for a late lunch by going down "Sweets Street," a two-block length of a street that is lined with many stops selling all kinds of sweets.  We stopped at a restaurant we had seen yesterday for the usual multi-course lunch--cream of potato soup; spaghetti with olive oil, garlic, and cheese; fried fish filet with salad and refried black beans; rice pudding, and guayaba juice.

In the late afternoon, we went out again for a final exploration of town.  We saw an exhibit of old marionette theaters from the Czech Republic at a city cultural institute.  We walked through the zocalo and along the area streets just watching people.  We returned to the Rosario Chapel which we discovered last night, and it was lighted better because of a mass that was about to start.  Eventually, we stopped at a small place near our hotel and ate two arabes--meat tacos with chile sauce and marinated onions and peppers.