12/28, Tuesday. I arrived at Córdoba just before sunset, much later than I initially planned. 
I only planned for one night here, because of its historical significance. Wasn't sure what else to see. I stayed at Hotel Virreynal, right by the main plaza. It is very pretty. Large room. But wifi is bad. Checked out the plaza and downtown as sun was setting. Cordoba is only at 800m above sea level, still quite hot. This week it seems to be hot everywhere.
12/29, Wednesday.
Checked out the plaque of independence of Mexico. In this building, on August 24, 1821, Treaty of Córdoba was signed, which established the independence of Mexican Empire. Now a cafe.
Then, I visited the palacio municipal. No one was watching the gate at this early hour (~7:40am). The cleaning lady saw me taking photos of the murals,
waved me into the chamber where meetings are held. She also opened the door to a French balcony so I could take a picture of the plaza below. 
So nice.
Not sure what to see. I walked to a couple of small parks south of downtown, none worth visiting. On the way back, saw people waiting for buses on Ave 11. Saw an AU bus. Asked one lady who was boarding the bus. Yes, it goes to Orizaba. It was about 8:15am. So I figured there maybe a bus every hour or half an hour from the main terminal. I couldn't find any information online, all tells me to go to the main ADO terminal, which is 1.5 mile east. Yes, for direct bus, you have to. But Walking 10 minutes here is much easier from downtown.
Google map says that the cane museum is open at 9, I walked there, because it was too early (took a bus back). Pleasant walk. 1.2 miles, passing a bridge, some sports stadiums and a nice park. Well, the museum wasn't open at 9 for sure, and didn't look like it would open today at all. 
I walked around and checked out the Hacienda San Francisco next door, from the outside. Google says it opens at 10:01, which didn't. Then I went to that little park. Locals came here to job and excercise. Other than walking paths and excercise machines, 
there's a tiny creek with bamboo all over (and a fair amount of trash).
At about 11:15. I caught an AU bus to Tehuacan (at the time, I had never heard of this town) at the main road between Calle 2 and 4. 28 peso to Orizaba, 15 miles. Can use AhorroBus card. However the driver didn't want to open the luggage bin. So I had to drag my suitcase through the bus. It was almost full, and soon, standing room only. Here you can catch all westbound buses. Another frequent bus I saw was to Huatusco.
There's a toll bridge east of Fortín de las Flores. Traffic packed for over a mile. At the junction with hwy-143, right in front of the tollbooth, many people got off and more got on. Now ~15 standing. The bus was making a long detour north of the city. I got a bit anxious. Asked the guy sitting next to me. We conversed in English. He used to teach English. He visited Atlanta once for a friend's wedding. He also learned French, Italian and German. He told me that the bus is going to a different terminal than ADO. Stupid me, the AU terminal is marked on Google map. It's about 0.8 miles walking to my AirBnb. The walk goes through some main attractions in town, quite pleasant.
