I had a few extra vacation days I needed to use up and a desire to visit Cuetzalan. So I booked a flight to Puebla via Houston. I arrived at the Puebla airport around 7:30 p.m., and taxied to CAPU. I bought my ticket to Cuetzalan for the morning on the Via line, for about $200 pesos. I then went across the street and got a room at the Hotel Star Express. Star Express was a nice hotel, and super convenient to CAPU.
The ride to Cuetzalan took about four hours. The bus stopped brief in Zaragoza and then again in Zacapoaxtla. The ride gets pretty twisty-turny toward the end. I do not normally have issues with this but felt really motion sick after this ride (I picked up some Dramamine for the return and had no issues).
I spent one night in the Posada la Plazuela, which fronts on the small plaza with the fountain. I’ve gotten more interested in photography, and I often pick hotels now based on whether they have a roof terrace that I can take photos from. The Posada la Plazuela allowed me on the roof and I got some nice shots of the church. Each night in Cuetzalan a fog rolled in about 1 hour prior to sunset. This blocked most of what was a beautiful full moon, though I do think I got some nice photos otherwise.
On my second morning I hiked out to the Cascada Las Brisas. I had a general idea of where I was going but I ended up having to ask for directions from a few locals. I made the mistake of trying to follow Google maps and I think I took the long way there. It was a very pleasant hour long walk, and I had the place to myself for about 30 minutes. I walked back the same way I came.
My second night was spent at the Posada Los Jarritos, which is up the hill behind the los Jarritos church. The view from the balcony was superb, and I climbed further up and walked out the highway about 200 meters and found a really nice clearing where I could get photos of the church.
Although it was November 3 and 4, locals still seemed to be in full on Dia de los Muertos mode. The cemetery was extremely active and people were still bringing massive amounts of marigolds in. Tombs were being painted, etc.
The centro area of Cuetzalan was also busy with their market. Lots of stalls set up with touristy things, but also food and other items.
Cuetzalan sort of reminded me of Taxco, hilly streets with many white/red painted buildings and tile roofs.
After two days in Cuetzalan, I moved on to Zacapoaxtla. I took the bus, it was around $30 pesos and one hour. From the Zacapoaxtla bus terminal, I walked uphill to the Hotel Plaza. I got a second floor corner room with great views and three balconies. I really liked Zacapoaxtla. There just isn’t a lot of information about the town and no street view to check out. The main plaza is nice with two churches and a government building on the other side. I walked all over town and found several miradors -- one, just west of the Plaza allows you to look uphill to the cemetery and church. Walking to the church, I found that much as in Cuetzalan, people were still decorating tombs.
Another mirador looks out over the valley to the east. Walking south out of town on the main road, head east when you reach the gas station/church. There’s an overlook there. There’s another one on the north edge of town, somewhat near the bus terminal but two or three blocks east.
Everyone seemed pretty friendly, it was very clean, and it might make a decent base for exploring more of the area. The hotel had photos from multiple local waterfalls, and though I didn’t have time to see them on this trip, it might be a future trip. One thing that I noticed that was a little different -- the streets had parking meters everywhere. Can’t ever remember seeing that in such a small town.
I took the bus back to CAPU and then from there to Atlixco. I had spent an afternoon in Atlixco in February 2016 and really wanted to spend more time there. I was hoping to get some nice shots of Popo with some of the local churches. As I wrote in the thread about the earthquake, Atlixco was clearly very hard hit. All the churches were closed with damage, and there were several structures in the centro that had been reduced to piles of rubble. There are still giant piles of rubble along the streets with caution tape. There were construction workers all over and the sounds of work permeated the air. I think they have their work cut out for them, it’s such a beautiful town, hard to see it with the damage.
I spent one night in Puebla and also noted damage there, albeit not as severe as Atlixco.
