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Published: August 10th 2008
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Gulf Coast: 12th July - 21st July
From Victoria, We took the bus to Tampico on the Gulf Coast. The buses we had got so far in Mexico were very comfortable, with reclining seats and clean toilets and were also quite cheap. When we arrived in Tampico, we caught a bus into the Centro to try and find a hotel. The one we tried first was called Hotel Capri and had rooms available that were pretty cheap so we checked in. It wasn't luxurious but it would do for the two nights we were going to be there.
We went out for a walk around the central plaza which was typical of most Mexican towns. This is where lots of locals come to sit and chat or stroll around. Generally there is a church on one side and the town hall on another. There are also food vendors,balloon sellers and shoe polishers. We had some food from a cafe in the plaza before finding a bar where we watched some Mexican football and drank some Mexican beers.
In the morning we headed out to the beach in a Collectivo or fixed route taxi that is shared with whoever gets in along
Beach Vendor
Just what you need for a day on the beach. the route. It's a much cheaper option than a private taxi and just as quick. At the beach, we got a couple of chairs and an umbrella and settled down for the day. It was fairly busy with Mexican holiday makers and there were plenty of vendors on the beach to provide fresh coconuts, donuts and even religious statues! We got talking to a young Mexican called Louis who was keen to practice his English and we chatted with him for a while about life in Mexico. By the time we got back to our hotel and got changed it was quite late so we could only get some fast food which wasn't very nice.
The next stretch of our journey continued South down the Gulf coast and into the hills to the town of Papantla, famous for Voladores, vanilla and the nearby ruined Totonac city of El Tajin. We easily found the Hotel Katlen which was again quite cheap but this time was a lot nicer than the last hotel. Papantla is a small town surrounded by tree covered hills so we climed to the highest point of the city to enoy the view. On top of the hill
was a statue of an Indian flute player representing the Voladores who performed their ancient ritual outside the Cathedral. We climbed back down to watch the show. Five men dressed in traditional costume climbed a huge pole and coiled ropes around the top. Four of them then hung upside down slowly spinning around the pole and gradually decending back to earth while the fifth sat on top playing a flute and beating a drum. Apparently, all this was to bring rain, we hoped it wouldn't as we headed off to eat some local specialities.
The next day we visited the ruined city of El Tajin with it's ancient pyramids and temples. We spent a while exploring the site before having a tourist lunch of local delicacies including stuffed chiles and tamales, sort of a corn dough with meat cooked in a banana leaf. back in Papantla, we spent some time at the plaza watching the locals and had some ice cream.
Our next stop was Xalapa (or Jalapa) where Jalapeno peppers are from. It was a bigger city and so had a hostel to stay in but we were only able to get separate dorms. After an early dinner, we
went for a look around the Centro where there were some young mexican bands playing. Later on we found a nice bar for some Margartias.
We had got chatting with an American called Victor at the hostel and decided to head out with him to visit the nearby Cascadas Toxolo, waterfalls featured in some Hollywood movies and comercials. We took a local bus to the village of Xico and walked the three km to the waterfall. The main fall was quite spectaculor, dropping over a deep cravace in the middle of the jungle. After dipping our feet in the cool water further up the river, we climed up to a restaurant high above the falls and admired the view of the surrounding mountains and jungle. Back in town we went to a restaurant to try a Xalapan speciality of pambazas which turned out to be very much like a filled roll.
On the last day in Xalapa, we visited the museum of anthroplogy of Xalapa (MAX) where there were massive Olmec heads discovered in nearby ruins as well as many other interesting statues and artefacts. Later on we went for dinner and then had a few beers in the bar
Voladores
(the spinning men) of the Hotel Mexico.
The next day we continued South to the small holiday town of Catemaco which is by the side of a lagoon and is near where some of Mel Gibson's Apocalypto was filmed as well as the Sean Connery movie Medicine Man. It rained for most of the five hour journey there but had stopped by the time we arrived and started to look for a hotel. After trying a couple that were full, we found one that had a tiny room available but it was very cheap so we took it. There appeared to be a festival in the town which explained why the hotels were busy and there was a large market and fairground rides filling the streets around the plaza. We had a walk around the market and then down to the lagoon where we had dinner as it started to rain again. Then it rained some more. We hurried back to the hotel as the streets began to turn into rivers and the rain continued to get heavier.
It rained for most of the night and we later learned that this was the tail end of a tropical storm. It was still raining
Spinning man
We captured one before his dizzy spell ended. 'No we don't want a flute, here's 5 pesos to go away!' in the morning but cleared up early in the afternoon so we decided to take a boat trip out on the lagoon. The trip took as past islands where hundreds of birds nested and one where some monkeys brought from Thailand for an experiment had established a colony and were well fed by the many tourists on other boat trips. There was also a stop at an ecological park where we drank spring water from a cup made from a leaf and were shown around some recreation indian statues and ceremonial buildings. There were also a lot of spiders and bugs in amongst the surrounding trees. When we got back to the shore, the sun had come out again so we sat on the beach for a while and had some beers before going for some pork tacos at the market.
We had booked an overnight bus to take us Campeche the following day. After breakfast in Catamaco, we had to take a bus to the next town of San Andres Tuxtla where the overnight bus left from. At the bus stop we bought our tickets from a guy who was steaming drunk so we were glad when the tickets
El Tajin
Pyramid de los nichos turned out to be valid. In San Andres, there wasn't much to do so we spent most of the day sitting in the square. The only attraction was the Santa Clara cigar factory which we visited after dropping our bags off at the bus station. At the factory, one of the workers enthusiastically showed us through the process of making and packing the cigars which was all done by hand. He also showed us some of the specaility cigars made there including the world record holding 45cm long Magnum. We spent as much time as possible having dinner and were glad when it was finally time to get on board the bus which would take us to the Yucatan Peninsula.
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colin
non-member comment
thats some cigar you've got there Steph