Click on a photo to enlarge it.
We left our holiday spot behind and drove south, heading for Veracruz and the carnival. We made the mistake again,
of trying to avoid the toll roads. We lost an hour driving over really bad roads and ended up getting back to the
toll booth anyway!! So we gave up and paid the toll!
It was starting to get dark and when Kirsten hit a tope (speed bump) at full speed, we swapped drivers! Then we made
the mistake of driving into Veracruz in the dark and battling with lots of traffic, road blocks for the carnival and
lots of people on the streets. We did U-turns all over the place and had to stop several times to ask where the
Wal-mart was. It took us 1.5 hours just to find it!
We eventually got there at 8pm, only to find out that it wasn't a 24 hour one. But there was no way we were going
anywhere else for the night. Unfortunately, Wal-mart was right next to a very loud night club. So we had to move
around the corner to try and get away from the awful and very loud music.
On Sunday, we got a bus into the town centre and managed to get a map from the tourist info centre. We wandered
around the harbour and then got a roller coaster ride on a bus further south to find the carnival area. First of
all, we needed to get some food.
We found a restaurant but couldn't understand anything on the menu. So we pointed to a table where a group of 6 were
eating and asked for what they were having. We ended up with a lot of chicken, that got a bit overdone and burnt on
the grill, along with some seriously hot sauces (the steam was blowing out of our ears!), tortillas and a much needed
drink to try and quell the raging fire in our mouths. We'd used a toothpick and dipped it into the sauces to try
them out. So we didn't taste much of the sauces ... but it was enough!!
Then we walked to the sea front where we managed to catch the end of the carnival. We got to see a lot of the floats
as they slowly drove by accompanied by loud music. The people on the floats could hardly dance anymore - we found out
that it takes 6 hours for them to get from one end to the other. Plus, today they were doing it twice!
So what we saw were a lot of knackered people who bobbed occasionally rather than danced - not that impressive. But
the crowd seemed to enjoy it. We talked to a group of three men who looked like they were enjoying their beer more
then the carnival, and the only word they knew in German was "scheisse". So that word was used quite a lot in the
conversation!
Afterwards, we walked passed all the floats that were parked up at the end, ready for the journey back in about 2
hours time. So we got to see all the ones we had missed. There were only 40 altogether - a lot smaller scale than
in Rio de Janeiro, and we spoke to a man from one of the floats that had been "doing" this carnival for 23 years!!
On Monday, we continued south and went to Santiago Tuxtla to see the largest Olmec head. The Olmecs are believed to
be the first civilisation in Mexico and pre-date the Mayans and Aztecs. The head is about 3000 years old, carved in
basalt at a time when there were no metal tools!
We stopped at a Pemex for the night and then drove into Catemaco where we stayed at a campground for the next two
nights. Catemaco is a tourist place for the Mexicans and is on the shore of a large lake. It is surrounded by
volcanic hills and is quite a lovely place. Unfortunately it was too hot to do much, so we caught up with our website
and took our washing in to be done.
On Thursday, we tried to find the free roads to get to Villahermosa and ended up off the map, in the back end of
beyond and did a few extra miles in the bargain. At least the road wasn't too bad and at least, this time, we did
manage to avoid paying the tolls! Fortunately, just as it was starting to get dark, we found a Pemex, that was in
the process of being completed and will no doubt be opening soon. But we still parked up there for the night.
On Friday, we drove into Villahermosa, got propane and shopping and then found the free parking area. We'd just
parked up when we found out that we could actually plug into the electricity. So we moved Winnie and then we were
asked by other campers, if we wanted a ride into town to go to the museum.
La Venta museum is the main attraction here. It is a small zoo with lots of animals - the most exciting being the
big cats - jaguars and leopards. But the real star was a really beautiful black panther with bright green eyes.
However, we weren't there to see the animals, we wanted to see all the Olmec statues and heads that had been
excavated from a nearby site and were all on display. The artefacts were laid out, outside, along a walkway through
the forest.
The walk in the forest was very nice and some of the statues weren't in very good condition - well they are 3000
years old! We read the descriptions of what we were supposed to be able to see - you needed a lot of imagination to
see it! We also watched a very large family of coatees (racoons) that obviously live there!
On Saturday, we moved Winnie under a corrugated roof so that we could get some shade. It was getting unbearably hot
inside and our air con doesn't work. But it was a very tight fit to drive Winnie under the roof - in fact we had to
measure Winnie and the roof and even then we weren't sure that he would fit! But we managed to squeeze him underneath
somehow!
On Sunday, we made the mistake of walking into town in the 34° C heat, to try and find a phone. Finding a phone
wasn't a problem, but finding somewhere to buy a phone card proved impossible! So we bought a huge drink from
McDonalds to try and quench our thirst and then walked all the way back. 3 hours in the heat for nothing!
We had only just sat down for a few minutes, outside in the shade, when another caravan turned up. Peter and Irene
from Germany! We ended up chatting to them for hours and they even played us one of the latest songs by Udo Juergens
(a famous comic songwriter from Germany - famous in Germany that is!!). Plus they told us the latest football
scores - which they get sent to them by SMS from their son!
So we managed to find out that HSV (the football team from Hamburg) had won again and were now 5th in the top league!!
We were in our element with two other football fans! And it was after midnight before we eventually got to bed!
