Chapter 44: 2006 We Hardly Knew Ye

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After spending 2 weeks seeing what the state of Veracruz had to offer, we finally made time to check out the city itself. But first we had to return the rental car. We were all expecting the worst, to be charged 10% of the value of the car as was stated in our insurance. But much to our surprise, when the guy at the rental facility came out to look at our bumper held on by wire, he just shrugged and told us that was not even worth worrying about. Not wanting to argue the point, we thanked them for the car, and quickly made an exit.

Chris headed back to to D.F. (Mexico City) for two days so Yale and I spent two days relaxing in Veracruz. The slight crimp in the plan was that we had arrived in Veracuz 1 day ahead of our original plan, so we did not have a room reserved for the night. We figured that would not be a problem, but unfortunately the days before New Years tend to be packed. So we spent our first afternoon in Veracruz going from hotel to hotel trying to find a place to stay. After a number of unsuccessful tries we ended finding a room in a hotel that was slightly more than we wanted to pay, but it was better than sleeping on the street. After a long day we decided to simply relax in the main square of Veracruz and do some people watching in the Zocalo.

The next day we made it over to our hotel. It was about 10 km south of the city center right on the beach, so seeing this as the last chance we will have for a while (I will be 6 hours from the nearest beach in my post, and Yale... well, he's going to the middle of the desert) we decided to enjoy it. The weather was perfect (but the water was really cold), but we spent a lazy on the beach.

We were joined the next day once again by Chris, and also by Laura, Kevin (another PC volunteer from an earlier group), and Peggy (Chris girl from the U.S.). We went to the beach for a short while, but unfortunately in 24 hours the weather had gone so we cut that plan short. For the rest of the afternoon we saw some of the sites around Veracruz, the castles, the aquarium, and the old colonial buildings (Veracruz was the first major Spanish colony in the new world, so they had a lot of beautiful buildings from that era).

The next night was New Years eve so we all did a little research to try to find a good place to go. Unfortunately, we ran into the same problem that we had on Xmas. Apparently in Mexico, New Years is also a family event. So unlike what we are used to in the U.S., were every bar, club and hotel has a huge party, here nothing... or at least almost nothing. We were lucky enough to hear that there were some restaurants on the sea shore that were going to be open. So we brought in the new year just like we do in the U.S., with friends, dancing, beer and on a table on the beach (ok, one of those 4 things we don't do in the America, I'll leave it up to you to figure out which). So with that we said goodbye to 2006... may it R.I.P.

¡Happy New Year! ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

Spanish School Mexico

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