Margarita dropped Stephen and me off down at the Zocalo in Puebla. We walked around, enjoying the architecture, sampling the wares of 6 Poniente (I think--I just called it Candy Lane for all the dulcerias and cookie shops), and gazing at the glorious art in Puebla's amazing central cathedral.
We also saw a vehicle that seemed to indicate a very rustic sort of lodging.
We took a break from the sun in the crowded zocalo itself. It's much like the plazas in Italy, except it had lots of trees, as well as huge crowds for the holiday. Vendors were selling what we used to call "knickerbockers"--two resin balls attached to a string that you knocked together in a relentless, headache-inducing rhythm. Balloons and bubble makers were also popular. You could sit on a shady bench and have your shoes shined--but we were wearing sandals. We sat next to Jaime, an older man who had been widowed three years ago. His children were on vacation elsewhere, so he celebrated his Holy Saturday by watching the crowd and sharing his bench with us. He told us of Puebla's trees and climate, and taught us about the culture of central Mexico.
We watched clowns taking a lunch break, and enjoyed a few laughs with a dad trying to get his toddler to partake of a fountain.
We had a great party on "Holy Saturday" with friends of the Gomez family. Cesar here is not only a great grill chef, but also a podiatrist and a folklore/culture teacher. One of his concerns is that the Mexican government literally changes history (as written in the textbooks) when it changes administrations. His focus with his students is on the truth of their own culture as revealed in song, dance, and all things Mexican, even when studying math and science.
Fitting all these people into the garden was amazing! Cesar and his wife Connie have two sons (Uriel and Uziel) who are students. In the photo below, from the left, Uziel (who is also in the self-defense class with Mario) and Uriel joined Lindsey and Adrienne (and Mario, not shown, who is sitting to the right of Adrienne) for a rooftop view of the sunset over Popo (the volcano). There really was room for everyone on the ground, though.
Margarita's brother, Mario Santiago, and his wife, Blanca, also came. Another friend, Lupita, and her daughters Daniela and Alejandra joined us a bit later. Ale, who sells real estate, lives in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca. She suggested restaurants and offered to be our contact when Stephen and I planned to visit there. Cesar, Lupita, Ale, and Daniela gave us travel advice: Don't go through Oaxaca (city) to get to PE, they told us, better to go to Acapulco and drive down the coast (due to huge curves, much worse than the ones we had encountered on a previous trip).
Toward the end of the evening, we got to meet Pedro Pablo's family: his mother, Porfiria, his brother, Fernando, and his niece Karen stopped by on their way back from their travels. They shared with us some of the oranges that they had brought with them, so we had fresh orange juice the next morning after Adrienne, Stephen, and I enjoyed the 7 a.m. sunrise service on Easter Sunday at Divine Redeemer Presbyterian Church.