Sylvie's Travels Home

October 20 2022

We met for breakfast at 9:30am at the hotel restaurant and Max ran into a tour guide she had met before in Oaxaca. We went to pack our suitcases and left our beautiful hotel around 11:30am.

Our first stop was going to be the Teleferico de Puebla but it was temporarily closed so we went to see the Murales de Xanenetla. The murals were on narrow dead end streets in a poor part of town. They were old, not the best I’ve ever seen but very interesting nonetheless.
We stopped at a church and found a Jesus in a glass case trying to escape…We drove through a few streets where they had a fish market. Having a car always give us the opportunity to discover so much more than the touristy places.

We found a parking garage and walked to visit a church that Alejandro had recommended called Capilla del Rosario. It is a 17th century church known for its elaborate interior plated with gold. It was amazing! The photos just don’t give it justice.
We walked to a restaurant called Bagdad to try their Arabic tacos which the meats, typically beef and pork, are roasted on a spit. These tacos were introduced to Puebla in 1933 by a Lebanese family. They were served on a thin pita. They were really good but much bigger than a regular taco.

Next we went to a gallery where they had talavera pottery and tiles. Max thought we would be able to see artists working in their studios but no such luck. At some point I asked the price of a beautiful vase and it was only $6000 US…no thanks. 5 minutes walk from there, we arrived at the Ancho Reyes distillery, a favorite liquor of Max. Unfortunately because of COVID, they told us that they were not doing tours anymore. It would have been nice if they had mentioned that on their website. We took an Uber back to our car and drove back to a store we had seen the day before. I bought Max and I cute little talavera calavera (skeleton) statue.

We left Puebla City around 4pm and arrived in Val’Quirico at 5pm. Val’Quirico is a quaint Tuscan style village complex in the middle of nowhere full of boutiques, bars and restaurants. You really feel like you are in Italy. It was quite beautiful and I couldn’t stop taking pictures.
We ended up staying at an amazing loft with 2 bedrooms and a huge living/kitchen area. Max had stayed at Villa Toscana a year and a half ago and when she approached them to do another collaboration, they were really eager to work with her again.
We walked around the village for awhile through little alleys discovering little squares. We had a drink at a Spanish restaurant and had dinner at an Italian restaurant. It was a great walk back to our loft with all the pretty lights everywhere.