Terminal de ADO, Boca del Rio, Costco y Danzón

Thursday, Jan. 2, 2014—Veracruz

Thank goodness I brought earplugs with me.  The hotel was rather noisy during the night.  I heard a bit of it, but Wes says he heard (without earplugs) a LOT of it.  We went to bed at 22:30 last night, and I awoke at 9:30—11 hours of sleep to make up for that short night before.

We walked to the ADO bus station and bought our tickets for our trip on Saturday for Xalapa.  The station was a madhouse full of people in line to catch buses after having been here for the New Year.  We decided to pay an extra $2 each to be on a higher class bus because the line for it was short.  The line for the regular buses would have taken us an hour or more to get to the window.

After taking care of that business, we decided to go to Boca del Rio.  It used to be a small fishing village outside Veracruz.  How things change.  Veracruz has gown along the waterfront all the way to Boca del Rio and beyond.  Taking the bus, we passed multiple shopping centers, cinema complexes, hotels, etc., and lots of high-rise apartment buildings.  And just over the river from Boca del Rio was another large shopping mall and there were new hotels and apartments under construction.

Boca del Rio itself still has a bit of the charm of a small village.  There are lots of seafood restaurants facing the water.  And the back streets are filled with the houses and shops of a small town.

On the way to Boca, we had seen a Costco, so we decided to catch a bus back to there to eat lunch.  Unfortunately, the bus turned away from the seaside route, so we had to get off it.  By the time there was a stop, we were quite a ways away from the waterfront.  We walked that direction and back toward town.  Eventually, we came to the Costco.

Costco here has almost exactly the same snack bar menu as it does at home, although the prices are slightly higher.  We both got a hot dog and drink combo at the restaurant which has a separate entry instead of being inside the store.  Then we walked through the store seeing what is in stock there.  Most of the items are ones that are sold at home, but a few were local specialties.  The cheese section had lots of Mexican cheeses and few international ones.  They had a much better selection of dried meats (like prosciutto).  They were featuring a 3-Kings-Day cake and a large flan in the dessert section.  Wes was impressed with a 6 kg (12 1/2 pounds) block of chocolate which was being sold in boxes for bakers to use in making cakes and things.  I noticed the tequila prices.  A liter of Kirkland brand Tequila Anejo is about $17 and another brand (the lesser quality bottle from Herradera) was only about $15 per liter.  I think I’ll buy two bottles for bringing home, since Wes can declare one for me.

We walked all the way back to town from Costco seeing the sights along a different route from the one that we followed by bus.  Veracruz is an impressive city.  The part that reminded me of Nuevo Laredo yesterday is the least impressive part of town that we have seen after today’s outing.  We found wonderful neighborhoods, unbelievably nice shopping areas, very nice hotels and apartments, etc.  It’s much more developed than Corpus Christi which I had thought it could be compared before coming here.

After resting a couple of hours, we went out for the evening stopping first for more tacos at our next-door place where we ate last night.  At the recommendation of the young cook, we each had two tripas (cow stomach) tacos and two bistek (beef steak) tacos.  Across the street is a bakery which was not open last night.  We stopped there for me to get a VERY moist (often not the case  at home) Mexican Concha sweet bread with a chocolate-flavored sugar mixture on the top. 

Although tired, Wes wanted to stop by the Zocolo to see if there was dancing tonight.  What luck.  There was a large band set up in the square playing the Cuban-inspired tunes that are popular with Danzón, the local Latin dance that has made Veracruz famous.  We watched through three tunes.  There were some really good dancers and others just joining in for the fun. The music has a lively, infectious, happy sound to it.  Adding the music and dancing to the other activities we observed last night there made it feel like a very special place to be—similar to being on the Riverwalk in San Antonio or someplace else where crowds gather regularly for a great outdoor experience.