Plans Gone Awry

Friday, Jan. 3, 2014—Veracruz

Things didn’t go as planned today.  We hadn’t researched it well and were just going by what we had copied from a guide on the Internet.  We got up thinking we would take a bus to the ruins of El Tajin.  What we had copied indicated that it would be about a 20-minute bus trip outside of Veracruz.  We searched for the intersection where the bus was said to leave only to find out that one of the streets stopped about 2 blocks from where it would intersect the other.  Then we asked a policeman for directions.  He tried to be helpful, but it was obvious that he wasn’t sure.  We stopped at a hotel, and the desk clerk told us it was a 3-hour bus trip to El Tajin.

Giving up, we went to the City Museum which we had read would have good exhibits.  It was really interesting with lots of old photographs of the city and of the people.  A woman there who spoke no English but spoke Spanish slowly with precise enunciation also told us that El Tajin is far away.  She said that you take a 3-hour bus trip to Papantia, then a 20-minute trip further from there.  I looked at a map on the computer later, and the two streets where you catch the 20-minute bus ride DO intersect in that town.  Whoever wrote the entry I copied from the Internet had implied that the 20-minute trip was from Veracruz, and that is why we were lost and couldn’t find the bus this morning.

Wes is still sick, but he’s getting better.  I can tell because he’s started to say things that HE thinks are funny!  My guess is that he is still probably 3 days away from being mostly normal.  He still coughs, he still tires easily, and he still has a limited appetite.

After resting in the room for about 3 hours during the late afternoon, we went out to eat and to enjoy the nightlife.  We had heard a band in the room, and we followed the sound.  There is a small square, Plazuela de La Campaña, around the corner from our hotel that was filled with people at sidewalk tables around the side.  A stage at one end had a large (12-piece?) band performing.  In the center of the square couples weredancing.  It was the best example of Danzón that we have found on the trip.  The band was great, and the dancers were ones you could tell had been dancing all their lives (better than in the video links)..

We left later to eat a torta (a sandwich of ham, avocado, marinated onions, tomatoes, and green salsa on a toasted bun) at a nearby stand.  Then we headed to the Zocolo to see what was happening there.  Many people were out, but there was no dancing there tonight.  Lots of bands were playing to tables at the sidewalk cafes in front of the fancy hotels.  We got a seat on a bench at the side of the action and just watched the people and enjoyed the music.

Later, when we returned to our hotel area, we went back to the small square to see if they were still dancing, and the band members were packing up their instruments..  It had just ended.  Therefore, we just came back to the hotel.  We have to be up early tomorrow to catch our bus to Xalapa.

Some observations: 

1. There are few Anglos here.  Even the people who look as if they might be Anglos often are speaking in Spanish to each other when we get close to them.  However, there are lots of people of Chinese descent.  We’ve seen lots of them all over town.
2. We’ve observed little smoking here.  Normally, I would expected to be smelling cigarette smoke often.  One reason may be the packaging for cigarettes here.  Each package has a graphic image of the dangers of smoking on it—a premature baby, a man with a hole in his throat, a woman with a hole in the roof of her mouth, a person with discolored teeth, a women with a missing breast, a man with a skelet