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July 24. Well, as I alluded to in the previous post, we reluctantly left Orizaba this morning. It’s perfectly laid out streets easily led us to… well, we hadn’t discussed that part yet. Oaxaca, to further join the resistance? Catemaco, for a little spirit conjuring? After a number of indecisions we decided on Papantla, or maybe Poza Rica. What the heck. We’re just making it all up at this point. We passed up Papantla for another 20km to Poza Rica. There we were greeted by heavy traffic (due to a taxi rear-ending a city bus), oil rigs in the middle of the city and a general feeling of … “nah”. We turned around and retraced our steps, past the taxi/bus fiasco and were happy with our decision to return to Papantla.
Papantla is hilly, green and low key. The zocalo is traditional and, since it’s Sunday, it’s packed with locals and their families, vendors, beggars and plenty of Indians from the surrounding hills. We found a restaurant that gave us a bird’s-eye view of it all. We shopped a bit in the square then finished the evening at our hotel, just one block east.
July 25. Let’s start this day with this, a quote from yours truly. “Sometimes the road less traveled is because it’s a really lousy road.” That’s the G rated version.
Though it seemed confusing, we made it out of Papantla with ease, through dusty old Poza Rica and continued north. We somewhat decided to stay inland and head to Rio Verde. A number of routes to there take you through Tuxpan, a grubby port city that I really would rather avoid. So, I plotted our journey through a few smaller towns, like Alamo, to pick up the highway to Rio Verde a bit further west. Just before Alamo was a lovely, ornate, fork in the road and entrance to Tihuatlan.
Let me help you out with that one; Tee-hwowt’-lan. I only bring this up to illustrate an unofficial game that we play with each other. I break it down as best I can and get the jest of the pronunciation. I find this comes in handy when the local police are involved. On the other hand, Sharon just calls it like she sees it. Maybe, in this case, Tiujana Landia. So in an effort to quickly communicate mapping logistics, we settle on an amalgam of our two versions…
Twat Land
We zoomed past Twat Land, entered Alamo, then… nothing. Nothing, as in the traffic just stopped in the direction we were going. Forward progress is no longer an option. Alamo is one road; road in or road out. That’s it and we couldn’t access a road around what ever was causing the lethal road block ahead. We sat there for a good 30 minutes as the congestion of cars, trucks and 18 wheelers bloated from a single lane to 4 or 5 vehicles wide. This traffic artery was about to have a major coronary; stat.
Back to Twat Land.
This unavoidable decision took us to and through Tuxpan, the place we didn’t want to go. We got the idea of Rio Verde out of our heads, plotted a course through Tuxpan and aimed for the coastal town of Tampico. Enter “The road less traveled”.
Actually, it is traveled; a lot. It just shouldn’t be if you want to get somewhere in a reasonable amount of time. One lane, tope (speed bump) laden, up and down behind a barely-rolling-in-need-of-parts type vehicle and… 100 miles later and you’ve lost 6 and 1/2 hours of your life. Today I tore that portion out from our map. I vow never to need it again. Once in Tampico, we made a bee-line to an area we are familiar with, feasted on al pastor alambre, then just rubbed our bellies into the twilight. A rough drive deserves a decadent meal.
July 26. It’s a new and beautiful day. On the road by 9 to Ciudad Victoria. Our settling on Tampico yesterday was based upon a restaurant we liked. The same applies to Victoria. And the roads to Victoria could not have been more friendly; winding, curving and traffic free. We were in Victoria shortly after noon. We are going to a restaurant tonight that has exquisite fare and a respectable wine list. Plus, we can walk to it with ease.
Ok. For the foreseeable future, we expect a non-eventful return home in a couple of days. Victoria to Nuevo Laredo, but not til Thursday. Hit the international bridge early and get home. We will probably raid the first What-a-burger in sight.
Until next time, vaya con Dios.
