Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
I sat next to Maria de los Angeles and chatted all the way to Córdoba. Maria had worked
in Las Vegas where she “watched Asians bet $100 chips as if they were grains of rice.”
I relaxed and expected a four-hour-plus bus ride through winding mountains from Puebla
to Córdoba, which was founded as a military outpost to protect the highway, merchants
and travelers from marauders. I looked out the window over deep, lush, green valleys and
wondered how apprehensive or confident the Spanish conquistadors felt marching in this
mountainous New World. They must have believed in destiny, determination and in re-
wards to tackle this terrain. The bus zipped into Córdoba in only two hours. I laughed at
myself thinking, “Mexico is building highways, tunnels and bridges faster than I'm updat-
ing maps.”
This modern highway avoided the old wrenching, curving four-hour tummy turner. From
my passenger-side window, the looming Orizaba Mountain was profiled against a blue-
purple sky, with its perfect peak capped in white looking like a 17,000-foot snow cone.
Then fog engulfed us and Orizaba disappeared.
I bought a taxi voucher from the machine at the bus terminal, took the next cab from a
waiting row and asked the driver to take me to Córdoba's center. I asked about hotels near
the plaza. The driver grunted and then suggested Hotel Bello. "It's a businessman's hotel,"
he said dryly.
"What's the main industry in Córdoba?" I asked.
The taxi driver said, "Coffee and sugar cane." He didn't elaborate. Our conversation went
dead.
Hotel Bello charged $41 a night, offered free Internet in the lobby for guests and an attract-
ive restaurant with large picture windows that flooded the dining area with light. Maple-
wood straight-backed chairs were set around tables draped with blue tablecloths. The hotel
was modern, and the hallway to my room smelled freshly painted, but the shower pressure
was low and the water lukewarm.
From the balcony I heard distant music. The plaza was a block away. The Municipal Band
was setting up. Workers snapped open folding chairs and set them in rows in the colonial
plaza in front of the fountain, across from the Municipal (City Hall). Chairs were shuffled
and chrome music stands were unfolded and arranged. Musicians were tuning their instru-
ments, sounding disharmoniously. The band played every Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m.. To-
