Baby, it's hot outside!

As go the lyrics of the famous song. 

We arrived in the Gulf Coast port city of Veracruz yesterday. Made our way through the port area, and then the central part of the city before arriving at our hotel towards the south side.

As I said yesterday, there's only one decent campground here, but it's a half hour bus ride to the center. And so we are renting an air conditioned hotel room with a decent shower for only 100 pesos ($8 CAD, $5.75 USD) more than the campground would have cost.

Arriving in the big city of Veracruz.

Lots of truck traffic as we arrived close to the port area, but after that it was really quite quiet.

No traffic! On a Friday before lunch!

We're here!

No, it doesn't look like much. But for 500 pesos ($39.30 CAD, $28.75 USD) a night, it's totally fine. Plus, the people running the place are friendly and helpful and they have a gated lot for Igor in the back.

The room is fine.

And the bathroom is big.

They let us into the room early, so that was nice. Then we decided to walk in the baking heat down to a famous restaurant where our friend Paco had recommended we go for lunch. It's called Mr. Pez, and it's a seafood buffet. It was a 3.5 km walk, and it was 33C (91F). Yes, we could have taken a taxi or an Uber, or the bus... but we needed some exercise. We were definitely done by the time we got there!

The place isn't cheap, at 345 pesos ($27 CAD, $20 USD) per person. But that includes all you can eat seafood, as well as your first hour's worth of drinks including beer. So I had two beer and Ruth had two jamaica. So we walked away full, but in my opinion it was just okay. Considering the price, I actually enjoy a nice plate of chicken enchiladas more!

Then we walked back! We took a different route following the seaside, and because it was now after 3:00pm the sun was lower, giving us quite a lot of shade to walk in and that made all the difference. Plus, we took our time and sat down and rested along the way.

They have built a long malecon along the shore. 

There are quite a few modern buildings going up.

As well as one all inclusive resort.

Too funny.

There are several public beaches.

Because it's our first time here, we can't say what it was like when we were in the area 18 years ago. Back then, we were warned that it was a rough port city. You can tell that description has changed somewhat and they are really making an effort to make it more visitor friendly.

There's even an aquarium and the typical tourist wax museum and Ripley's believe it or not museum! 

We want to make it to the central plaza at night when everyone is out and about and there is supposedly music and dancing going on, so we are staying one more night at the hotel. We're going to play tourist and head to the aquarium as well.

Then tomorrow we'll head towards Oaxaca City. 

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