Puebla, Mexico

January 6:
After leaving the airport, we first arrived in Puebla. At first Puebla did not seem so special. Then we passed what looked like a huge canvas of a Colonial European city to our left with antique buildings and sidewalks and richly painted buildings. Only it wasn’t a canvas. It was the Puebla’s colonial part, built by Spanish settlers in the 17th century. It truly is a stark contrast from the outer, not- Spanish built part of the city, and feels so European. The buildings are richly colored and there is very traditional Spanish tile, or “talavera,” accenting the exterior of many.

Puebla facts
•Pop. 1.3 million
•Puebla, a great social experiment, is where the Enlightenment met the new world. It was conceived in 1531 by a group of Humanist Spaniards and, called the “City of Angels,” was to be a crossroads of religion and education. This is one of Mexico’s cities with the most libraries, schools, orphanages, hospitals, and libraries. It is also a city in Mexico with a respectively small wealth gap, so rather than very, very rich and very, very poor, it has a fairly homogeneous group in the middle. To this day, it is still a mix of 17th and 18th century European ideals with Mexican art.