Oops! Forgot to add the pic of Sunday night’s dinner friend

---

You’re probably wondering why we don’t have our usual cathedral pics. With 4 Masses on Saturdays and 9 on Sundays, we haven’t been able to get in! Today was the day.

We think this church is smaller but more spectacular than the cathedral in Mexico City.

---

Lucha libre

For the grand finale of our time together we went to Mexican wrestling.

There were several matches, usually involving two teams of three wrestlers. First men, then little people, women, Mexico vs USA – guess who won?? More men.

My favourite part? OE and Guy shouting out the classic moves as they set up – “pile-driver!” “Back-breaker”! “Malfunction at the junction!” we saw no claw-holds or sleeper holds.

In the grand finale the losing team covered their faces after having their masks ripped off by the winners- the “ultimate humiliation”.

It was a fun night – cheering for the heroes, booing the villains, laughing at the choreography of the throws and jumps, and watching the crowd, ranging from school kids to grandma’s, going insane!

A final round of margaritas at our VRBO before what was supposed to be early to bed. Peggy and Guy are catching a 5am bus to San Miguel de Allende.

It’s been a great trip. Thanks for following along.

We spent the morning following a plotted walk through our area, copied from a travel guide.

Sundays (or Kings Day, or maybe every day) are market day here. We browsed through stall after stall of antiques, LP records, cameras, jewelry and Mexican trinkets, etc …

then on to Barrio del Artista where local artists were working in alcoves or along the street.

At noon, we came across a long line of empty tableclothed tables, stretching for blocks.

Later in the afternoon we came across another length of these tables, now covered with a row of “Rosca de Reyes” (row-ka- day-ray-ace) or Kings Cakes, being arranged by around 2000 volunteers wearing surgical masks, gowns, gloves and caps,

while others unloaded heavy boxes of more cakes

By 2pm this 6 kilometre long(!) street of treats is barricaded with hundreds of people waiting.

We were afraid we’d have to walk the 6km to get around the cake tables to get home, but at some point someone decided to to separate two tables, move a few barricades and let a few hundred people cross the street.

What’s all this for, you ask? Puebla is closing the Christmas season by trying to break (its own?) 2025 Guinness record for longest thread of Rosca de Reyes. Last year they gave away 10,000 cakes.

As we’re heading back to the serpentine tables at 5pm for the cake giveaway, we noticed several people, some with golden paper crowns, giving food and toys to families selling cookies and chicklets on the streets.

At 4:58, some volunteers started cutting the cakes with plastic knives.

At 5:36 a 3-2-1 countdown moved through the crowd. The cakes were mostly gone in about 5 minutes.

Happy cake eating people surged past us and in no time the volunteers were out of their scrubs and the road was cleaned up.

For dinner we chose a little spot close to home, full of Mexican families having Sunday dinner. The man at the next table was very helpful in recommending food. At the end of the meal, I was digging through my purse for change to buy cookies for a little boy going table to table. Our friend at the next table bought us a package. We gave him a Canada flag pin and his family seemed quite pleased.

We have moved on to our next destination. A 2 hour bus ride- that turned into 3 hours with traffic – from Mexico City. Almost an hour of that was driving through MC -it’s that big!

Once we hit the countryside we saw acres of corn shocks – bundles of dried corn stalks tied and stood upright after the cobs have been harvested.

We have arrived in Puebla on the day (weekend?) they celebrate Kings’ Day – what we’d call Epiphany. The square is awash in Christmas lights, people and 4 sets of men (and one trio of dogs) dressed as Kings.

A 9 year old boy stopped OE in the square and asked if he could practice his English by interviewing him – while his proud mother videod. At the end of his memorized questions, he gave us each a wrapped candy. (I was so interested in their conversation, I forgot to take a pic!)

As we were heading home we noticed people lining 5-6 deep along the street and, sure enough, a parade was on its way, completed with brightly lit floats, several marching bands and flag waving majorettes.

We only ran into this celebration because OE needed to get 3000 more steps. Once achieved, we headed home to enjoy a few of Ben Hochhausen’s world famous margaritas.

While we were enjoying our beverages on our patio a group of about 200 multicoloured, choreographed drones rose in the sky and put on a 10 minute light show.

This morning at 8 we were awaken by earthquake phone alerts!!

Seconds later our bedroom chandelier began to sway and the clothes hanging in our open closet did a little dance.

We got dressed, grabbed our passports and fixed our hair 🥴. By the time we’d done that, the shaking had stopped. It was basically over in 6 minutes.

Realizing that life is fleeting, we treated ourselves to double lattes and giant pastries for breakfast.

Then on to the Metro to spend the day in Chapultepec (Grasshopper) Park, which has a castle, several museums, an amusement park, a zoo, a lake FULL of paddleboats and rowboats, miles and miles of stalls selling … everything!

Taking a break for lunch after touring the castle, we passed over these plaques embedded in a sidewalk.

One translates to “I am Pedro Gonzalez (35 years old). I am missing and have disappeared since 2008. I like to share with my family, exercise and eat pizza… I have two beautiful children… the government and its institutions … have been ineffective until now …demand peace from authoritues to find us. There are thousands of kidnapped people. You are our only hope.”

We spent several afternoon hours in the Museum of Anthropology, looking at ancient pottery and stone heads.

Videos are not working well for me. If you want to see Peggy’s tequila shot from yesterday, try https://mexicancultureandfun.home.blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/4c3b7744-7b93-41f6-ab12-f8c8e627fb39.mp4

---

21 million people live in Mexico City – apparently. everyone stayed home NY day! It took OE and me half an hour walking the empty streets to find a coffee shop open for breakfast.

Peggy and Guy visited the Teotihuacan pyramids today.

Here’s their story –

What an adventure we had today! We were out of the VRBO by 7:30 AM and walked to the Metro which was step one of our journey to Teotihuacan. We had no trouble boarding the correct train and rode it to the end of the line. Our first snag was then trying to find the bus to the pyramids. We wandered around, following helpful people’s attempts to put us in the correct place to catch the bus. About 30 minutes and three pastries(!) later, we were off! Many people got on and off along the way, but we were the only tourists getting off at the pyramids.

We were some of the first at the site and walked happily around, reading English informational signs and marvelling at how immense the structures are. We climbed as high as we could on the Templo de Quetzalcóatl, Pirámide del Sol and Pirámide de la Luna. It is remarkable how steep the stairs are – approximately 15” high and they have a smallish step, about 10”. I managed each ascent quite easily, except for getting out of breath, but the descents were terrifying for me! The pyramid de la Luna had a railing, which I held on to for dear life.

We walked back to where our bus dropped us off, among the crowds of people arriving. We waited for an hour, again following people’s confirmation that we were in the correct place to catch our return bus. We gave up, had a much needed lunch and walked to a different bus location. After 5 minutes, the bus arrived and now we are happily on our way to our VRBO.

---

OE and I spent a relaxing day reading on our rooftop patio ,

doing laundry and figuring out the bus/metro to get to Paseo de la Reforma, where we think the real party happened last night.

Most of the equipment and garbage from last nights revelry along the 1Km Paseo had been cleaned up by 3pm.

---

Instead of our usual cervesas-with-dinner, three of us ordered margaritas- failing to note the size of the drinks we ordered!

We headed out early to Palacio Nacional to line up for free tickets for today, only to be told that two tour groups had grabbed all of today’s tickets. Come back Friday, they say.

So off we trot to Secretaría de Educación Pública, where the walls of this theee level building, including two stairwells, are covered with murals, mostly done by Diego Rivera in the 1920s.

Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrietos Acosta y Rodríguez (say that three times fast!), was born in Mexico in 1886. After studying in Europe, he returned to Mexico in 1921, eager to paint in the newly refurbished Secretaría de Education building. He portrayed everyday Mexican life, depicting “the suffering, the struggle for freedom, the merriments (although Peggy noted “nobody smiles in these pictures!”) and crafts of post-revolutionary society.

Here are some of our favourite murals:

Speaking of food … we decided to look for lunch, stopping at a corner pub for a a beer and a torta (sandwich). Peggy entertained us by doing a tequila shot behind the bar!

We tried to round out Diego Day by seeing Rivera’s massive mural in Palacio de Bellas Artes. One more museum closed in our faces!

---

New Year’s Eve

We chatted with a jeweller who wants to move to Toronto and a young man who was so drunk his friend showed Peggy a translation on his phone saying “Please ignore him”!

After dinner, we walked a short distance to the Zócalo.

We have been anticipating NYE in the Zócalo (square) for several days… watching a stage and decorations going up, noting the ever increasing police and military presence, planning a muster spot and an escape route if the party got rough …

There were a few thousand well behaved people in this enormous area and a few vendors selling food and drink, lighted crowns, or telescopic views of the moon for 75 cents.

The church bells rang for about 5 minutes at 9pm, then they turned off the decoration lights in the square.

It’s 9:40pm and we’re home for the night.

Happy new year to family, friends and blog followers!

After a filling breakfast of OE’s “huevos revueltos con frijoles negros” and 1927 pastries, we headed out for a day of learning about Diego Rivera.

But … we struck out twice this morning.

First stop – Secretaría de Educación Pública which displays Rivera paintings on every free surface, from the elevator cars to the spaces above doorways. The building is closed today. We will try again tomorrow.

We then walked to the Palacio Nacional hoping to see murals painted by Rivera. They were sold out today. We can line up at 9:30 am tomorrow for tickets.

New plan – we took an 1 hour Uber ride for $25CDN to get to the canals of Xochimilco (so-chee-milk-oh).

In the 13th century, people began cultivating crops on land build on top of shallow lakes and marshes, eventually blanketing the Valley of Mexico. A network of canals survives. Visitors can now explore the canals on flat bottom boats called trajineras, poled along by Mexican men.

Here are some of the highlights:

There were also toys, floral crowns, blankets and potted shrubs for sale in the water.

We’ve spent a wonderful Christmas week with our family in Nuevo Vallarta and are now in Mexico City with our friends Guy and Peggy. They arrived at 1:45 this morning from Vancouver via Calgary – a long day of traveling.

We started out day at Pastelería Ideal, a bakery founded in 1927. You wander around with a pizza-sized tray choosing your pastries.

Day 1 was very laid back, wandering around the Zocalo area – the main square in Mexico City.

We started with our traditional jaunt through the cathedral

Outside the cathedral there are several Aztec shamans(?) in feathered headdresses and costumes featuring animal imagery, performing spiritual rituals involving oils, herb bundles and smoke, to bless and cleanse local believers – a moment of ceremony rather than entertainment, we felt.

We had a quick look at Templo Mayor, the Main Temple of Mexica peoples, rediscovered in 1978. Closed on Mondays, but here’s a pic of the open air excavation so far.

The market stalls are everywhere – on both sides of every street with thousands of people looking for socks and underwear, trinkets, street corn (OE’s favourite Mexican food)

… and what we think were shopkeepers buying or sorting through huge bundles of clothes offered by wholesalers.

… and they were giving FREE Covid and flu shots on the street – no questions asked!

We had taco dinner just around the corner from our condo at Los Cocuyos, a street stand made famous by Anthony Bourdain.

After a 90 minute fiasco at America Car Rental -they needed a $6000CDN deposit in lieu of insurance (Guy has insurance thru his credit card) – but could not process the large deposit through their Visa machine!!- we were off.

Hwy 200 meanders thru the streets of PV for quite a while before heading into a land of smaller resorts and hotels, then farmland, jungle and villages. After a 5 hour drive ( with a roadside stop for tacos)

we arrived at our new home, Paikea Mexico, in Arroyo Seco. We’ve gone for a little more rustic accommodation for our last few days. We have a 1 bedroom RV and a tent outside with a double air mattress.

There is a stand alone outdoor kitchen where we cook, clean up and eat outside. There are lime tangerine trees, coconut trees, hummingbirds, butterflies and geckos. Chickens wander around our yard. Our patio has a dining table, comfy chairs and 2 hammocks.

We’ve been in the Puerto Vallarta area for almost 2 weeks – first with our family at an all inclusive and now with our friends Guy Hervieux and Peggy Kehoe in a beautiful condo on the beach in Bucerias. I didn’t want to bore or annoy you with blogposts of overindulgence in food and drink, and decadent lounging around on the beach, but today was interesting and different.

Ben Hochhausen is a 99-year-old Edmontonian who winters at the Vidanta condos in Nuevo Vallarta. He very generously invites friends to join him for a week or two, and Carol (Peggy‘s sister) and her husband Roland are with him now.

Vidanta

We ubered to Vidanta for half the quoted taxi price. Vidanta is MASSIVE. We drove 7 minutes down a curving drive through a “landscaped jungle” to the first security gate, continued to a second airport security type spot, then took a shuttle to Ben’s building.

We took a gondola ride (for guests only) above the complex – a 4 mile loop with 5 stops and a panoramic view of the 2500 acre property “including endless restaurants and lounges, three golf courses and a golf academy, a shopping plaza, and entertainment plaza, two indulgent spas, countless pools, and the all-new Beachland” – a theme park under construction.

After lunch at a poolside restaurant (thanks Carol and Roland!) we were picked by a rickety school bus for part 2 of our day.

Volcanes Kids Educational Program

Ben has been involved in supporting this project for many years and wanted us to see what is being done.

Volcanes is a community on the outskirts of PV. Art and Mayra Fumerton started their project there in 2011 – first by providing breakfasts to the school children then expanding into an educational before/after school program ( kids go to the state school next door for half a day, morning or afternoon). They started with 8 students, teaching them English and a Computer program. There are now over 400 students from grade 1-12 who willingly come to Volcanes for English, computer training, Math, and Spanish reading intervention. There’s a community library, a music program, and a sewing co-op that makes uniforms for PV hotel workers.

The English teacher brings her 4 month old daughter to class every day. There’s a pack n play in the back of the room.

After visiting all the classrooms, we were treated to a snack of taquitos and iced hibiscus tea made by the cooking class. One of the programs graduates, 21 year old Marco, is an award winning concert pianist who got his start at Volcanes and is now studying in Barcelona. He was home for Christmas and we had a chance to chat with him while we ate.

We were treated to a concert by the 40 piece wind instrument junior high band – 2 Christmas carols and 2 Star Wars pieces.

The stage is part of a Community Centre that was quietly funded by Ben a few years ago.

When if was time to leave we were each given a couple of shortbread cookies made by the cooking class (we could smell them baking during our tour!)

We were all driven back to our place in bucerias – in the school van (their logo says “Go to School. Stay in School. Dream Big.”) where we enjoyed margaritas and shrimp pasta. Uber got our friends safely home to Vidanta.

For more info on the Volcanes project visit https://volcanesproject.com/