From Mexico City’s TAPO bus station I took a comfortable Estrella Roja bus to Puebla. The journey takes 1 hour and 45 minutes (on a traffic-low Saturday) and passes the not-so-nice neighbourhoods of the capital before taking a winding road up to Puebla. Puebla’s location was selected by the Spanish because of the agricultural possibilities of the area, and that still proves to be true although the city nowadays has important industries too. There’s a large Volkswagen plant for example.

The bus let me off at Puebla’s CAPU bus station, and from there I took a taxi into the historic center. The city is huge (1.5 million inhabitants) so you have to rely on public transport. I asked the taxi driver to drop me off at the Santo Domingo church – when I did my preparations the church’s Rosary Chapel came out as the no.1 thing to see in Puebla. It is closed during mid-day (1-4 p.m.), so I scheduled my visit for the morning. I was already happy to see the colourful exterior of this church, but I knew I had to find my way to the chapel in the back. And there it was - Wow! So much gold. “Baroquissimo” a guide described it to its group of 30 people gazing at it with open mouths. The sun lights it from above, so it all shines nicely. It’s difficult to get good pictures of it because of all the glitter, you really have to go and see for yourself.

This visit alone made my day, but there was more to come. The city center is chock- full of interesting facades, with different colours, tiles, and baroque ornaments. An unmissable one is the San Francisco church, which lies a bit out of the center but has the greatest facade of them all. It’s a combination of brick, yellow paint, and large azulejos (see large picture above).

The Zocalo was full of life, mostly local people enjoying the weekend. The city reminded me of Arequipa (Peru), another city known for its many churches with baroque facades. I only had one day here in Puebla, but it would be worth spending the night.