Blogs from Veracruz, Mexico, North America - page 5

April 3, Friday This day began with wonderful coffee and pastry in the Cafe Catedral, a little shop right next to the cathedral. Then we walked down to where Bear was parked, hopped aboard and took the wrong road to El Tajin. With no map and no GPS, I had to use a little intuitive sun decoding, and we managed to get to the site. Another coffee at Restaurant Isabel ( the lemonade stand from yesterday) and we strolled into the entrance. 51 pesos per non-mexican person (citizens get in free) and 300 for the English speaking guide. We figured if we were going to get anything out of the visit, we might as well learn what was going on in English. Fernando is a University of Vera Cruz graduate in archeology, and although he spoke ... read more

The afternoon of Saturday, March 7th we arrived to the town of Acayucan, Veracruz. Chuck and I paid for a room at the Hotel Arcos del Parque, located across the street from the main square. We paid less than $35 USD for a nice and clean room with air conditioning, cable television, comfortable bed, hot shower, a pool, bar and restaurant, and off-street parking. That evening we noticed our van was four rows deep in the parking lot; good thing we planned to stay two nights because we knew there was no way we would be able to leave at all early the following day. We walked through a Mexican dollar store (same as in the USA), spent some time at the square, and visited the Catholic Church, where Christ was in a casket (although ... read more

Hey Everybody, I don't know if anyone will even think to check this blog anymore, I know it's been a very long time since I last updated. I have safely arrived back in Xalapa after a wonderful break full of travel. I am excited to had unpacked my hiking pack which was crammed full of clothes for a little less than a whole month. It's very nice to be settled in with a schedule again to fill my days. School is starting back up very well. This term I have another set of three classes which include a translation course, the intensive grammar course like last semester, and a intro to hispanic literature course. All sound interesting enough... it seems the classes will be much more dependent on comprehension with the assumtpion you already know some ... read more

The wake-up call came at 5:30 this morning for a drive to Veracruz. We caught a local bus to go to one of the beaches - which was scarey because we didn´t know where to get off, and nobody speaks English here. My Spanish is not enough to understand their answers - even if they understand my questions. We finally find a beach. Not the one we were looking for, but close enough. The wind and surf is high, and the red flags are out - no swimming! Oh well, we buy some fresh shrimp out of a bucket from a guy on the beach - we misunderstood the amount and didn´t have enough money. We had about one tenth of what he wanted. He took what we had and gave us some anyway. A couple ... read more

El Tajin is an archaeological site located near the town of Papantla, Veracruz, Mexico. This was the first archaeological zone we visited on our trip. El Tajin is in good condition and certainly worth a visit, although locating the site is not an altogether easy task and finding your way back is a bit more difficult yet. The site can be thoroughly appreciated in half a day, and because it is somewhat off the beaten path it is not overcrowded by tour groups and vendors. El Tajin is considered to be of the Totonac indigenous culture. The name El Tajin means city of thunder. The city reached its peak circa 800 CE and prospered as a population center until 1200 CE. Structures at El Tajin include approximately a dozen structures, a main plaza, and a handful ... read more