Puebla, an Unplanned Parade, and the Drive to Oaxaca
Most Day of the Dead content skips straight from Mexico City to Oaxaca, like the space between them is just a flight path. It isn't. The road south is its own destination — colonial towns, an unexpected wildlife stop, and a small-town discovery I never could have planned for.
Why the road trip itself is worth the extra days:
Puebla's historic center — colonial balconies, tall wooden French doors opening onto narrow streets, and a city that rewards an unhurried morning walk more than almost anywhere else on the route
Africam Safari, just outside Puebla — a genuinely relaxing, unexpected midday break between two intense festival cities
Cempasúchil flower farms outside Oaxaca — fields of marigolds you can walk straight into, buying bundles directly from the farmers who grew them
A small town called Tlacotepec de Benito Juárez, where I stumbled into a weekday Día de los Muertos parade nobody had told me about — participants on horseback, no warning, no plan, just a genuine local celebration happening exactly as we drove through
The town that wasn't on any itinerary:
This is the moment that convinced me the drive itself deserved its own chapter. I wasn't looking for a parade. I was just passing through on the way to Tehuacán when the road ahead filled with color and music — a hyper-local Día de los Muertos celebration that never once appears on a "top things to do" list, because it isn't built for tourists. It's just what this town does, every year, whether anyone's watching or not.
What nobody tells you about this stretch of the trip:
There's a specific choice — one route versus another — that turns this drive from a scenic half-day into a genuinely frustrating slog through potholed backroads. And Puebla's historic center hides at least two genuinely worthwhile stops (a centuries-old library, a small puppet museum) that are easy to miss if you're only thinking about the road ahead of you.
This is Part 2 of a 3-part series on my 2025 road trip from Mexico City to Oaxaca for Día de los Muertos. Part 3 arrives in Oaxaca for Halloween night, the Magna Comparsa, cemetery vigils, and a small-town celebration that danced until sunrise.
The exact route, every stop, and the GPS setting that decides whether this drive takes 4 hours or 6 — it's all in The Time I Was There: Mexico City to Oaxaca, Día de los Muertos.
