The Ruins of El Tajín

January 30, 2020

Our long travel day. It started with a 4am alarm, a 4:30 taxi to Xalapa, and a 5am bus out of town headed north to Papantla. We both attempted to get some sleep on the 4.5 hour bus ride, but probably neither of us were overly successful.

We arrived in Papantla at about 10 and caught a local bus from there to the ruins. A guy trying to hawk bags of limes to passing cars was nice enough to say he'd tell us when the right bus came. Our bumpy bus ride was something akin to an amusement park ride and wound through a nearby town before dropping us at the entrance to the ruins.

We got there just in time to see a voladores, or flyers performance.

There was one guy playing a flute and small drum, and 4 others that were the flyers.

One by one they climbed up the tower to sit on the square at the top. They spun it around as they wound their ropes up.

Then after a little more flute music with the guy *standing* on the top of the tower (I'm so glad that's not my job...) they all toppled over backwards and proceeded to spin all the way down to the ground.

The rope unwound at the top as they spun around, letting them down little by little, one guys rope came off of each side of the square. Very entertaining, especially since I didn't have to do it. We heard piping later in the day, so I think they did multiple shows every day.

Inside the ruins we had a great time wandering the grounds and looking at the structures.

El Tajin has the most ball courts found so far in similar ruins.

The pyramids had fun designs made of rock on the sides. The niches were probably for displaying things.

Up a hill were some more buildings, and a lovely view of the area from above.

There was one massive group all dressed in white shirts that I figured out was a group from Veracruz University (at one point their mascot walked through to cheers) but they stayed together and were easy to avoid. Other than that there were just a couple other folks around, so it was nice and peaceful.

We flagged a bus on the side of the road back to Papantla, and after a bouncy ride went to find the main square.

We admired the cathedral which was painted light yellow and lilac inside, and got lunch at a restaurant at the side of the square. Perfect timing to catch our bus back.

Suffice to say we were both happy when those 4 hours were over. We found a taxi back to our hotel in Coatepec and went straight to bed. Hopefully Dad remembers the ruins instead of the bus ride.

Chasing Waterfalls in Xico

January 29, 2020

After sleeping in, we caught a local bus in Coatepec down the road 25 minutes to the little town of Xico for some waterfall hiking.

We got off the bus at the main plaza and took a moment to admire the Church of Santa María Magdalena. I most enjoyed the variegated dome on top.

We each ate a banana in Coatepec, but thought we might want a little more, so we found a bakery, chose a variety of interesting looking breads, bought juice boxes, and had second breakfast sitting on the edge of the road. We had entertainment in the form of watching buses not meant for small streets trying to turn the corner in front of us.

Second breakfast over, we walked down through town towards the path to the waterfalls. Cascada de Texolo is the main one, and we could take a short trail from it to Cascada de la Monja nearby.

The road down to the waterfalls was paved with cobblestones and on either side had banana and coffee farms. Dad was tickled to see real bananas growing in real trees.

It took a little over a half hour to walk down the road to the waterfall area.  From there a path took us through the jungle to Cascada Texolo. We crossed a massive canyon on a sturdy bridge, right next to a not so sturdy one.

A bit farther along we came to El Sendero de Ocelote (Ocelot Trail) which we could go down for a small fee.

Wooden stairs wound down the far side of the canyon to a much better view of the falls.

Its 80 meters tall and an impressive sight. We finished off the last of our breakfast bread on a bench enjoying the view before steeling ourselves to head back up the stairs.

Back at the top, a short walk down another path took us to La Cascada de la Monja.

The safe path, and the dangerous path. They really laid it out for you to decide. Turns out the dangerous path was just skinny and next to a water viaduct. Nothing as dangerous as I imagined.

It was smaller, but still lovely. There were guys fishing in the pool, but we never saw them catch anything.

The walk back up to town wasn't bad. I asked directions from a couple people and we found a bus back to Coatepec without too much trouble. We showered off, rested tired feet in the hotel for a bit, then headed out to dinner, tired but satisfied with the day's adventures.

San Juan de Ulúa and Romancing the Stone

January 28, 2020

The main reason for choosing Veracruz as my destination with Dad was because one of his favorite movies, Romancing the Stone, had scenes filmed there. The movie is set in Colombia, and the final scene is in a fort in Cartagena. When I was in Cartagena, Dad told me I should go see it, and a quick Google search told me I wasn't actually in the right country. So it went on my bucket list, and is finally getting checked off.

San Juan de Ulúa was the last Spanish stronghold in Mexico, and it has all sorts of history that we didn't really care about, since we just wanted to find where the scenes were filmed. I printed some movie screenshots for comparison. So without further ado:

Of course we had to recreate Danny DeVito.

In addition to comparing movie stills to real life, we enjoyed walking around the rest of the fort. There's a lot more than is shown in the movie, built all out of coral blocks taken from the surrounding reefs.

Since it's mostly original construction from over 200 years ago, many of the rooms had stalactites dripping from the ceiling, a result of water seepage through the limestone coral.

We spent about 2 hours poking around all the places in the fort, and heres some photos.

I highly recommend visiting the fort if you're ever in Veracruz. I also recommend watching Romancing the Stone, because its great.

After some lunch we hopped on a bus towards higher elevations and cooler temperatures. Our next couple days will be spent exploring the areas around Coatepec!

Tlacotalpan: colors on the river

January 27, 2020

Our third day we headed out of town. Two and a half hours south-west of Veracruz is the colorful little riverside town of Tlacotalpan, which Dad never did successfully learn to say.

The center park was lovely, with a colorful pavilion surrounded by trees and flowers.

The church at the edge was a wonderful sky blue. We took a peek inside, and found it wasn't entirely gold leaf like some altars are. I thought it was very dignified.

Painted on the pillars next to the pews- you don't need a cell phone to talk with God.

A stroll down the street revealed every house or storefront painted a different color of the rainbow. It was a lovely effect. A big annual festival is starting in a couple days so lots of paint was getting touched up and lawns were being mowed.

After finding lunch at a restaurant with a riverfront view, we went and talked to one of the guys asking if we wanted a boat ride. We accepted the terms, and took a spin up the river.

The houses from the water were just as pretty, and we got to hear some of the history of when they were built (some 200 years ago) and about the festival coming up which includes a water parade.

Our personal tour guide for the afternoon. I understood maybe 70% of what he was telling us.

The view back at town from out on the water.

Our lunch spot was the orange one.

Our captain with his boat, Ninfa Elvira.

And finally, this gem was parked on the street. I did a whole post about slugbugs when I was traveling before, and this one would have fit right in. Dolled up with a megaphone off each side and a giant speaker in the middle. Amazing.