Mexico 2025 Second Part (December 12 - 18)
The Best of Central Mexico: Magical Towns and Bustling Cities
December 12, 2025 - Convento de la Santa Cruz and Aqueduct at Querétaro, Templo de Santa Clara de Asís, Templo y Exconvento de San Francisco de Asís and Historical downdown section
Teotihuacan is more than just pyramids; it is an entire city. In addition to the three great pyramids, there were a little more than two thousand residential complexes in which the ancient Teotihuacan civilization developed. Behind Pirámide de la Luna, framing it, stands the imposing mountain now known as Cerro Gordo, which in the 16th century was known as Tenam, "the mother." It is a volcano that erupted approximately 300,000 years ago and whose lava flow covered the entire valley with incandescent material that, when cooled, created a lithification process; that is, it turned to stone (basalt and tezontle) with which the population built this enormous city. (from educational sign at the site)
December 13, 2025 - Teotihuacan, From Teotihuacan to Puebla the Capital of Puebla, Mexico
The oldest public library in the Americas is the Palafoxiana Library (Biblioteca Palafoxiana) in Puebla, Mexico, founded in 1646 by the then Bishop of Puebla, Juan de Palafox y Mendoza to house his book collection. The beautiful hall of the Library was finished in 1773. The Library currently holds more than 41,000 items, including 9 incunnabula, among them a 1473 edition of the “Histories” of Herodotus.
December 14, 2025 - Palafoxiana Library
"Irregular," "extravagant," "uneven." This is how the dictionary of the French Academy of 1740 described the term baroque to negatively refer to an art form that was seen as having broken with the aesthetic norms of Greco-Roman Antiquity and the Renaissance. From this perspective works produced between the late sixteenth century and the final decades of the eighteenth seemed so exaggerated and bizarre that they were identified with an imperfect pearl known as a pérola barroca in Portuguese... (from educational sign at the The Museo Internacional del Barroco (MIB) in Puebla, Mexico)
International Museum of the Baroque
SAN FRANCISCO ACATEPEC TEMPLE The town is fifteen minutes away from the capital city of the state of Puebla. The Christian name of "San Francisco" is owed to this saint, his titular patron, and to the religious order of the seraphic father, evangelized to the ancient inhabitants of it and participated in the construction of his temple. On the other hand, the name "Acatepec" comes from being located on the "Cerro de los carmizos".
The architectural structure of the property confirms that it is a Franciscan building from the 16th century, dating back to the year 1560, and the beginning of its construction, however, the main part of its architectural plan dates from the second half of the 16th century and the 17th century when its frontage was completed around the year 1760. The temple has a Latin cross plan, the atrium is spacious, like other Franciscans, it has three entrances, and the main entrance has a multi-line arch, whose construction was earlier, not only had an ornamental function, but also served as open chapel and as a holy ground for the population. During the 16th and 17th centuries burials were carried out and even today you can see some of the burial sites, of which the oldest dates to the year 1800.
The frontage of the church is decorated in a Mexican baroque style, whose ornamentation was carried out in the golden century of the baroque and the Talavera of Puebla between 1650 and 1750, being the most beautiful frontage of its type in all of Mexico; This has been carved and polychromed in such a way that it resembles an altarpiece. It consists of two parts and a finish with volutes, flames that are found in both the belfry and the tower, which resemble elements of fine pastries, the baroque style is defined in the Solomonic columns of the tower, while the churrigueresque It is defined in the stripes of the second body and finish, but the most admirable thing about this work is its multicolored look of Talavera mosaics manufactured exclusively for it in the country, and makes the magnificence of the frontage such that it looks like a porcelain temple. worthy of being kept in a glass cape. The interior of the temple is no less amazing, Its decoration is astonishing due to the density and brilliance of the forms. The interior has plasterwork decoration and baroque altarpieces like those of the Tonantzintla temple, however, this decoration corresponds to that made after the fire that the temple suffered in 1939, to restore it they used decorations like the originals, but there were changes in the monograph. (Text from a sign at the site)
Templo De San Francisco Acatepec, Church of Santa María Tonantzintla, and Around the town of Puebla, Puebla, Mexico
December 15, 2025 - From Puebla to Oaxaca
From remote times the valley of Oaxaca was inhabited and constituted an important cultural area; at least 16 ethnic and linguistic groups lived in Oaxaca in the late pre-Hispanic era. The ancient city of Monte Albán was one of the main pre-Hispanic settlements in Mesoamerica for thirteen centuries, between 500 B.C. and 800 A.D.; the Zapotec culture had its splendor here. The archaeological zone extends along 20 square km and covers three large hills: Monte Albán itself, Atzompa to the northwest, and El Gallo between them. The area of intensive pre-Hispanic occupation covers more than 6.5 square km. The entire zone has sets of large structures—Cerro Atzompa, El Gallo, El Paragüito, Monte Albán Chico, El Pitahayo, and El Plumaje—but the Main Plaza of Monte Albán is the focal point of this zone. (from educational sign in the Museum at the site)
December 16, 2025 - Monte Albán, Oaxaca, and Convent of Santo Domingo de Guzmán, Cultural Center and Oaxaca Ethnobotanical Garden
El Árbol del Tule (Spanish for The Tree of Tule) is a tree located in the church grounds in the town center of Santa María del Tule in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is a Montezuma cypress (Taxodium mucronatum), or ahuehuete (meaning "old man of the water" in Nahuatl). It has the largest tree trunk in the world. The tree is occasionally nickname the “Tree of Life” from the images of animals that are reputedly visible in the tree's gnarled trunk.
December 17, 2025 - Árbol del Tule, and Oaxaxa Countryside, Textile Workshop and Cooking
December 18, 2025 Oaxaca to San Francisco via Huston, Texas