In the morning, after breakfast, we finally went to the great pyramid of Cholula, reputed to be the largest in the world. Indeed, most of it just looks like a massy hill, but there have been excavations on one side revealing a crazy mix of walls and rooms from different eras. Very hard to understand; presumably they were all active at the same time, so it’s like seeing centuries of use overlaid rather than the snapshot one experiences. There was a steep pyramid slope to climb, so we went up and admired the view and the less intrepid, then walked around to the entrance to the tunnels. Inside the pyramid is a proper warren and a passage has been opened for visitors. This was an arch shaped, narrow passage lined with stone, low enough that the Gentleman Friend had to hunch over to protect both his head and his shoulders. There were many passages leading off it, left and right, up and down, it was properly Indiana Jones style and I couldn’t work out what the purpose of it all was, or how passages like the one that suddenly descended down into the floor, with no room around it (the site managers had put a little bridge over it) while also continuing ahead without pausing. There was one group of people that was very slow and kept stopping to take the most pointless photos, so they collected a mass of people behind them, and for the first time in my life I felt a slight hint of claustrophobia, that feeling of I must get out. I had to slow myself down and breathe deeply, but my knees were certainly wobbly by the time we emerged. Another woman, behind us, did experience full on panic and we let her pass by in a rush.
We then went on into San Pedro Cholula, the other half of the town. Again, what a very different place it was. This is the tourist part of the town and was filled with souvenir sellers and dodgy restaurants. Very busy, a different world altogether. We went to the market of Cholula and that, certainly, is a reason to return to this part of Cholula. It was filled with stalls of excellent produce, all local and Mexican. We bought a good amount: nopales, lychees, mangos, soursop, tomatoes, tomatillos, cheese, avocados, beans, courgette flowers, corn. The GF went off for a (poor) massage while I took a taxi back and started preparing some of the produce: blanching the corn, grilling the nopales, cooking the beans. When the GF returned he brought a small stack of tortillas so I made my first attempt at salsa verde with a habanero and a taco filling of courgette flowers, corn and nopales, with cheese and avocados. It was extremely tasty and satisfyingly local and (reasonably) authentic.