Chapter 43: All Quiet on the Southern Front

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So we headed south, from the mountain city of Xalapa to the tropical plains of southern Veracruz. On the fast toll highway we saw the landscape change drastically and felt the temperature go up with every passing minute. We once again passed through the city of Veracruz again, this time making a point of avoiding the street with the car rental facility, just on the off chance that they would see what we did to there car and chase us chase us down.

Our drive became a lot slower once we headed south from Veracruz, since the highway went off in another direction, and we had to take the older roads (filled with the dreaded "topes" - speed bumps). In Mexico, they use topes liberally to manage the speed of drivers. That is great is city roads and busy intersections... but I still don't see the wisdom of putting them in random spots on highways. It is hard enough to slow down from 100kph to 10 with only a 5 second warning, but it is even harder to do it when there is no warning. So there were a few times we hit topes at close to full speed and I am pretty sure our little Chevy POP caught some air.

After a long days drive, and well after the sun had set, we made it to our rest stop for the night. It was a small town called San Andres Tuxla. Apparently, this town has very little to offer other than a nice town square that has the head of an ancient Mayan Statue sitting in the middle (nobody seems to know where the body is). Luckily for us, on this night, there was plenty to do. The one claim to fame of this town is that it is a place where all the "city folk" from the city of Veracruz come down to in order to enjoy the Xmas holidays. So on this night, the streets were filled with fiestas and he town polulation had virtually doubled overnight. We also ran into an American couple, who had family ties back to this town. So they took us around to all the sites and back street restaurants (owned by there relatives) to get free food and get an insite into the real festivities.

Early the next morning we headed onward to Laguna Catemaco. But on the way we decided to stop at another waterfall (whos name now escapes me). The waterfall was impressive, with a 160 step walkway to the bottom. There we rested and grabed a bight to eat and a little bit of coconut milk to drink. Once we made our way back to the car, we discovered that we had actually left the lights on, and that our little POP was totally out of juice. So the next hour making a spectacle of ourselves for the locals as we tried to jump start the car. After our novelty had run out, one of the spectators came over and told us he had a jumper cable. So we were finally able to get our car stated and continue on our way

Late in the afternoon we made it to Laguna Catemaco, and were greeted by one of the most stunning places I have seen in my time in Mexico. The weather was perfect (especially after the cold we had felt up in J/Xalapa) and the sun created stunning beams through the big puffy clouds in the sky. We were hungry, so we stop at on of the many lakeside restaurants to fill our stomachs. The food was good, and as we were eating, a waiter came over and told us that there was going to be a "Special Xmas Party" that night. So, we all agreed that it may be a good place to spend Xmas (more on this later).

After we ate, we rented a lancha (motor boat) and got a tour of the lake. We saw many islands covered with different birds, and were even taken to an island that had imported Thai chimpanzees. There were apparently there to be researched by the University of Veracruz, but apparently the research had failed since all the tour operators in the lake keep giving them food, and messing up there habitat. The trip was over in under 2 hours, and after a 10 minute argument with the operator about being overcharged, we headed over to a La Jungla, a camp site that was recommended by the Lonely Planet guide.

We had seen La Jungla during our tour around the lake, so we followed our infallible sense of direction (just going along the lake) to find it. This turned out the be the best campsite we would find on our trip. It is located at the end of a 2km dirt "road"(and I use the term loosely). But if you are willing to find your way there, it is more than worth it. It is owned by a European immigrant who decided to settle down here over 20 years ago. While we were there we also meet a Belgian couple who was 4.5 years into there 5 year sabaticle which they had spent traveling around the world (NOTE-TO-SELF: Get a job in Belgium).

We went back to the restaurant for the X-mas dinner, but it ended up being aweful. The meal ended up being chicken in a bad BBQ sauce with mac 'n cheese, and the champaine ended being nothing more than sparkling apple cider. So we decided to pack it in early that night. The next morning, during Xmas day, we had set in our head that we wanted to spend Xmas on the beach (something none of us had done before). So once again, we followed the Lonely Planet to a place called Playa Escondido. The guide listed the road as "difficult". But that was an extreme understatement. The road was not meant for anything other than high clearance SUV, or horses. You would have to be crazy to even try it in anything else... so 30 minutes later we found ourselves 2km down this road in our Chevy pop.

We never actually made it the whole way to the Playa Escondido. After 30 minutes we came across another beach with a small restaurant. We thought we were there and decided to stop to get a bite to eat. We asked the two girls working there is this was Playa Escondido. They said no, and told us that we were less that a third of the way there down this road. We we adventurous, but we also did not want to get stranded on a random dirt road. So we settled for the beach we had. :)


¡Feliz Navidad!

Spanish School Mexico

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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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Chapter 41: Freedom!!!!

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"Everyman dies, but not everyman really lives"

-Braveheart

Our first breath of freedom in over 3 months. For the first time in 12 weeks, we did not have a class to go to, a place to be or something prearranged to do. Now don't get me wrong, I had a great time during the training, and I am going to miss it. But I am really looking forward to the three weeks free we are going to have before starting to work. A few days after training, you would have found me 300 km from Queretaro in the town of Puebla. We arrived late on the evening of the 16th after taking a bus through the Districto Federal (Mexico City).

Unfortunately for me, the first night away did not start out too well. We found the hotel without any problems, found a small roadside stand to eat dinner at, and then returned to our hotel very tired an full, looking forward to a night of restful sleep. But for one of us (which happened to be me), it was not to be. Let me start off by saying that if the Lonely Planet says "there might be a little noise"it translates into "you can hear every word of every song from the bar downstairs all night long". So lets just say the morning after, I was a little cranky. Luckily the next night we were able to move to a quieter room, and I bought ear plugs (I will never travel without these again).

We only spent one full day in the city of Puebla. It was meant to be nothing more than a stop over on our way to Veracruz. The city is very pretty (though it has a lot of trash on the streets), with a lot of old colonial architecture. We spent the day seeing the sights the city had to offer. we saw the church that was on the 500 peso bill, a temple built upon a hill that used to be an ancient temple, and took a quick tour of the city. During our travels we meet up with an British girl named Ruth who was also trying to see the city, and she ended up joining us for the day.

All in all, if you discount the first night in the hotel, it was a good time...

Spanish School Mexico

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Chapter 40: The week V became T

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It takes almost 3 months for a V to mature into a T. An amazing biological process that not all the V's make it through. But in our case most of us survived more or less in one piece. But some of you may be asking, what does it take for a T to become a V? Well, believe it or not, forcing one letter to undergo spontaneous evolution is a lot harder than one would think. It takes on average about three months. The T has to go through intensive training in a foreign and sometimes intimidating location. The T has to then inherit some of the traits of there environment (eating habits, traditions, and languages) .

The evolution goes through many phases. The T's have to do, and learn many new things that will be of us in there new lives as V's. These growing activities include, but are not limited to exploring there surroundings, catching exotic deceases and acting in strange ritual plays (Pastorela). The life of a T is sometimes grueling, and they can sometimes go crazy (See photo on left). But it is all part of the miraculous transformation.

The ritual of transformation for the T's took place this last Wednesday. It was a day dominated by letters and acronyms. The head honcho of the V's from DC came down as well as the VP's and P's of CONACYT and SEMERNAT. The ACD and CD were also there, as well as the acting ABD of the US. There ritual involves many speeches in English, and even more in Spanish. But when it is all over the T's take an oath and instantly metamorphose into V's.

What a WEEK.

Spanish School Mexico

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Chapter 39: Ruins in the Sky

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And off went the Three Musketeers. There leader "El Calvo" (The Baldy) lead the way with the planning and coordinating. "El Pelito" (The Hairy) was the first to show up, and "El Asiatico" (The Asian) was the last to arrive. At the crack of dawn they set astride there mighty steed (a 3rd class bus) and headed off the the mountain town of San Juaquin. The journey took 3 hours, and just as the sun crested over the nearby mountains, and the clouds cleared they arrived. They found themselves in a small town, with paved roads, surrounded by the noises of people awaking on a lazy Sunday. They first found feed at the local market, and parted with some of their hard earned franks (30 pesos), for a full meal. Once satified, they located a local guide (taxi driver) to take them to the first of their two destinations. A short trek later they found themselves at their destination. Las Ranas. El Calvo arranged for the guide to return after 1 hour, and they took to exploring.

Los Ranas were once a outpost for the Otomi tribe (in the 8th or 9th century). And as a result, they are located in a place with a great view of all the surrounding area. The musketeers went where few estraneros had gone before... and some places they were not suppose to go. But the ruins were a site to behold. El Calvo even found himself the center of attention to a group of locals, who he regailed with stories and jokes.


Next our guide took the intrepid explorers to Las Grutas. They entered the caves in expecting to face terrible beasts, but were relieved to find out that the most dangerous creature they would encounter was a group of tourists. They were lead through the caves and shown many unique rock formations, that the guide was convinced looked like animals. Once it was done, they made there way back to the sunlight. After sharing a short meal of trail rations (chips) the three tracked down another steed (flagged down another bus), and made there way back home. The day had been long and they were tired. But they were reconciled by the fact that due to there trip the world was a safer place... at least in their own minds.

Spanish School Mexico

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Chapter 38: City With No Roads

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This weekend, Laura and I took the a trip to the beautiful city of Guanajato. The past weekend some fellow PCT's had gone to the same place and they had been singing praises of it for the whole week. So I had to check it out for myself. But their prases did not prepare me for this hidden gem of a city. Guanajuato is the capital of the Mexican State of Guanajato (yes, like you, I had also never heard of it before).

But, apperently at one time it was the Gold and Silver capital of Mexico. But that is now ancient history. Luckily the legacy of the mines have not been forgotten. In fact they are what provides the modern city with much of its charm. Those mines have now been converted into tunnels, and as a result, most of the main roads downtown are underground. While that does make it very difficult for you to find your way around, it does provides the added benifit of allowing a lot of pedestrian walkways on the surface. So most of the center is perfect for walking. Add to this that the town is nestled in some hills with a horde history, entertainment, and restaurants, and you have one of my favorite places in Mexico to date.

The days were spent going to all the sites the town had to offer. We went to the Valencia Mines, the Museum of the Mummies, The art museum, the Musuem of Don Quixote (The town has a festival in his honor every year), and simply exploring all the town had to offer. There is much more in this town than can be seen in just 2 days.


At night, we partook in a Spanish tradition that has made its way to Mexico. There is a group of musicians called "Estudiantinas" that start singing every weekend at the Church of San Diego in El Centro, and then walk through the streets singing and telling stories. They are of course accompanied by a group of about 100 tourists. So we spent 2 hours walking through the windy, and hilly streets of the town hearing stories (some true, some not), and jokes. Luckily my spanish comprehension is pretty good... so I understood about 10% of it. :P

Another great thing that happened this weekend, was we happened to share a taxi with a doctoral student of Mathamatics at the University of Guanajuato (which has the best Mathamatics departments in Mexico) returning from the mines. His name was Fransisco, and he was from Columbia. But the interesting part is, that as a hobby he is a prefessional Organ player in churches. So, in exchange for me agreeing to help him practice English, he gave a tour of all the churches in El Centro, along with an extensive historical overview, and culminating in a free concert in one of the churches (Mozart, Bach and many more). We have exchanged emails, and if I every find my way back to Guanajuato, or to Columbia, I have a free place to stay and a tour guide. Que Buena Suerte!

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