Continuing on to Veracruz

We left Tuxpan, and traveled south past orange groves and corn fields, through little towns and over hills that turned to mountains.

It was overcast all the way down and the air conditioning was going strong in the bus so it felt like a cool gray day - so welcome. When we arrived in Veracruz and got off the bus we were blasted by the wet, heat - I was surprised my glasses didn’t fog up.

I have to admit I was a little disappointed with Veracruz. I had seen a movie that I thought took place in Veracruz and I was all ready to be in this charming town whose zocolo was on the water. Turns out it is a great big city on a harbor. There is charm as there is in all of Mexico - but it wasn’t what I had expected. We had a good time though. We stayed in a hotel right on the Zocolo with a room that looked out over the harbor.

I was attracted to the mix of building types and their ages - modern buildings abutting colonial buildings, abandoned wrecks nestled beside fancy fresh facades. I don’t think I captured the mix very well, now that I see these, but here are some groovy buildings.

Below you can see the art deco PEMEX building in the distance. The big building in front of it is all torn apart. There were people using jackhammers up in the middle stories. We wondered if they were whittling it down and if so what it would look like when they were done.

We took the bus to the beach our second day. It was miserably hot so my first dip into the Atalantic Ocean was very very welcome.

The sleepy fellows below had had a few beers before we showed up and slept all day. Their families didn’t seem to miss them to much though.

That night we had a fancy dinner - here is my big bubbly pot of meat and cheese. mmmmmm

the zocolo.

from the hotel

Tuxpan

I finally have some time to continue with the tale of our journey to Veracruz.

I learned from that fateful trip to Tijauna that super long days of bus travel are best avoided, so after Xilitla we decided to just go part of the way down the east coast to Tuxpan, which is actually inland a bit and on a huge river.

We got there in the early evening and left the next morning. It was hot and overcast and really quite lovely in a grungy modernish way. We had a good dinner on the zocolo and took a latenight swim in the pool on the roof of the hotel. That was fancy. But those pictures were all a blur.

In the morning we walked to the bus station and I went crazy taking pictures. It was all so attractive to me - not many tourists come to Tuxpan, it seems. Tom ended up having a good time watching the people watching me, the crazy gringa, stopping to take pictures every few feet. I had been completely oblivious to the stares until he pointed them out.

This was just outside a doctor’s office. We wondered how reassuring it is to feel that the doctor will put your health into Jesus’ hands (as pretty as he may be.)

Xilitla

So my friend, Tom, and I decided to go on a trip. We both have been wanting to go to Veracruz, so that was our destination. I have been very curious about Las Pozas, a surrealist sculpture garden in the jungle outside of Xilitla (hee leet la), and it was kind of on the way, so we went there first.

It turns out out it required a somewhat circuitous bus route from Guanajauto to Leon to San Luis Potosi to Ciudad Valles to Xilitla. This is the landscape we were driving through in the morning:

And after arriving around 10 at night, this is what we woke up in the next day:

Xilitla is a beautiful little town nestled in jungle hillsides. It was hot and humid, but the green was so welcome to me I didn’t complain too much. We woke up in the wee hours to the Sunday Market being set up right under out window. Tom had dreamt all morning about someone dragging a huge blanket around. You know how much noise those blankets make.

These birds also made their fair share of riotous racket, right outside our windows for much of the night and morning. It was remarkable.

After wandering around town a bit we headed to Las Pozas. It was a couple mile walk out of town.

It was a pretty amazing place, with all of these poured concrete structures inserted into the jungle.

I just kept imagining being there for a fancy cocktail party.

The best part, by far, was a stream and waterfall and pools where you could swim. I ended up swimming in my clothes because I could not have lived with myself had a walked away from such luscious pools.

We trekked back to town, (me all refreshed, and poor Tom, sweating like a horse in all that hot humidity) where it is equally interesting and beautiful.

I have approximately a jillion more pictures, most of which I have put into flikr so I will figure out how to make that public, sometime soon.