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Published: April 17th 2006
The Giant Head
This is the first collosal Olmec head you come to in the University of Veracruz Anthropology Museum.I had two reasons for wanting to venture, seemingly way off of the "gringo trail", to the gulf coast state of Veracruz, the jungle enshrouded ruins of El Tajín and the once mighty fortress of San Juan De Ulúa, but I found so much more than I expected. During the bus ride I watched the scenery change from the parched, desert-like landscape surrounding Mexico City and the pine forests on its fringes to dense tropical vegetation of such a fierce, glowing green that I almost had to shield my eyes from its brilliance - I finally made it to the jungle! The tropical forests of the Veracruz state were a major hardship and obstacle to the early Spanish colonists, bringing with its hot, humid climate, fun diseases like yellow fever and the ever popular malaria. The once mighty Veracruzian jungle has now succumbed to the pressures of humanity and, with the exception of a few loosely protected areas mostly in the south, all that remains are small patches of forest that were spared because of their aesthetic value or because they conveniently delineated the boundaries of a farmers field. The remaining landscape is by no means unsightly, in fact, it is
Papantla
Papantla is Mexico's vanilla capital and is a pleasant town with a lively night life. beautiful - Rolling green hills as far as the eye can see, small stands of forest scattered here and there, mainly on the slopes that are too steep to farm, banana plantations with their neat rows of picturesque trees and tropical flowers of every size, shape and color filling every space left vacant. I suppose I should get used to this kind of jungle landscape, because, in this world of boundaries we live in, this will be the fate of all of the world's great forests, protected or not - People will always need food and people will always need wood and not many people want a dark, dangerous forest full of jaguars, snakes and man-eating insects in their backyard!
My first stop in the state of Veracruz was Papantla, Mexico's vanilla capital and a good place to stay close to El Tajín. I was told that the sweet smell of vanilla would be on the air, but, while the air was much nicer than in Mexico City, I didn't notice the vanilla at all. Being one of my favorite flavors, I was excited to try some vanilla ice cream at its source. I found one of the only
Ruins in the Jungle
El Tajín was a wonderful site with impressive buildings and a jungle setting. ice cream shops in town and I ordered a scoop of vanilla in a cone. My excitement was growing as the man grabbed the scooper out of the bucket of murky water, slid the glass door open and started making my scoop - It was almost in slow motion! I could already taste the perfect vanilla ice cream, with its small black specks of ground up vanilla beans, by the time he slid the glass door closed with a bang and began to attach my scoop to the cone. The man reached across the counter with a smile, the same warm smile that any ice cream vendor in any ice cream shop in any country in the world has, and handed me my cone. I was horrified! Where I had expected there to be a perfect globe of gleaming white vanilla delight sat a yellow glob of artificially flavored vanilla goo! I took the cone with a smile and went on my way, my hopes and dreams shattered! It is ice cream like that that gives the flavor of vanilla a bad name! I strolled around the beautiful town of Papantla with the nauseous aftertaste of bad vanilla in my
Pyramid of the Niches
This is El Tajín's most famous structure and it was impressive to see in person. mouth. The Zócalo was packed with families enjoying the cool night, the smells of the street vendors' food, not vanilla, filled the air and children ran wild, chasing airborne balloons, flying insects the size of birds and each other, never ceasing their laughter. A few older kids played football (that's soccer for everyone back home) in one of the blocked off streets bordering the square and two youngsters played their own version of the game on the sidewalk, only they were using clumps of leaves for a ball. While the kids ran around playing, the adults sat talking and listening to a wonderful performance of music on a small stage next to the square - This has been the scene in just about every Mexican downtown on just about every Mexican night I have experienced. Everyone knows their neighbors and there is a strong sense of community - Perhaps having all of the modern conveniences and comforts you 'need' at home is not such a good thing after all (I can't say I have met many of my neighbors over the last several years!)
My journey to El Tajín started off with a long search for the right bus
El Tajín
I was impressed with El Tajín and I was surprised I had never heard of it. - I wondered around asking police officers and random people where I could catch the bus and after two hours of slowly moving in the right direction (my poor Spanish is to blame, not the peoples' directions) I finally found my bus and was on my way. We wound our way through verdant green hills covered with orange trees and vanilla orchids for nearly thirty minutes before the bus dropped me at the entrance to the ruins. I weaved my way through the usual barrage of vendors, selling everything from mass-produced tourist knick-knacks and postcards to very nice handmade art and, unique to the area, natural vanilla products, with a "No Gracias" and I entered the site. Despite my late arrival, I still virtually had the place to myself, which, due to the quality of the ruins, surprised me. El Tajín is famous for one of its structures, the Pyramid of the Niches, but every structure shows off the mastery of the Totonac architects and builders - El Tajín is certainly my favorite ruined city out of all of the ones I have seen so far on this trip! I enjoyed walking through the expansive green fields and forested, jungle
A City of Pyramids
There were so many structures at El Tajín and they were all in fairly good shape. trails that lead through the site. I marveled at the intricate construction of the buildings, many with niches or detailed stone designs and carvings, and their pleasing layout throughout the site. Many of the structures were in surprisingly good shape for their age, some even had the original stucco facing, which in many places still retained its original colors of blue and red that was once common throughout El Tajín. Other structures were showing years of settlement problems that left surreal curves and waves where there once were straight lines. It would have been nice to be able to climb some of the structures, but I suppose the archaeologists have deemed the site too fragile to withstand the abuse dealt by the average visitor (the ones whose' names are permanently etched into the soft stone or pigmented stucco throughout the worlds ancient sites, or whose' kids are allowed to climb up any part of the structure they want) - It is becoming apparent to me that to get the kind of access I would like to have at these sites I will need to go back to school and start working my way down the path I originally started down,
Buried in the Jungle
Most of this complex of spiraling walls and pyramids was still buried in dense jungle and off limits. the path of an archaeologist. Despite being restricted to the ground, I loved every minute of the several hours I spent at El Tajín and I left with the satisfaction of having seen one of the worlds greatest ancient sites! I spent another wonderful evening in Papantla, where I watched the sun set from the volador monument above town and I had an excellent meal in one of the many restaurants overlooking the Zócalo - The owners seemed to be happy that I had chosen their restaurant, because they kept snapping pictures of me with their camera phone and started laughing when I caught them and smiled for the camera! The following morning I said good-bye to Papantla, to Mexico's vanilla region and El Tajín and I headed south to Xalapa.
What drew me to Xalapa was a chance to follow in the footsteps of intrepid adventurer Jack T. Coltan and romance novelist Joan Wilder through the jungles of rural Colombia in search of El Corazon, a giant heart shaped emerald. Being one of my favorite movies, I was excited to see some of the filming locations from 'Romancing the Stone'. The town of Xalapa is a fairly nice
Settlement Problems
This reminds me of the problems we encountered with my job in Antarctica, of course this happened over hundreds of years. place itself. It is a lively college town, complete with excellent coffee shops and its park like Zócalo is a great place to sit in the shade and look at the stunning panorama of big mountains, including the snow-capped volcano, Mt. Orizaba, Mexico's tallest peak. Early in the morning on my second day in town, I caught a bus to Xico, a small town in a very scenic area of rolling, green hills and jungle shrouded mountains. Xico is the location of Texolo Falls, which was the waterfall that hid the treasure cave in the movie. Downtown Xico was lovely, a typical small Mexican town with a nice church and cobblestone streets. The waterfall was a few kilometers out of town and the walk, which followed a beautiful cobblestone road through banana and coffee plantations and a profusion of tropical flowers of every color, was wonderful! I was surprised, when I reached the end of the road, to find not just a waterfall, but a vast, sheer-walled canyon system covered in dense jungle growth and with several cascades of water crashing to the depths of the valley below. There were also two rusty bridges crossing the canyon at one of
Xalapa
The Zócalo in Xalapa was a nice place to sit and watch the birds. its narrowest spots, one was a suspension bridge that I was allowed to cross and the other 'was' of a truss construction, reminiscent of the "pre-Colombian Art" that had to be crossed in the movie, only this bridge was in far worst condition! I walked through the many jungle trails in the park, some leading to picturesque waterfalls and others to precipitous overlooks into the canyon below. When it came time for me to go down and claim my treasure from the cave behind the waterfall I ran into some insurmountable obstacles, not from gun totting villains, but from a locked gate that displayed a sign that read, "¡No Pasar!" - So it goes in the life of a treasure hunter, thwarted by a locked gate and a 'no trespassing' sign! The following day I went to the museum that has put Xalapa on the map for the few tourists that make it into the area, The University of Veracruz's Anthropology Museum. It was a pleasant museum to walk through. There were several colossal Olmec heads as well as a large collection of other excellent and well known artifacts from the Veracruz area. The layout of the museum flowed down
Xico
This is the cathedral in the nice little town of Xico, where Texolo Waterfall is. hill through several terraced galleries of polished, white-stone and open air courtyards, flooded with sunlight and filled with several nice stone sculptures and tropical vegetation. After a pleasant day at the museum I made my way to the bus station and headed south to the famous port of the Spanish Main, Veracruz.
Being colonial Spain's main port in Mexico, Veracruz has had a very turbulent and exciting history. From ruthless pirate raids to destructive foreign invasions from countries like the US and France, Veracruz has seen it all! Now Veracruz is a bustling port city with a lively music scene and an active downtown. Being the beginning of Semana Santa (Easter week and a huge Mexican holiday), the city was packed with Mexican families and a few foreign tourists. I spent several wonderful, but hot days exploring the city and the coastal areas surrounding it. I visited the small ruined city of Zempoala, which played a big part in the conquest by helping Cortés in exchange for protection from the Aztecs. The walled city was a lovely, very green place with several well preserved structures and interesting architecture, some of the structures still had the white stucco façades intact.
Pre-Colombian Art
This is the unstable bridge at Texolo Falls. I watched a volador performance at the site and climbed several of the pyramids - It was a great day! I also spent a day walking down the beach from Boca del Rio to Veracruz, which took several hours. I went to Boca del Rio because I had heard of the great seafood there and what an experience that meal was! I ordered what I was pretty sure was a fillet of fish and soup. The waiter first brought out a plate of raw oysters, which happens to be the the only food that I refuse to try (I know, not very open minded!), and I had a major fear that instead of fish I had ordered them, but the fish and the soup came next. I sent the oysters back hoping that they could still be used by someone else and I started into the soup. I had a real life 'Indiana Jones' experience when I lowered my spoon into the murky red broth and up popped three sets of eyes! The shrimp soup had the whole shrimp, including the head! The soup was actually very good after I figured out how to perform a proper decapitation, but it
The Jungle Falls
This waterfall and pool was at the end of one of the long trails near Texolo Falls. was a shock initially. I also spent a wonderful day exploring the fortress of San Juan De Ulúa. The fort has repelled pirate attacks by notables such as Francis Drake (later a 'Sir' would precede his name for his daring exploits against the Spanish Main at places like Cartagena when he was a Buccaneer with allegiance to the Crown of England) and has fought valiantly against several foreign invaders. I explored the many dark passages and walked along the forts ramparts while my over-active imagination transported me back in time - The container ships were suddenly flying the Jolly Rodger and their superstructures turned into sails, the thundering roar, as the fort's cannons came to life, reverberated through the air and wreaked havoc on the pirate fleet as their return fire shattered the coral blocks of the fort and set fire to its internal structures, it was a glorious scene! The fort now sits across the harbor like a forgotten hero, its cannons are gone and it is slowly decaying into the sea amid a backdrop of unsightly port cranes that tower over its ramparts and gigantic container ships. Even the city that owes so much to the fort has
The Jungle
The forests around the falls were great. forgotten it - It is Veracruz's only real tourist attraction and the buses no longer go there, there are no water taxis and the only way for a tourist to get there is to take an expensive cab ride or an even more expensive tour. The fort was also the stand-in for the walled city of Cartagena in 'Romancing the Stone', so of course that was another reason I wanted to be there. Having been denied my chance at 'El Corazon' in Xico, I showed up to the fort with no giant emerald to bargain with, but that didn't matter because there were no alligators to swallow it, there were no machine gun toting thugs blasting away at the fort' walls and, in fact, very little of the fort as it truly exists was in the movie - They made some amazing cinematographic magic using parts of the fort and created a fictitious place that you really have to use your imagination to find at San Juan De Ulúa. Most of my nights in Veracruz were pleasantly the same - I would eat an early, but excellent dinner, and walk around for the rest of the evening listening to the
El Corazon was Here
This is the waterfall that hid the cave that El Corazon was hidden in in 'Romancing the Stone'. sensational music that was being played on just about every corner and in every alley, while enjoying the lively crowds and the cool breeze that seemed to always show up after the sun went down. I loved Veracruz and its history, but it was time for me to continue towards the Mayan regions. Next stop, Oaxaca!
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Kathy Leipman
non-member comment
Voladores - Totonic People
So did they originate bunge jumping? It looks like that's what they are doing. Anyway, you need to tell us what the ceremony is all about. Be safe, Love, Mom