Cuetzalan

Cuetzalan, here we come - K. (Canada), J. (Japan-Canada) and me.

Back from Cuetzalan - amazing trip.

As M. didn't feel well that morning, I asked J., another friend of mine and she was spontaneous enough to join me. Great!

Narrow cobblestone streets.

When we waited for the taxi, K. saw as while waiting for her friends to go for an afternoon trip to Puebla. We told her about our travel plans and she was totally excited about it.

"Ok, give me 5 minutes and I'll be back right here to join you."

It took her less than five minutes :-D

J. and K. - funny guys :-D

The four hour trip to Cuetzalan was already amazing by itself, since the village is located very high in the mountains, offering us spectacular views down to peaceful valeys. Sheep, cows, huts... no mobile reception. Silence.

My spontaneous travelling companions - obviously lucky to be here.

Cuetzalan's historic centre has survived the harsh climatic conditions up there and without visiting any special sightseeing spot is already a spectacular experience. Narrow cobblestone streets, little wooden market stalls, people wearing the traditional costumes, scraps of conversations spoken in Náhuatl, an indigenous language.

Oh yeah!

We spent the evening indulging in local delicacies and wandering around, chatting with the lovely people. As the next day would have quite a tough agenda we decided to skip the "club" called "Toca Toca" ("Touch Touch") and go to bed early instead. Well, after fooling around in the hostel it was not that early anymore, when we finally went to bed, but definitely a lot of fun.

 The next morning we started at 7. The first stalls of the famous Sunday market already offered the locally grown coffee - perfect drink to push us for a long day!

Morning coffee...

... locally grown.

Too early, but already having fun.

We then headed to Yohualichan, an Aztec pyramid. However, we were a bit to early for Mexican standards, so we had to wait one hour, until we could enter. No problem - we just explored a bit more of the surroundings, following a hidden path into nowhere and meeting some amazing farmers, who instantly welcomed us very warmly.

Nice locals...

... although they might look a bit strange to us sometimes.

We returned hungry, but the pyramid was still not open. Luckily, a near restaurant was, and so we entered. We asked the lady if she did already serve anything. She just nodded and without waiting for any order she prepared a heavenly delish meal for us. The preparation process was pretty funny, since her kitchen aid had to buy almost every single ingredient for our meal, resulting in quite a few walks to the neighbouring shops... One time she returned with

...

Ok, short interruption because of the earthquake alert. Quite annoying that we always have to leave the building then...

...

Well yeah, one time she returned with flower, then with meat, another time with passion fruit and so on.

Preparing our breakfast.

 Finally we got refried beans, freshly made Mexican corn flower "ravioli", some pork (which I happily left out) and freshly pressed passion fruit juice.

Refried beans with pork and corn "ravioli".

Strengthend, we then visited the pyramid and we got a really good tour from a guide who was so much into what he explained - great!

Yohualichan

Twins.

We returned, got some fresh fruit and some snacks on the market, which was crammed now, especially with many locals coming down from the near "Pueblos".

Next item on the agenda was a cave. It was really nice inside, but actually nothing too special. However, it was a lot of climbing and it was so funny thinking about how this path would so not be allowed in Germany...

Crammed bus.

Coming back we did something, which was not very intelligent. A guy in his van offered as a ride back, so we would not have to walk to the bus station and waiting for the "camion". Since the ticket seller also persuaded as to take the offer, we got in the van... I tell you, never again will I hitchhike in this country. It's really dumb, considering that we normally only take the safe taxis, wear hidden wallets and are permanently suspicious... Well, the guy was with an older man and it was a very strange feeling when he turned the music incredibly high, while we noticed that the whole car had dimmed windows, so that nobody could see inside. Moreover, the sliding door's handle was taken off and instead there was a strange wire. The guy didn't follow the street sign back to Cuetzalan and when we asked him what he was doing he tried to calm us down, explaining that he knew a shortcut. Oh man... we were already thinking about if we could break the window (which probably would have been impossible).
Thank god it turned out well and indeed the guy just had taken a shortcut. Well, lesson learned - no hitchhiking again. Stupid guys...

On the way to the waterfall.

Finally there.

 The final destination was a waterfall, which was so beautiful we could calm down a bit, taking our adrenalin level back to normal. The girls opted for a quick bath in the crystal clear water, while I was having an eye on their belongings. Actually, I was not sad about this, as I'm not that much into swimming and it was pretty funny to see the Mexican guys, who permanently were switching between staring at the beauties and looking at me jealously. Well, you can imagine that I had a lot of fun ;-)

Apparently very refreshed after a bath under the waterfall.

Our bus back to Puebla left at six, so there was still time to do a last walk over the market, buying some fresh produce (I finally found the little fat bananas, which I loved so much in Vietnam!) and saying goodbye to this beautiful place.

Sweeeets.

 

What the...

All in all a great weekend!