Xalapa, Veracruz

We found our way to the modest Teotihuacan bus station early yesterday morning and were told that to get to Xalapa (pronounced "Halapa") we would first have to got to the northern bus terminal of Mexico City.  I purchased two tickets for an incredibly low 51 pesos and we immediately entered the bus which was almost full and ready to go.

The last hour of the ride was through Mexico City traffic.  At one point I could see the tall buildings of the CBD in the distance through the light haze of pollution.  We disembarked at 10 AM and soon learned that the bus to Xalapa would leave at 3 PM, meaning a wait of close to 5 hours.  I purchased the two tickets for 580 pesos and after stepping out of the terminal and having a look we decided to wait inside of the terminal rather than try to walk into a shopping area carrying our backpacks.

The bus terminal was very large and had a few shops.  At a small bookstore we purchased a Mexican road atlas to replace the one that we had left in a hotel room, then settled in with cups of coffee. There was a nice bakery - the first one that I've seen in either and airport or bus terminal - but the rest of the food service was disappointing.  The heftiest meals that we could find were pastes and hamburgers.  At about 1 PM I approached a  nearby food outlet with the thought of purchasing a paste.  The lady was behind the counter working on some figures using a calculator.  She glanced at me and kept on working.  After 3 minutes of polite waiting I walked the hamburger/hot dog stand with the thought of eating a hamburger and taking a second one on the bus with me, but the lady said that nothing was available.  My Spanish was not good enough to learn why.  Not long after that Brenda walked to a rather large outlet looking for a paste and was told "No Servicio".  She then walked over toward the outlet with the calculator lady and as she approached saw two people behind the counter, but by the time she arrived the staff had melted away, though she could see unsold pastes behind the glass.  We do not understand how the food service system works in that bus station but we are pretty sure that obligation to the public is not one of its elements.  At 3 PM we climbed on the bus expecting to arrive at Xalapa quite hungry.

The ride to Xalapa was interesting.  It took about 90 minutes to get out of the city, then we rolled next to the most fertile farm lands that we had seen in Mexico.  The bus started to climb and in the distance Brenda saw a snow-capped mountain.  Everywhere we seemed to see extinct volcanoes.  We know that there is an active volcano near Mexico City and Brenda spotted it, we think, given the cloud of smoke that seemed to be emanating from it.  We also saw our first real forest in Mexico.

Eventually we crested the mountain range and began a descent, marking our first time on the eastern side of the mountains.  The road took us to the outskirts of Puebla, Mexico's third largest city.  Puebla is an interesting city worthy of a visit, but our plans were to head east before  swinging back to the north and we were happy to bypass it.

We arrived in Xalapa, the capitol of the state of Veracruz,  pretty well on schedule, well after dark.  We got into a Taxi and to our surprise the driver didn't know where the Posado del Cafeto hotel was.  Brenda dug out our guide and in the semi darkness I showed him the name of the hotel and its location on the map, at Canovas street.  He didn't know where Canovas street was.  Fortunately he knew where Zaragoza and Hidalgo streets were, and from that feeble base of knowledge managed to find the hotel after pulling over twice for more looks at the map.

At he Posado del Cafeto we got our next disappointment: for the first time in our journey we found that the hotel was fully booked.   We knew that the guide had indicated another hotel, the Posada Casa Regia, not far away so Brenda and I set off on foot and found it without much trouble.  Fortunately they had accommodation and it looks like a neat little hotel done in the Spanish style with an internal courtyard, for about 90 pesos a night less than our first choice.  After settling in we walked two blocks up the road and had a meal at a pleasant and well patronized restaurant. 

Our room though small as is typical of older hotels is neat and well decorated.  The bathroom is modern and has passed the plenty-of-hot-water, the-shower-drain-works-well, and the-toilet-flushes-really-well tests.  I booked for one night but we are planning to book for two more.