The city of Puebla is famous for many things, including adding chiles to chocolate and pouring it over chicken, unceremoniously ejecting the French from the city at the Battle of Puebla (and celebrating every year since with? hundreds of shots of tequila on May 5th) and being built by angels. Oddly despite these illustrious claims to fame and being the fifth largest city in Mexico, Puebla remains comparatively devoid of foreign tourists. With a population of 1,500,000 and outskirts clogged with malls and car exhaust, this is hardly a small town yet Puebla manages to avoid the harried pace of other large Mexican urban centres. Every afternoon sees the central plazas fill up with locals watching their children hit each other with balloons, listening to street performers or gossiping over excellent local coffee.

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Built in 1531, Puebla was an important colonial refueling stop for the conquistadores on their way to the coast to export all that Aztec gold back to Spain. The city’s wealth grew, a great part of it based on the production of talavera ceramics which is still a great tourist moneyspinner today. Having grown fat on colonial rule, Puebla’s moneyed upper classes initially remained loyal to Spain during the War of Independence. Locals prefer to focus on one of Mexico’s greatest victories over a foreign regime instead, the ass-kicking two thousand Mexican troops gave to a French army three times it size in Puebla on May 5th 1862.

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Declared a UNESCO heritage site in 1987, fans of Herreresque-Renaissance/early baroque style structures (or even less architecturally learned travelers who like looking at pretty buildings) can feast their eyes on the Cathedral, Santo Domingo church, Capilla del Rosario, Ex-Convento de Santa Rosa and portales in the zócalo. Nowadays, vistors are just as likely to find boutique restaurants and swanky new hotels as listed buildings. The city is growing economically, and is a major financial and business centre as well as being the home to the Volkswagen plant that exclusively produces the New Beetle.

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The zócalo, like in all Latin cities, is where it all happens. With a variety of restaurants and coffee shops to choose from, it’s quite easy to spend a whole afternoon here lounging under the portales, people-watching and gorging on mole poblano, and other local treats. Should the need for some cultural activities arise there are some excellent museums to while away the afternoon, such as el Museo Amparo, el Museo Jose Luis Bello y Zetina, el Museo Regional de la Revolucion Mexicana, el Museo Regional de Puebla and el Museo Nacional de los Ferrocarriles. The Casa de la Cultura usually has some good exhibitions too.

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On the eastern limits of the city, boys can play at being soldiers at the Fuerte de Loreto, within the Centro Civico 5 de Mayo museum complex. From here there are great views of the volcanoes of Popocatepetl (Smoking Mountain, 17, 887 feet) and Iztaccihuatl (Sleeping Lady, 17, 373 feet). Popo has been ominously rumbling away since 1947 and the last violent activity was in December 2005- so climbing it isn’t recommended (or, indeed, allowed). Experienced climbers can have a go on Izta. Ask in the Tourist Office in Puebla for further details or check out www.turiguide.com/htmlpages/esp/popocatepetl.html.

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