Only in Mexico --- Puebla and Talavera Part 2

 Church of Our Lady of the Remedies

Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de los Remedios

1594

Cholula, Puebla, Mexico

She is built on top of The Great Pyramid of Cholula called Tlachihualtepetl.   This is the largest Pre-Columbian pyramid by volume and the world's largest monument.  It has barely been excavated because of the church on top but over 5 miles of tunnels have been excavated inside the pyramid, too bad they are currently closed to the public.  What little that has been excavated outside has been reconstructed (to the dismay of archaeologists who feel reconstruction damaged the possibility of further study)

What is interesting about Cholula, especially when you are standing on the wrap-around plaza of the church looking over the city, is the number of colonial style churches all painted in bright easter egg colors. At its height, the city had hundreds of temples to various Aztec gods. When Hernán Cortés arrived, Cholula's temples and pyramids were replaced with Christian churches, many of the churches built on top of the temple and pyramid foundations. There are 45 colonial churches in this small city built on order from Cortés.

  Is the name Cholula ringing a bell?  It should.

Cholula was once the second largest city during the height of the Aztec nation next to Tenochitlan.  It is still the oldest city in Mexico at 2,500 years old.  Now it is more commonly known, at least to our family, as the namesake to our favorite hot sauce.   

From the wrap-around plaza, you can also get an amazing view of two of Mexico's volcanoes; Popocatepetl "The Smoking Mountain" and Iztaccihuatl "The White Woman". 

There are numerous legends about these two volcanoes that are popular in Mexican culture.  Iztaccihuatl, on the right blocked by clouds, is said to be an Aztec princess who fell in love with the Aztec warrior Popocatepetl, the volcano on the left.  Both turned into volcanoes, out of kindness, by the gods.

Popocatepetl will give me nightmares now because...

Popocatepetl is still incensed at the loss of his love.  While my girlfriends and I were admiring the view we discussed the best place to live if forced to live this close to an active volcano. We'd like to avoid the fate of the citizens of Pompeii. 

During our discussion, Popo --as he is lovingly called by the locals-- belched. 

I experienced that brief moment of fear where you can't move, wondering if I was going to need to start running.  I don't like that feeling therefore I plan on avoiding the whole live-volcano-near-my-house scenario. 

Notice in previous pictures that there was only a slight veil of smoke.

This time I dodged the grasshopper vendors but we did stop on the way down from the church at this lady's little tienda.  I love the selection of seeds and nuts you can buy and we sampled a few before settling on our favorites for purchase.

These two girls were so cute and posed for Rosita and I as we hung our cameras out of the car snapping pictures of everything we passed.

And Finally...

TALAVERA!!!

The art of Talavera came to Mexico with the Spaniards and their Majolica artisans.  Authentic Talavera is only recognized by the government of Mexico if it is made by a few selected and authorized Fabricas, or workshops, in Puebla who are then able to stamp their work with the coveted D04 Certification Number.  When I first got to Mexico I was determined to only own D04 stamped Talavera but I quickly fell in love with the brilliant, bold colors and patterns of the non-certified workshops.  My only requirement was that it be lead free. 

Our first stop was at the Fabrica for Arte Espinosa Hermanos Talavera.  Hand thrown, hand painted and fired on site.  The last picture shows the brilliance of the colors after being fired.  The pieces are dusty because they are in the kiln room.  The owners let us pick out some pieces to buy before they went to the stores.  This place was recommended by some friends at church but I was less than impressed (sorry guys) probably because the hype surrounding it didn't match up to reality in my opinion.

I bought 2 platters and a rice serving bowl from Espinosa Hnos.

On to the next store.

 Tobias Huerta Talavera

I love this place. His cousins Maximo and Thomas have stores across the street from him but we didn't have time to visit those.

 

I went big in this store and bought two of these lamps:

I was only going to buy one but my friends thought I was out of my mind for buying just one.  They easily convinced me that I wouldn't have another chance and I'd be mad at myself later if I only got the one.  I have never bought matching lamps and tend to go towards complimentary lamps rather than matching.  I think it goes along with my need to buy things in ones or threes.  Balance makes me unbalanced.  I decided I'd fix this by buying complimentary lamp shades rather than matching ones.  We'll see if it works.

Mega thanks to Kathy and 'Rosita' for making it possible!!!

Kris has been bugging me about buying lamps.  Any time we go somewhere he points out lamps and says "why don't you buy some lamps?"  So I finally did and he likes them YAY!

The most fun out of the Talavera hunt was asking Tobias if he had any broken Talavera we could buy to make mosaics.  He said he'd put together a large box for 300 pesos or about $24 dollars.  I bought a box and Kathy and 'Rosita' bought a box to split.  When I got home I opened the box and washed all of the pieces that were CAKED in dust.  After they were spread out to dry, I spent several minutes running around with jazz hands: 

This is layed out on a 6 person table.  Once we get another tile saw I plan on cutting out the centers in equal squares to make tiles which I plan on using for a pieced together mosaic wall hanging.  What remains will be broken up for either a table mosaic or something similar.

I ♥ Puebla