Optional Tours
On Thursday evening, Héctor Barraza, our cultural attaché, will be at the Registration Desk in the Salón Virreyes, Hotel Colonial, 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm, and also at the Welcome Reception in the Patio of the Carolino on Thursday evening, 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm, to answer your questions.
Guided Walking Tours
of the centro histórico of Puebla on Friday and Saturday, will be led by a knowledgeable English-speaking guide (though if everyone speaks Spanish, the tour will, of course, be in Spanish.) Walking tours are free, and will depart from the Palacio Municipal (office of the Ayuntamiento) on the zócalo. We will have a schedule of departure times and sign-up sheets at Registration, to give us an idea of the size of each group, though you may also join the tour without signing up in advance. Walking tours will include a number of historical buildings, not the least of which are the Cathedral, the library of Palafox y Mendoza, the Church of Santo Domingo with its famous Rosary Chapel, the kitchen of the monastery of Santa Clara, the cloister of Santa Monica, etc. The tours last approximately three hours. (Please consider tipping your guide.)
You may also visit these sites on your own, of course; the Rosary Chapel is usually closed between 12:00 noon and 4:00 pm, and the Cathedral is best visited when mass is not in session. We will confirm these hours and others at Registration.
Bus Tours Of Nearby Sites
will leave from the Camino Real Hotel, and will take approximately four hours (please do not take a tour if you need to return precisely at the hour indicated, since tours may take slightly longer than the designated time.) The cost will be $20 dollars or 220 pesos; you will pay in cash at Registration or the Welcome Reception on Thursday to Héctor Barraza, or at the time you take the tour. (Please consider tipping your bus driver and guide.) You may e-mail Héctor directly to reserve your space on a particular tour: hectorgbarraza@yahoo.com.
Cholula and Tlaxcala are neighboring towns of great historical interest, with stops along the way at villages and churches known as consummate examples of the Mexican Baroque. There are some pictures of some of these sites on our conference website under the link About Puebla or directly at:
We cannot guarantee that we will be able to accommodate everyone on these bus tours, but we will assist you in finding alternative modes of transportation to nearby sites of interest, if the bus trips fill up.
Tour 1: Cholula, Tonantzintla, and Acatepec
Friday afternoon: 3:00 pm to approximately 7:00 pm
Saturday morning, 8:00 am to approximately 12:00 noon
Sunday morning, 9:00 am to approximately 1:00 pm
Tour 2: Tlaxcala, Church of Ocotlán
Friday morning, 8:00 am to approximately 12:00 noon
Saturday afternoon: 3:00 pm to approximately 7:00 pm