The day surprisingly brought a lovely drive on reasonable roads past snow capped mountains and a volcano sending plumes of dust into the air on our route to Puebla. We had decided to skip Mexico City for now after our run of closed down campsites, bribes and just general everyday poor luck so just skirted around the city to Puebla which is a LOT smaller and less ‘big city scary’ (it is however Mexico’s 4th largest city so still quite big!).

We climbed slowly but surely all the way there but quite enjoyed the journey. When we finally arrived, 7,000 feet up in the air we obviously got lost finding the campsite. The traffic was quite horrific as we passed through Puebla itself to get to Cholula but we made it eventually. Also on route we had to screech to a holt to take the time to jump out the van and take some snaps of the most unusual wedding vehicle we have ever seen!  We set up camp and even had an internet connection so worked late, had pork soup and went to bed early to catch up on our sleep!

The next day we went for a walk up our very first pyramid! The Cholula Pyramid is very famous as the largest in the Western Hemisphere! It does just look like a pyramid shaped hill today but there was an excavation site and you could take a tour through the pyramid…but of course not on the day we were there! Typical!

We clambered up the many steps to the top where one of the 365 churches in the town of Cholula alone stands proudly.( Cholula is a suburb of Puebla with a population of approx 50,000…thats 137 people per church)
We could see Popocatepetl (the Volcano) from the top and enjoyed the view of the city all around us. The church was beautiful and we sat a while to listen to the prayers and songs from within and feel the breeze around us.

We spent most of the day at the top of the pyramid trying to film the Colin Cowie wedding video. It was such a tough thing to do! We had to record a video that explained ‘what makes our love soar’. Its a tough enough question to answer let alone explain on camera, with no camera or editing skilss whatsoever!! We stuttered and flunked our lines over and over and stood in every possible place to get the best shots but we just couldn’t get it right! When we eventually gave up and went back to Peggy we fed the camp dogs the bones from last nights pork soup, had a glass of wine and tried again with the video for another few hours with not much more success!

We spent the next morning on the phone to the papers and set off to Catemaco. It was a long drive, 211 miles to be precise and that was BEFORE we got lost…again! We stopped for a treat on the road at an Italian Coffee shop. I had an iced coffee and Alex a great big cappucino. It was lovely, like Starbucks and just what we needed to keep us going on the long road ahead. When we finally arrived in Catemaco, we got lost and found the campsite had closed down. We we eventually found a bar that would let us stay in the field next to the bar. They had electricity but no water which wouldn’t normally be a problem BUT we had a bout of what the Mexicans call ‘Turisto’ or ‘Mordida’ or Motezuma’s revenge! One toilet, with no water to flush it, across a muddy, wet field in the pitch black. The security guard watching us cross the field back and forth all night long from the bar must have wondered what on Earth what was going on!!
Yet another few eventful days under our belts! At this point we wondered if we would make Christmas at all!

See what happens next on our traveling wedding adventure!