It’s 7am and just getting light. Our bus is labouring it’s way up the mountains into the cloud and the thin mizzle. It’s pretty cold. We arrive at the bus station half an hour later and don our fleeces. A taxi takes us to our hotel but the doors are all firmly locked. The driver is concerned about leaving us standing on the pavement in the rain, but I knock on the wooden door and someone kindly let’s us in. We store our luggage and go off in search of some breakfast. There isn’t much open at this time but we find a small cafe. The only thing we recognise from the menu is tamale (steamed fruit pudding), we order strawberry and pineapple flavours. The ladies in the shop are making the tamale in the traditional ... read more

A leisurely start today as we are going on an organised tour and they always wait till it’s baking hot to take tourists out. We have breakfast and are waiting in reception at 10am as instructed. The minivan has arrived. We are last pick up...just our luck, the van is full and we are on the back seat. We prepare ourselves for a bumpy ride. We are sharing the seat with a German couple, Marcus and Sebastian, so we enjoy some interesting conversation and have joint groans at every speed bump as we are rocketed to the ceiling each time. Our tour is taking us to the Tlacoluoa Valley and, whilst we could have attempted it independently, the distance covered might have been a bit of an ask in just one day. Our first stop is ... read more

It’s another early start. Our bus leaves the central station at 8.25am and that’s right on the other side of the city. We have packed our bags and are just deciding whether to return the fan to the room we purloined it from...after the hassle involved in changing rooms we decided just to help ourselves to the missing items in the new room rather than to ask! We check out. It’s the sour faced woman that wanted to house us in the hell hole. She takes our key unsmilingly and not so much as an adieu...clearly she has not forgiven us for standing our ground! Our Uber arrives promptly and we are at the bus station within half an hour giving us plenty of time to purchase goodies for brunch. Security is cleared and our bus ... read more

Today is earmarked for Ian’s tour of the historic centre. We start early to avoid the heat...and actually it’s a tad chilly! We begin with breakfast at a pavement cafe in the zocalo. Eggs and beans for me, omelette in a tangy sauce for Ian. We begin at the cathedral on the zocalo. The tower is supposed to be open so that we can frighten ourselves to death climbing it for superb views of the city. Anyway, it’s no longer open to the public so we are spared the suspense. We enter the Biblioteca Palafoxiana opposite, the former bishop’s palace, which is said to house 50,000+ books. It’s not open yet but we are able to access the courtyard. We then head down various streets, faced with traditional fronted buildings. Many of the buildings are covered ... read more

We have one more day in Poza Rica. Unfortunately, the town has nothing to recommend it, other than being a handy jump off point for a visit to El Tajín and also our onward journey. It’s not even mentioned in our guide book - which is a sure sign of zero interest. Lonely Planet usually come up with something...even if it is something totally terrible? They have led us on many wild goose chases over the years. Trip Advisor has five places on it’s list. The first three are shopping arcades. Then there is the new square which is described as a dangerous place, full of drug addicts and pick pockets...it’s the square opposite our hotel! Can’t say it looked too dangerous to us, even at night when we have been eating at the street stalls. ... read more