Chapter 42: Join the PC. Rent Interesting Cars, Crash Them.

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We woke up at 10:00. Got on a bus at 12:00. Arrived in the City of Veracruz at around 5:00. Rented the car by 5:30. Crashed the car by 6:00. A pretty busy first day in the state of Veracruz if I do say so myself, but it was only that. The first day. We had 3 weeks ahead of us. So after fixing the bumper with a little bit wire, headed north from the City of Veracruz, and after a small stop to make sure our bumper stayed on well enough to continue, we made our way to Playa de las Chacalacas. How did we find out about this place you say? Well, in the rental office we got a map of Veracruz, and it was marked as a must see beach.

So we arrived at PDLC late. It was dark, and we had no idea where to stay. For some reason that escapes me know we thought it would be a good idea to camp out. So we spent about an hour asking the locals if there was a place to camp. They kept pointing us to a hotel, so we decided to just find a random spot on the beach and setup camp. Now, the problem with that was, we did not really know if what we were doing was allowed or not, or if the place we were camping was save. So all night every time we saw the lights of a car, or heard a sound, we payed close attention. Of course the next morning we found out that there was no problem with what we were doing, and we also found out, that the we had camped no more than 10 feet from a real camp ground. :) So it all worked out.

The next morning we all woke up early (as people tend to when they camp in a tent), and decided take a short walk down the beach. The short walk turned into three hours, as we walked along the beach and climbed over large sand dunes (Las Dunas de PDLC). It would have been a great morning ... but at the end of the walk both C and I looked down and noticed that our legs were covered with bug bites (Y had worn jeans so was spared the worst of it). Apparently this beach is a haven for sand fleas, and we each had hundreds of bites on us to prove it.

So that afternoon we left PDLC and headed north along the coast. We stopped in the middle of the day at an patently uninteresting set of ruins (but they were free with our student ID's so we can't really complain). But we did meet a group of American tourists that were making there way south. They told us about some amazing ruins (Quixhuatlan) named farther north, that was almost unknown to most tourists. So we headed out in search of them. A few hours later we ran across them at the end of a poorly kept dirt road, at the top of a hill overlooking the the sea. The description did not give it justice, it was amazing. Niether my pictures or my description could do them justice.

Just across the way from the ruins we stumbled across a quite fishing village named Villa Rica and decided to make camp. This time we asked the locals if we could camp there, and they gave us a resounding yes. In fact on of them let us park our car in his driveway so it would be safe. So we headed over to the local dunes and set up camp. That night we climbed up to the top of one of the dunes, and to our found ourselves looking at a massive industrial complex on the other side of the dunes. At the time we had no idea what it was. The next day we found out two two important things. Apparently the random town of Villa Rica is not as random as we thought. It is actually a place of great historical importance, it was the spot where Hernan Cortés built the first Spanish settlement. Secondly, that random industrial complex was actually Laguna Verde, the first and only (very controversial) nuclear power plant in Mexico.

The next day we finally made it to our goal in the north of Veracruz, El Tajin. El Tajin was the largest of the Toltec Cities thought to have existed between 300-700 A.D. We made our way through the curving mountain roads to get there, and made it there in the early afternoon. The first thing you notice once you get there is, that unlike the other sites we went to that were relatively tourist free, El Tajin is jam packed with tourists and all the noise and vendors that usually accompany them. As we arrived at the site, we noticed that the show of the Voladores was about to start. It is an ancient tradition of the Totonacs, where they pay drums at the top of a 30 meter pole, and they slowly glide down in sync with ropes tied around there waists. It was an amazing site to watch.

After the show we made our way into the site itself (free courtesy once again of our student ID's ). The site lived up to its reputation. It was the largest complex by far that I had seen so far. Pyramids stretched as far as the eye could see. We spent 2 hours exploring its paths and checking out the amazing structures. The most impressive of which was the pyramid that is actually the "mascot" of the state of Veracruz (it is on all the license plates.). At the end of the day, we decided we had enough time to make it to our next goal. The city of Xalapa (Ha-la-pa). We looked at the map and it looked like no more than 150 km. No problem, we could be there in 2 hours. Unfortunately, all of us being from Ohio, we did not know to take into account the curves and traffic of mountain roads... 5 hours later, and very late at night, we made it to Xalapa.

Xalapa is a beautiful city situated in the mountains in Northern Veracruz. If you ever plan on visiting there, be sure to bring a coat, because it gets cold (there icy rain one of the nights). We spent a day exploring the city on foot, and with a 1 hour tour. And at the end we realized two facts. The first was, that the views and architecture of the city are one of the best we had seen. the second... there was almost nothing of any historical or cultural value at all in the city. This becomes even more apparent when the tour takes you to government offices and hospitals as part of its scheduled stops. That was just so it had enough places to go to to fill up an hour. But don't get me wrong, I think it would be a wonderful place to live, a lot of stuff going on, beautiful surroundings, and lots of great restaurants. It is just not a very touristy place to visit.

Luckily there are a few things to do around Xalapa. The first thing we went to see was the Cascada Texolo, which is located in a small town about 30 minutes (by combi) from Xalapa. We made our way to the falls on an overcast day. It looked like it was about to rain, but luckily, other than a faint mist falling, we did not run into any trouble. We got off the bus near the middle of town and had a very nice walk down a 2km cobblestone road. At the end we saw the waterfall. It was thin, but very high, and the we enjoyed a good lunch at a restaurant overlooking it. Definitely worth the trip out. We made it back to our hotel that night and then went out to enjoy a good meal at an Italian restaurant, and then headed over to a local speakeasy to watch a local band play some Mexican music.

Our last day in Xalapa, we went out to a "Wild Life Reserve". At least that was how it was sold to us. After driving 15km on a barely passable dirt road, we arrived at Valle Allegre high in the mountains. The term wild life reserve was a little overstated. They had a few deers at the entrance and then assorted cattle and wildebeests in a small field. We spent about an hour walking around the grounds (which were pretty massive), but did not see to much that was very interesting. There were three nice cabins with great views of the mountains and the clouds below, but that was about it. The place would be a good place to have a boyscout retreat, but not much to see for random tourists. The silver lining on the trip was the food. We ordered our meals at the cafateria in the middle of the grounds. And honestly did not expect much, but the food was delicious.

After lunch, with a full stomach, we started on the second leg of our trip... we headed south.

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