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Published: January 22nd 2006
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On the beach
No hanging ten here, but it was still cool. Well it is now 2006 so let me start off by saying that I hope all reading this will be blessed beyond degree this year. With that said let me tell you how we brought the New Year in.
Suzanne and I returned to GTO on the 28th of December after spending Christmas season with our family in Indy and Ohio. Now the original plan was to spend New Year’s Eve in Puerto Vallarta or La Manzanilla, both of which are located on the Pacific Coast side of Mexico. The temperature in this region is like 83-90 degrees in December, beautiful white sand beaches, and baby blue water. So to make this a good time I went to a travel agent to make our hotel and travel accommodations. Well I had no idea how popular this town was, especially for foreigners. The only room I could find was $450 a night and it was not even that tight. So, at first I was like we'll just chill here in GTO, shiiit. Suzanne was mad as hell. And with that being said, a piece of advice for you gents looking to get married> NEVER promise your wife something and not come
The Port
plenty of cool things in this port city. Here is the Mexican Naval museum through on it, you’ll hear about it for much longer than you want to, plus the general chi of your home will be f.u.b.a.r. for a minute. So with that pressure on me I had to come up with a solution. It was Veracruz.
Veracruz is like the largest port city in all of Mexico and is home to the second largest Carnival celebration on the planet and it is right smack in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. The weather is in the mid 80’s most of the year and the seafood is practically still wiggling when you order it. So I was set. I had saved the day and a peaceful nights sleep. I booked the hotel, bought the bus ticket> let the adventure begin.
The Bus trip was supposed to take a total of 9 hrs, tops. We were to leave GTO at 6 p.m. and arrive in Mexico City at 11pm and catch a connecting bus to Veracruz at Midnight, getting us there at like 5 a.m. Now I know what y’all are thinking, travel by bus, yeah right, that stuff is for parolees and old ladies, but here the busses are cool. Unlike the very shitty Gray Hound lines in the states, the top lines here (ETN or Primera Plus) have a sweet set-up. You get a seat with plenty of legroom; a small meal and they show movies the entire trip. The hassle of driving in a foreign country is enough, let alone driving in it at night, plus there are tolls every where, so a trip of this magnitude would have cost us like an extra $100 each way,but on the bus you don’t have to worry about that. So all was going well, we were watching White Chicks in Spanish until we hit traffic about 85 km outside of Mexico City. This little stall lasted about an hour and 15 minutes. So now our timetable was tight, but still doable. Wrong again. We get to the terminal at 12:49, almost two hours later than predicted. Then to sweeten the deal the next bust didn’t leave until 4:30 a.m. This is super shitty for me because I hate waiting at a drive-through window for more than 3 minutes, let alone in a crappy, cold and uncomfortable bus station. Make a long story short it was wack and we were cold. The only highlight was that this old man fell over his own bag and busted his head, and though he was surrounded by at least 50 people who looked like him and spoke the same language as he did, no one helped. I know it is wrong to laugh at someone’s misfortune but if you would have seen that old guy bite the dust you would have been laughing too.
Three stops and 6 more hours later, we arrive in Veracruz. The hotel we had was across the street from the beach and two minutes from the mall and 8 restaurants. We walk the beach, get some lunch, hit the mall, chill and get ready to go out to celebrate the New Year. The thing was this> the town was dead, lame, and straight up WACK. Luckily we stumbled upon this family-owned bar that was showing the Raiders game. What was cool was the owner was a huge football fan, so he came by and chopped it up with us. He and his family were crazy cool and we rang the New Year in with the Jimenez Family, complete with a traditional New Year’s meal, champagne and plenty of hugs and kisses to get the New Year started. And did I mention we got faded and fed for $65 with tip.
Overall Veracruz was cool, but it wasn’t anywhere I would really visit again. The food was great, so if you go try the shrimp empanadas and the Huachinango la vercuzana (it is white fish prepared in a tomato based sauce) and the fried shrimp(they are like bubba gump big). There are some cool malls, a few naval museums and plenty of shops for your touristy pleasure. Another thing was the hotel we stayed in didn’t have washcloths. Oh and Suzanne forgot my jacket there also. When it was all said and done my lovely wife and I were together and have been blessed to see another year together. That is all that matters to me, plus the fact I had saved money this past year by switching to Gieco. Via con Dios!
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Nathan Owens III
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Anos Nuevos!
Man, you are wrong at that old man! And you were probably rolling. Thanks for the acronym, F.U.B.A.R. It didn't take me long to figure it out with your past history. hahaha!