The interesting little town of La Antigua, Veracruz

Wednesday night was likely our only beach stop on this trip. The Gulf Coast beaches aren't the best and as you all know, we're not beach people to begin with.

But we couldn't leave Playa Chachalaca without doing a walk down to the dunes.

The dunes are one of the attractions of Playa Chachalaca, however during busy times the beach is over run with ATV's and four wheel drive machines playing on both the beach and the sand. Not our idea of a relaxing weekend at the beach!

But, at 10:00am on a Thursday morning, things are pretty quiet.

Beautiful butterfly relaxing on the sand.

We are heading to the top of that sand dune!

Made it to the top!

But, we were in bare feet. It was only about 10:30am, but the sand was already baking hot. It was almost uncomfortably hot going up, but we made it. Coming down was worse though. Not sure how the sand became that much hotter in the five minutes we were up there, but it did! We actually burned our feet. It wasn't a pleasant feeling and they're still a little tender this morning. We actually ended up running down, and straight into the water to cool them off. 

Ussie at the top.

Heading back.

We got Igor packed up and ready to go. We weren't going far, only about 25 kms south to the riverside town of La Antigua. We were hoping to be able to overnight there, and it turned out to be fine!

Stopped to fill up with gas. The price of gasoline hasn't changed at all with the rising price of oil. The price is set by the government and is typically artificially high due to high taxes. But one of the benefits of price stability is when fuel prices rise around the world, the price here stays the same. Only with gasoline though, not with diesel.

But while it's stable, it's not cheap. It just hasn't risen with the price of oil. Currently 24 pesos ($1.89 CAD) per liter. That's about $5.22 USD per gallon.

Scenery along the way.

The main attraction in La Antigua is the ruins of the House of Cortez. In 1525, the Spanish conquistadors, under the leadership of Hernán Cortés, relocated their coastal settlement on the Gulf of Mexico to what became the village of La Antigua. The area contains the earliest church in the Americas (depending on which article you read).

The town is pretty quiet during the week and we had no problem finding somewhere suitable to park. In fact during our walk around, we found a lot of other parking opportunities. No hesitation to be able to overnight on the street just about anywhere.

There are several massive trees!

I think this tree was probably here when Cortez lived here!

Another one.

Apparently they used to carve these boats out of the big trees.

As I said, every Mexican town has "the letters".

One of the oldest churches in the Americas, built in 1525.

Only the walls remain of the original complex.

The ruins are reminiscent of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

I think the tree roots are what is holding the walls up!

Mangos!

Very cool!

And, totally free.

The town also has riverside restaurants that are obviously very popular on weekends, along with river boat rides.

And a pedestrian suspension bridge.

The river boats are quiet during the week.

The restaurants are quiet too.

So are the wide streets. As I said, you could park anywhere and nobody would bother you.

We chose a spot with afternoon shade!

It was baking hot. Highs of 33C (91F) during the day, and overnight lows of 26C (79F). It's too hot, but we will put up with it because we want to see some things in this area. Including the city of Veracruz.

I mentioned yesterday that we have a hotel booked in Veracruz City today. There is only one suitable campground around the city, but it's a half hour bus ride south of the city. The price at the campground is 400 pesos ($31.50 CAD, $23 USD) per night.

But Veracruz City is not much of a tourist city. It's more of a port/industrial city, although there are some things worth seeing. When we were in this area 17 years ago, we were warned not to visit Veracruz City, but that has changed and it's more visitor friendly.

But because it's not a tourist hot spot, hotel prices are more than reasonable. I was able to find an inexpensive hotel that gets good reviews and it is walking distance to "el centro" with air conditioning, hot showers, and secure parking for Igor... all for the price of 517 pesos ($40.50 CAD, $30 USD)... not much more than the campground south of the city!

So, we are headed into the city this morning. 

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