Tlaxcala, Biggest Little City in Mexico!

After consulting our tourist books, we all decided to have ourselves an adventure today.  We headed out of the DF to the southeast toward Puebla and Veracruz to check out the city of Tlaxcala and its surrounding pre-Hispanic ruin sites.

The weather was so clear and beautiful, we had to pull off the highway (in a safe area, don't worry) to get some shots of the volcanos.  This is the Popocatepetl (aka Popo) on the left with the smoke coming out, and Itzaccihuatl (aka Itza) on the right.

Top o' the morning to ya Tlaxcala!  This is the back of the cathedral, brightly painted to match the clear blue sky.

This was the front of the cathedral, all done up in talavera.   The inside was mint green, but there were services going on, so we just looked.

This is part of the main (read: only) attraction in the city of Tlaxcala.  This is a mural depicting Tlaxcala's colorful history painted in their government building on their zocalo.  Tlaxcala sided with the Spanish during the conquest and the revolution, and the word Tlaxcala has become synonymous with traitor.  Interesting.  

Here we are towards the end of the mural, depicting modern Mexico.

After the murals, we tried to find something else to do in Tlaxcala.  We wandered up this hill.  The top had one of the oldest churches in North America.  It kind looked like the other churches, though :)

This is the smallest bullfighting ring in Mexico.

Tlaxcala watch tower.

After our brief tour of Tlaxcala, we set out to find the ruins.  Our first stop was Cacaxtla just outside of the city.

 

Wild poinsettias.

One spectacular cactus.

Here we go, more patrimony of the world!

These paintings are what made Cacaxtla really cool.  There were quite a few of them, but they didn't photograph well.  Here is an example of one that came out decent.

After Cacaxtla we made our way over to the other site in the area, Xochitecatl.  This is one of Xochitecatl's 3 pyramids.

This is the round pyramid at Xochitecatl, and the last photo from our camera before its battery died.

Ever resourceful, we whipped out our iPhones to continue photographing the area.  On top of the round pyramid was this cross.  Here it is with Popo (left) and Itza (right) in the background.

Here's Eric with a miniature Stonehenge.  Say Whiskey!

And finally, the third pyramid at Xochitecatl with the volcano La Malinche in the background.

After the sites, we decided to head over to Puebla (we weren't that far) for an excellent dinner and some talavera shopping.  All in all, we had a pretty great adventure!