From Coscomatepec to the beach at Nautla.

In Coscomatepec, we are in the land of sugar cane.  Miles and miles of fields of sugar cane are under cultivation, and all that cane must be cut and hauled to market.  The roads are clogged with huge, slow-moving old trucks, all over-loaded with cane.  Those trucks remind me of my childhood, when daddy would pile the old red dump truck high with baled tobacco and then load the trailer behind also loaded high, and head for the market in Chadborne or Wallace, NC.  Often, he would return with a bit of sugar cane to us to chew, a real treat in those days.  Sugar cane is not grown anymore in southeastern NC.  Around Cosco, there are also fields of bananas and coffee, oranges and intricate networks of chayote vines.  The coffee is  grown underneath the banana trees, making the land more useful.  We're warm and the sun is shining, after several days of cold, rainy weather.

 From Cosco, we head for cosmopolitan Xalapa, a much larger mountain city.  More then 20 years ago we were in Xalapa, and I remember the beautiful Museum of Anthropology and the pretty Parque Juarez, and not much more.  The museum is as awesome as I remember, because of the fine displays, the explanations and the beautiful building housing the immense collection.  Even with all the history under that roof, I could have spent the entire time we had looking at the temporary exhibit of clay work by Alicia Mejorada.  I was enchanted with her dress collections, leaf impressions,  and books of various topics, all made from clay. Xalapa is educated and sophisticated, and funky and hip, all at the same time.  People here take coffee very seriously, and there are multiple coffee shops in every block in centro. The street musicians are playing cool jazz, and complicated guitar tunes.  The teenagers are roller-blading through the park, or break-dancing on big pieces of heavy plastic.  Older men, wearing suits and ties, are talking earnestly to each other on the streets around the government building.  Young, smartly dressed women are walking toddlers along streets of high-end retail shops.  There is a demonstration on the church steps across from the government building, in support of the Ayotinzapa 43.  We find a pleasant restaurant by the lakes serving shrimp and mezcal...the bartender sends me a mezcal, gratis, when he hears us speaking english.  Of course he wanted to practice his english with us!

Xalapa is nice, but we move on after a few days.  I'm looking forward to some beach time!  My maps show a road that runs for about 30 miles along the coast, and Lonely Planet says this is a destination for middle-class Veracruzano families. Sounds like our kind of place. Our hotel is on the ocean, and the sand is black and quiet this time of year.  Friday afternoon, we stand by the side of the road to wait for a colectivo back into the town, looking for a seafood comida.  We get out of the colectivo at Restaurant La Pirata, which someone suggested to us.  It's big, the two mariachi bands are competing for attention from the 6 people eating inside, and the prices are high.  We leave, and walk down the dusty road a bit, stopping to buy some coconut candies from a road-side stand.  There, by the river, is a shack and a fish house, with two tables and some chairs scattered around under the trees, a couple of small boats pulled up on the river bank, sleeping dogs and clucking chickens.  We ask if they're serving shrimp, and sit down when the man says,"Yes!".  We eat a delicious plate piled high with shrimp cooked in garlic (heads still on), hand-made tortillas and a salad.  Our host ran across the road to buy some beers for us from the tiendita, charging us what they charged him.  Later, back at our beach, we walk for a bit just before the sunset.

The beach is pretty and quiet, but the weather is not so warm, so we decide to move on.  Next stop:  the surrealistic gardens of James Edwards, in Xilitla.  We don't know exactly where we're going, but begin heading north, knowing that it will take us a couple of days to get there.

(no photos right now.  My computer is having technical difficulties, and I can't access my photos.  Richard will resolve this when I get home!)