a journey to the well

Veracruz

This weekend was fantastic. Late Thursday night, a friend offered to take a group of us to Veracruz for the weekend. We had been planning to go in the next few weeks anyway, so we decided to be spontaneous and go. Three people rode in our friend, Lut's, pickup trick, and four of us took the four-hour bus ride to Veracruz on Friday evening. We arrived late Friday night, and we were immediately stunned by the humidity. I haven't mentioned this before, but Cholula has BEAUTIFUL weather - relatively low humidity, and highs in the mid-70s. Vera Cruz is much hotter and the humidity is constantly between 90 and 100%. Lut took us to a restaurant called Dawson's Bar and Rock House. The food was okay, and there were a couple of mediocre Mexican cover bands playing, but we were mostly just miserable with the heat and humidity. We ate and got out as soon as possible, and then we headed down to the beach. We all walked for a while and just hung out.

We stayed in a BEAUTIFUL hotel, right on the city square (the zocalo) of Veracruz. It was very old - built in the early 1800s, I think - but nice. Three people slept in beds, and the other four of us crashed on sleeping bags throughout the suite. We were all tired, but we ended up staying up, laughing, and talking for another 45 minutes or an hour, even after the lights were off.

Saturday was AMAZING. We woke up around 10, ate at a traditional restaurant in front of the hotel, and piled in Lut's pickup to go to the beach. The heat was horrible again, but we eventually made it to the beach. Lut is a fantastic kitesurfer, so he knows the beaches in Veracruz really well - we didn't go to a typical tourist beach, we ended up on a much quieter local beach. Lut found a fisherman to take us out to an island about 15 minutes (by boat) offshore. Four men took us out to the small island, and we swam, explored, and relaxed. While we swam, the fishermen went out in their boat, caught several fish, and prepared fresh fish tacos for us. They were VERY spicy, but fantastic. We had hired the fisherman for three hours; four hours had passed before we knew it. We eventually went back to the mainland, paid him for his time, and thanked him again. We paid him for the extra time, and he argued that it wasn't fair - we were giving him more than the agreed upon amount. What an example of Mexican hospitality!

We went back to the hotel and showered. A few of us explored an open-air market set up in the zocalo, and then we all went out for a late dinner. After that, we were all exhausted. We hung out in the hotel for a while, and then we all slept (VERY soundly). Today, some people went back to the beach, while three of us stayed and explored Veracruz. The same three of us then caught a mid-afternoon bus back to Puebla, and we were back to campus before dark.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the weekend:

This is (most of) the group on the beach of "our" island.


This is the view from the island, looking back towards Vera Cruz. The man in the picture is the fisherman we hired to take us out to the island.


Our hotel looked out directly on the zocalo; this church was directly across the square from us.

posted by Audrey @ 10:24 PM