Cholula, is a pueblo magico two hours east of Mexico City, which is regarded as the oldest living city in the Americas, its founding dating back to 500 B.C. It should be more famous for this reason, as well as its pyramid, the Great Pyramid of Cholula, which is still nearly completely covered by earth, grass, and trees…instead more closely resembling a big hill than a pyramid. But a plain dirt hill it is not. This pyramid has the largest base in the world at 400 meters (1300 feet) per side and an iconic Spanish church crowning its summit. To most sources, this means the biggest pyramid in the world…two times bigger than the Pyramids of Giza.
In addition to this astounding feature, Cholula also offers ample and outlandish street art, explosions of vibrant hues and according to legend, 365 churches, one for every day of the year. The town is split into two separate entities of San Pedro and San Andres.
This legend dates from times of the conquest. In reality there are not 365 churches, there are 37. It was the original egotistical intention of the Spaniards led by Hernán Cortés to build a church on every pre-hispanic temple after the conquest of the city, but the quota was never met. It also has one of the biggest squares in the country, after Mexico City, of course. It is delightfully lined with trees rather than a concrete block pad like there.
One of the many doses of eccentric street art.
The pyramid as seen from a nearby field of jolly spring flowers. Santuario de la Virgen de los Remedios sits on top, which was built on top of this “hill” (supposedly unbeknownst to the Spaniards of what actually lay underneath in 1594). Unfortunately, all paths leading to the church were gated off. Yes, COVID strikes again. What’s open and closed because of the pandemic has truly been inconsistent and annoying.
No shortage of squeaky wheels in Cholula. One kilo of tortillas cost $12 pesos ($.60)
This jacaranda tree and this building certainly belong together.
A pile of irresistible chicken tostadas.
We loved the one-of-a-kind street markers in Cholula.
A gardener works on his flowers in front of one of the many stunning churches with tiled domes.
The streets of Cholula are flat, clean and colorful. It reminded us a bit of Queretaro.
La Casa de la Abuela Cafe. Grandma’s House Cafe. This abuela has a superb palette.
There were bikes everywhere in Cholula! If we were staying longer than a week, we’d be renting one.
The main square and arcade.
The brilliant Parroquia de San Andrés Cholula, across the street from our apartment, was constructed in 1585. Just loved the talavera tile domes.
As close as we could get to the church on top of the pyramid.
Some of the archeological evacuations they have done on the pyramid. The fact that the pyramid was abandoned, before the Spanish conquest, and was converted into a natural-looking hill through erosion, meant that it wasn’t known that it was a human construction until relatively recently. They only recently began pulling away the earth to discover what’s underneath.
At right, this part has obviously been renovated back to its former glory. At its peak, Cholula had the second largest population in Mexico (after Teotihuacan) of an estimated 100,000 people living at this site.
Speaking of what lies underneath, there are five miles of tunnels, stairways and passages that snake their way into a labyrinth throughout the pyramid. Naturally, Covid struck again. But we did see one of the tunnel exits from the pyramid’s perimeter.
More street art near the pyramid. Wonder what inspired this one…
So bizarre that a pyramid is under there!
The Convento de San Gabriel Arcángel looks like a Spanish fortress. It was established in 1529 on top of the destroyed temple to Quetzalcoatl with evangelization as its initial purpose.
Soaking in all the red! Yet, not so red on the inside.
The Main Street of Cholula.
In the market. This lady was selling four different kinds of mole sauce. Mmmm.
One of the specialities of Puebla state is the Cemita Poblana sandwich. The cemita is the type of bread it is served on, and contains breaded chicken or pork (milanesa) and white string cheese, avocado, onions, chipotle adobado and the herb papalo which is said to taste like cilantro mixed with arugula, but tasted a bit minty to us. It was an interesting herb.
More obscure street art
Another adorable church. For some reason they plopped these hideous awnings in front of many of them.
We also loved Cholula because every time we went out in the mornings, there was so much physical activity, like this yoga class in the park. There was also Zumba. Or, if you just wanna do strength training, you can do it at the foot of a 2000a-year old pyramid in the public gym.
Soaking up the warm evening with a glass of thirst-quenching tepache on the street. Tepache is a fermented beverage made from the peel of pineapples, and is sweetened with piloncillo or brown sugar, dashed with cinnamon, and served cold.
We are happy to see more and more female empowerment campaigns throughout Mexico. This one says “the respect towards women has no borders.”
Spending our last night at a place that felt a lot like Portland, a food cart pod complete with beer garden. The shrimp tacos were amazing at Donde Sea.
Our Accommodation: Majikal B&B
Every once and awhile we stumble onto an accommodation that instantly makes a huge impression on us. Someplace that, when we find it, makes us love travel, and jumps straight into our all-time favorites list. We found such a place at Majikal B&B in San Andres Cholula. We spent a very comfortable week there soaking up tranquillity and relaxation and now we simply have to gush about this one-of-a-kind family-run property.
Originally the property consisted of four large family houses, which over the past 20 years have been meticulously divided and transformed into 22 extraordinary and impossibly adorable themed apartments. Every apartment includes all the necessities like a well-stocked kitchen (including the imperative blender, and local Chiapas grown coffee), comfy living room/sitting area, private terrace/patio, private bath. And, the wifi worked phenomenally well too!
We can honestly say we’ve never stayed in a place this magnificently decorated, tranquil, and just…cozy. We struggled to leave to explore Cholula, and were always excited to return after, which is very unlike us ? And, for now, what remarkable value Majikal B&B is! Apartments start at $549 pesos or $27.50/night. We also discovered they also have another property in Merida, Yucatan, which we absolutely plan to check out in the future.
We stayed in the Santa Clara room which totally blew us away as soon as we saw it. We knew from the pictures it would be pretty amazing, but to see it in person, was gorgeous! (Yes, we were given a pretty swell upgrade.) It took us awhile to pick up our jaws from the floor, in fact. Everything… absolutely every surface was stitched together with exquisite Puebla talavera tile work, which is common in this part of Mexico. It was mesmerizing! And the decorating, flawless! The kitchen, begged us to cook in it and had an astoundingly beautiful brass hood over the six burner island stove, what a dream! This room is an absolute value and would sleep up to five people comfortably. $999 pesos, or $49/night. To be upfront, we paid $14.
A display nook in the kitchen. The family has been collecting pieces from throughout the world for many years to display in their rooms. It was as if every room was curated with pieces to admire. At right, you can see that form AND function exist there! The beautiful six burner gas stove. Wow!
The living room and second bed leading out to the lovely private terrace. What an exquisite ceiling!! And hey, there’s even an antique sewing machine to boot!
Close up of the kitchen. We drooled over the exceptional touches like the copper sinks, off-set drawer knobs, cabinet faces made of beans and, the simple fact that it had everything we needed to cook a meal. This isn’t always easy to find with our nomadic lifestyle!
Our terrace. What a stunning sun to do salutations on… ☺️ (Yes! They even provided Mandy with a yoga mat!)
Archway going toward the bedroom.
We just love the little touches everywhere we looked, including the most massive rosary beads we’ve ever seen!
Our bedroom included a fireplace as well. It wasn’t cold enough to use it, but certainly added to the ambience. Also, adored the floor tiles going into our room.
Greg felt like Rainbow Brite showering here! The rest of the bathroom wasn’t quite as exciting.
The Buddha-inspired enclosed zen garden walkway leading to our place.
The entrance to this hidden utopia. A private drive, should you need it where you can securely park a vehicle at your apartment for a small fee.
We met with Claudio, the very friendly and charming son of the family who is currently running this location, while his twin sister runs the one in Merida. Being the curious explorers that we are, we were overwhelmingly intrigued by the rest of the property and asked to see some of the other themed apartments. This room is called the Chino Poblana, named after the traditional dress of Puebla. Love-love-loved the little hobbit-like dome in the sitting area!
This room used to be a kitchen which you can see by the ingeniously repurposed stove hood over the bed. (The traditional Chino Poblana dress is hanging on the wall.) We loved the domed brick ceiling and the striking tile work in the bathroom. Also, we have to point out the COVID-friendly contactless entry at Majikal B&B. The code to enter from the outside of the gate at the street, as well as the individual apartment key code is provided when you make your reservation, so if you don’t want to meet with anyone to check-in, you certainly don’t have to!
This retro Art Deco-inspired room was by far our favorite (after ours!) The family did an amazing job pulling together appliances, furniture, and accessories to make it feel like you’ve stepped back into yesteryear.
Even the cabinets, the bed, and the hairdryer turned reading light! Wow! So very very clever! It also had a fireplace and a phenomenal mid-century wardrobe!
If you feel like leaping to the other side of the world, the Kali room is one of four Indian inspired rooms on the property. Kali is the most powerful Hindu goddess, who is in charge of harmonic balance on earth. We would certainly feel harmonious in this room.Its kitchen is strategically and creatively tucked into the closet, but is completely functional. What a tremendous use of space!
The Krishna room. Based on the Hindu incarnation of the god Vishnu who is the divine embodiment of joy and love. It has a private large second floor balcony, reaching right out into the verdant trees, which looks like another perfect place for yoga or a morning coffee.
The final room Claudio showed us (and believe us we wanted to keep going!) was the Indira room. It is named after the Prime Minister of India, the only woman to have held that position in the history of that country.
Other touches we loved included the fact they recycled, which very difficult to find in Mexico. Once we learned the family is actually of German-Mexican heritage it became a no brainer how this might be the case! Good for them!!
Oh, and one of our other favorite things…they had three onsite cats, and this one named Flaca, befriended us immediately. She would occasionally sit outside our door and meow and was super affectionate. We struggled not to let her accidentally climb in our backpack when we departed. ?
