That's a place we unfortunately did not get to see (ripped the pic from the internet). Leaving Poza Rica, we intended to stop at these remarkable ruins some 10(?) miles to the south, El Tajin. Got to the side road leading to it, went maybe a mile on that road, and came to a place that was roped off. Turns out that road was under repair, impassable, and the only other approach meant going back into Poza Rica and taking another route. That's too long, so we continued on our route southward toward Guatemala. Oh well.Vegetation continued to be lush and dense, and the landscape hilly/mountainous for the first half of the day.
Then the road came to parallel the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, and this is a view toward the interior:
For lunch we stopped at a seaside restaurant in this area known as Costa Esmeralda (the Emerald Coast). The restaurant was actually under repair, but their outside tables were still available. Great food, great scenery.
Clockwise starting with the plate with french fries, the entrees are beef, kinda chicken fried; shrimp, snail (a first for me, and really good - we all liked it); and langostina, a smaller version of lobster.Maybe you can see the Gulf in the background.
Tonight we are in Acayucan. From this point, we will head across from the Gulf side to the Pacific side, and then continue toward Guatemala. We are fortunate to be Acayucan during a “grand fiesta,” lots of people in the streets in the center of town where our hotel is, and lots of open markets. We got a very good price on this quite nice hotel --Hotel Plaza-- with very friendly staff. Although the attached restaurant looked fantastic and good prices, we decided to eat elsewhere, more casually. After wandering the streets for a bit, and with lots of locals interested in us and especially in Sophie, Katie, and Emma, we found the Los Tucanes restaurant (The Toucan), kind of a simple cafe/diner atmosphere. I had, well I don't really
know, but when a waiter is especially friendly, I generally trust them to choose something for me. I knew it would be fish, but nothing more. It turned out to be a quite large serving of baked(?) fish smothered in tomato, pepper, onion, a few green olives and chunks of garlic, with other unknown bits and spices, somewhat spicy hot. It was the best meal of the trip so far. :)
Walking around for a bit I found the locals to be very friendly even without having the 3 little blondes with me. Couple of gentlemen talked with me for a bit, one is Pablo, speaks almost no English, the other is (I don't recall), and told me he is half Mexican, half Italian. The hotel here does not have wireless, but one of the older guys at the desk, who couldn't explain to me how to find the nearest internet cafe (little English, and I have no Spanish), walked me there. He's the one that explained the ongoing fiesta....and also that he is actually Spanish, while his wife is Mexican. I really do enjoy dealing with foreigners. Partly because the language difficulties never fail to make for pleasant/comical conversation, but also because each party is more interested in the other than in typical same-culture conversations. A few pics from town, including lastly our hotel.
All are well. In red, here's the travel today:
