Puebla Day Two

This morning I had breakfast with a bee.  It was not a wasp, but a honey bee, a little bit on the large side so I believe I was breakfasting with the Queen Bee.  I was sitting outside under the colonaded gallery that surrounds the zocalo this morning having breakfast in one of the many restaurants while the cathedral on the other side was pealing bells that sounded almost like thunder.  People were playing music and games in the park and again I saw young people engaged in tossing colour hoops in the air.  The bee wanted to see what I was eating and paused to sip my hot chocolate.  I don´t mind.  She is a bee and I can´t tell you how many times I have eaten honey in my life.
     On my way back to the hotel a middle aged man called after me, crossing the street in my direction: ¨Guero, soy de Colombia y busco una mujer mexicana.  ¿Me ayudas? (Hey, white guy, I´m from Colombia and I want to find a Mexican woman.  Can you help me? ¨  I replied, ¨´Sir, please bother someone else¨, and returned promptly to my hotel.  Then a friend who lives here came around to pick me up and we went to a restaurant in a different neighbourhood.  Later, after he dropped me off at my hotel I went for a long walk that took me through a rather poor, hardscrabble part of Puebla.  I am noticing that despite the visible beauty of so much of the architecture that there remains a lot of poverty in this city.  I stopped again in many of the churches and their beauty and opulence would suggest an inverted Baroque wedding cake. I stopped at the library museum complex which is situated in what appears to have been once a convent or monastery.  There were three fully armed soldiers with machine guns guarding the place and to get in I had to check my bag and sign in.  I have never visited a library (which was no hell, by the way) under such close security.  I stopped again at the zocalo where there were a lot of music events taking place and underneath the colonaded gallery there were musicians playing old Latin classics to which a group of seniors was happily dancing as though they were still in their prime.  One of them, a gal who looked as though she had just had a very successful visit to the cosmetic surgeon was playfully and capriciously waving her bright red fan while twirling with her partner.
      I had dinner again at the vegetarian restaurant, not quite so noisy this time and I didn´t need earplugs but still pretty bad.  However the food is so good and cheap that I just simply remember to bring earplugs with me should I need them.