Buffff, Mexico

Well, it’s been a good few weeks of silence, not because nothing was happening here, but because too much was. The university marking wrapped up in a flurry of marking and distressed students; at the same time I found myself sinking in the very dark and murky waters of Mexican bureaucracy as my work [...]

Flower Carpets in Huamantla

I’m dying to write about the Day of the Dead festivities in Oaxaca (posts coming in a week or so) but first I think it’s important to mention this wonderful festival close to Puebla. It was almost two months ago, which shows how up-to-date my blog is! I’ll try and let [...]

Pulque

The trip to Tlaxcala contained elements that were both touristy and debauched, and while the tourism was impressive, I have to say I remember the debauched end of the trip with even more fondness.
On the way back from Tlaxcala, I watched the countyside of cacti, dilapidated houses and ever-present dogs while trying not to feel [...]

Tlaxcala: A Cloudy Art Day

About 45 minutes-ish by car from Puebla is the city of Tlaxcala, capital of the state of the same name, where I headed with some friends. I can’t say we did an exhaustive tourism of Tlaxcala, but we did see inside the town hall, some beautiful murals, typical in Mexico, depicting the history of [...]

La Profética

After a trip to La Verdad for some delicious Mexican pastries, there’s really no better place to enjoy them than in the Café-Bar of La Profética, a thirty second walk away. Profética is a café, a good bookstore, and a free private library, all located in a classic tiled building in downtown Puebla. [...]

Chiles en Nogada

¡Exquisitos Chiles en Nogada! ¡Ricos Chiles en Nogada! ¡Autenticos Chiles en Nogada! !Una temporada: Chiles en Nogada!

Apart from the omnipresent chocolate and chile sauce known as Mole Poblano, the Poblanos seem to be most proud of their Chiles en Nogada, a specialty in Puebla available during for the summer, although with globalization, I [...]

Independence Day in Mexico

When I told my students at the posh university that my plans for my first Independence Day in Mexico were to “hang around in downtown Puebla and see what happens,” they were universally horrified.
“The people in Puebla get very aggressive.”
“It’s better to go to a nightclub.”
“Downtown Cholula (a half hour drive from where I live, [...]

Mexican Pastries

“If you love bread you’ll love Mexico,” said my boss at the Chilean restaurant in Vancouver who had lived in Mexico for seven years
This isn’t exactly the case. I find it extremely difficult to actually find bread in Puebla, and have distressingly found myself eating Bimbo much of the time, but in one thing [...]

El Viejo Verde in the Corner Office

The lazy person’s way to find work with amazingly little effort: make an excellent contact accidentally on the street, allow him to introduce you to all sorts of important people, and go for interviews until everyone involved is blue in the face and someone, somewhere, knows someone who will give you a job.
In this way [...]

Ex-wrestlers and Civil Servants

The old man I’d met on the street turned out to be exactly the type of person you want in your court. He did disappear after about a week, and I didn’t see him for almost a month, but not before he’d arranged me interviews with the Secretary of Tourism, the Secretary of Employment, [...]