The other piece of advice our walking tour guide/man practicing his English and his fitness (apparently he was avidly training for a triathalon, which explained the two and a half hours of walking), was to check out Atlisco, a small town that had been designated with puebla magico (magic village) status. While the town was really cute on its own, apparently the high honour had resulted from its elaborate Christmas lights set up during the month of December. We had to check it out.

We had a lazy morning, supporting the local coffee economy, then grabbed a bus to get to the bus station. From there, magically, the first bus we saw was heading to Atlisco! So easy! Unfortunately the magic bus was very concerned that others would not be able to find it and discover its magic. To avoid this, the driver ever so thoughtfully took extremely long breaks at the side of the road, honking at potential magic bus passengers, most of whom seemed rather impervious to the delights of the bus. The waiting was luckily punctuated by a slow creep toward the direction of Atlisco. Unsurprisingly, by the time we got there, it was almost dark, and we realized we were the only passengers who had endured the whole trip. Sometimes you just need a little bit of magic, not a lot.

Happy to be off the bus, we stretched our legs and headed up to the local church, taking in the views, before alighting to the zocalo. We then realized the festivities extended beyond the centre of town, with a full out fair, including a live merry go round. And by live, I mean the horses were real. Yup, no plastic here!

We decided to forgo that experience, but did join the locals in grabbing a drink. 1.2 litres of beer pouring into the largest cup I’ve ever seen, this was a two-handed drink. Seriously, it was heavy!

One seriously large drink

With time to kill to finish our mammoth micheladas/beers, we wandered around to see the rest of the magic. Much of the displays were quite beautiful and the atmosphere was festive, although another portion was a bit, what’s the word, oh right, tacky. Pretty much the equivalent of a 1.2 litre disposable cup filled with beer and clamato juice. Maybe the word I’m actually looking for is “awesome”?

For those of you inevitably wondering, the 1.2 litres of beer required 4 washroom trips, and a much faster bus back to Puebla, with a washroom on board of course.

A real live carousel