MEXICO - In For A Penny In For A Peso

Hello and welcome to Mexico

You find me in the historic city of Puebla, around 2 to 2.5 hours south east of Mexico City. The journey here from the UK via Madrid was long and tiring but fairly straightforward and with no one sitting next to me on the plane there was room to stretch out. The transfer to Puebla is by coach direct from the airport in Mexico City.

The area is dominated by Popocatepetl, a large active volcano that is currently going through a phase of increased activity. We saw what they call an "exhalation" this afternoon, where it emits volcanic gases forming a gas cloud around the top.

The architecture in the historic city centre of Puebla itself is very much of the Spanish colonial style and is pretty impressive to wander around.  Here are some pics to keep you going from yesterday and I'll explore further today.

The traffic has to squeeze through narrow streets

One thing that has caught me and some of the other wedding guests from the UK by surprise is the strength of the sun. We are over 2000m above sea level here (you will remember from Pyrenees comparison on the Camino trip that Ben Nevis is 1345m) and UV exposure increases quite rapidly as you gain height. Consequently within 6 hours of arriving I had to run to the chemist for some Factor 50 as I started to burn quite rapidly - I have never used anything that strong before.

The food here of course is very spicy, which is also a bit of a challenge for the Brits, but some of the flavour combinations are amazing including using chocolate in a savoury way which I had for a starter yesterday. This was then followed by a steak which was coated with a sauce made from butter, what appeared to be a lot of sugar (it was cooked at the table), herbs and mixed red fruits - strawberries, raspberries, blackberries. That is the sort of sauce I would serve with say pancakes as a dessert but with the steak it was delicious. Having seen it cooked at the table I will have to try it out at home - watch this space!