Days 8 & 9 - Veracruz, Mexico

Day 7 (Sunday, January 17, 2010)

The first sound I hear alerts me to where I am. THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! Richard is hard at work already and I'm not even out of bed. Guess the alarm didn't work again. We either forgot to set it or it decided to do its own thing today.

A quick cup of coffee and we're off down the long hill to join our pod along the blue? and white wall. Whoops! That low branch wasn't here yesterday when we drove up the hill. Wonder what we've got left on top of the coach. We'll check later. No time now. We;re off on another wonderful day with Adventure Caravan.

The roads haven't changed. Bumps, big and little, potholes, ditto, Topes, just the same. Then the vibradores. Did I spell that right? No matter. Everyone knows what they are by now. We're all rocking and rolling through the small Mexican villages and dodging trucks, buses, and cars on busy city streets.

As we drove, I watched the sun rise over the mountains. In the valley there were palm trees. Oh good, a sunny day, I thought. Then fog enveloped us.

It's the little things that let me know I'm not at home. The small donkey with the big man and two big sacks of ???, the huge snake at the edge of the road, two men standing by obviously impressed by its length. The Mexican vendors in the middle of the street with their oranges, the trucks full of sugar cane. Everywhere I look, it's different. I wonder what it would be like to live in this place. What would I do each day? How would I spend my time.

The day passes slowly. We stop for breaks, for fuel, for lunch.. We check the log. Another Pemex, another KM sign. What's that number? It's not in MY log. And today, I bet nobody turned left at Mile 164.4, Kilometer 264.7. But we all arrived.

We went for a walk on the beach, picked up a sand dollar. Dune buggies roared past us on the hard brown sand. The waves rolled in. We saw tall buildings across the water. A slower dune buggy passed us, dragging a load of drift wood. Two men took turns using an ax to chop a larger piece of driftwood, loading the small pieces they produced into an old truck.

At five o'clock, we gathered for our social, a hardy bunch. We got through today and we can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring.



Rig 7, Miriam and Dan

Day 8 – Veracruz

Guided Bus Tour of Veracruz with the guide Vicky

We took the bus at 8 h 30 and in our way to Veracruz we saw the Pico Orizaba with snow on top. We had a delicious coffee con leche at Restaurant La Paroquia and some took a pastry “bumba” everybody enjoyed it.

After we visit the cathedral of Veracruz and Hotel Imperial, we took an elevator and they let us visit a room, the swimming pool and at the balcony we had a nice view all around the place. It was a very old hotel but well kept.

We visit La Antigua and the oldest church built in America en 1523, there was a ceibo (very big tree). We took a walk on a suspended bridge and had lunch at a restaurant near the river.. Going back to the bus Alain almost walked on a dog who was sleeping in the middle of the street. We stopped at the house of Cortes with invading roots on the walls and also corals on the walls inside the house.

At the end of the visit we went to a Wallmart for a 45 minutes shopping.

At the RV Park we had our social gathering under the palopa and the briefing for the next day. So we hat a very interesting day.

Pauline and Rene Rig 8