Mexico City – Cacaxtla- Puebla

Sunday 11 – Tuesday 13 January 2026

We had arranged a private transfer with an English speaking driver from Mexico City to Puebla. We planned a stop to check out the archeological site at Cacaxtla enroute. Turns out our driver, David, had less English ability than Mark has in Spanish… good thing Ness’ Spanish is ok.

Even though it was Sunday and the traffic was relatively light it still took well over an hour on a freeway to get clear of the metropolitan area. We did mention how big Mexico City is!

After around two hours we were at Cacaxtla. Just like Teotihuacan this site had a troop of dogs and puppies who seem to live onsite.

Cacaxtla

This site consists of several Meso-American pyramids, two little ones as ‘gate keepers’ to the site and one massive one around 50 metres high. The large one has a roof over it to protect the site and archaeological excavations.

The Cacaxtla complex is one of several that dominate the north western end of the large and fertile valley where Puebla lies. Just to the north and west is the national park where the twin volcanos Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhual are. To the east north east lies the La Mentira volcano.

The site at Cacaxtla is known for its very well preserved wall murals. A sister temple is a few kilometres away to the west:

Gallery of the site:

Real standouts were the pictures of the bird god and the cat ( mountain lion / puma) god – symbology of heaven and earth respectively.

There was also an extensive mural with some quite gory detail of a battle scene:

The tradition of murals in Mexican life continues today – a trend from the colonial times when indigenous peoples were often illiterate and murals were a way of conveying ideas to the masses in a way they could see and contemplate. A contemporary mural was painted on the side of one of the modern buildings at the site:

Puebla

We arrived in Puebla in time for a late lunch. Our accommodation was adjacent to the historic centre of town. It was situated in an old colonial era building that had been turned into a lovely boutique hotel:

After dropping our bags in the room we grabbed lunch in a lovely courtyard, then walked into ‘Centro’.

First observation was that Puebla is a lot cleaner than Mexico City. Next was that Pueblans are obviously proud of their heritage – the colonial street scape is really well maintained. The few ‘modern’ fast food franchises we walked past in town had no obvious branding or signage. You really would not know they were there until you looked in their shopfronts as you walked past. The net effect of this heritage restriction was that you really could sense what the place was like hundreds of years ago (if one ignored the cars).

Some Puebla streetscapes:

It was Sunday afternoon and the streets were full of families walking around. The historic centre is built on a grid with a few small plazas interspersed every now and then. Some of the streets were narrow pedestrian malls with some tree cover. Many of these had pop-up markets selling all sorts of stuff to the locals. Interestingly, there were very few obvious tourists- it really seemed to be a local affair. It had a good vibe and we spent a few hours soaking it up.

We had dinner on Sunday night in the hotel’s restaurant, which is noted as a good exponent of Pueblano cuisine. It was good, we tried four different types of the local specialty of ‘Mole’ . We decided we liked the ‘green one’ the best. It was washed down with a very lightly oaked Mexican Chardonnay from Baja California, which was more than Ok.

Monday 12th

Up early as there was insistent jack hammering from around 0600 somewhere quite nearby. 😩

We walked back into town to a coffee shop which we saw had been recommended on Google Maps reviews. It was a good one – and we were able to have our first Flat White since leaving Australia on December 23.☕️😊

After some more coffee we resumed Sunday’s exploration. A highlight was a small-ish museum in a stylishly renovated building , the Museo Amparo.

Also at the museum we found evidence in the form of a 1,000 year old sculpture that Mayan Special Forces were into Free-fall insertion methods:

And , in the last place you might expect to find such an image , they had a photo of the Breakaways, just north of Coober Pedy, South Australia. 🤷‍♂️:

The afternoon was spent wandering around and sitting in the central plaza park watching Pueblan life go by.

After an early night we were up on early on Tuesday to head to the bus station. Next stop: Oaxaca ( pronounced wah-ha-ka).