June 26, 1997 Tuxpan, Mexico - Riviera Hotel We drove eight hours today with only one 15 minute break between Ciudad Victoria and Tuxpan where we refueled the bikes with magna sin gasolina and ourselves with cheap tang and Ruffles potato chips. This wasn't really by choice. We left at 8:00am and planned to pick up some breakfast at some nice restaurant along the way before Tampico. We didn't find anything appetizing along the lines of what we were looking for. The scenery all along the way was beautiful. Between Ciudad Victoria and Tampico, the roads wind around and up and down the seemingly out of place hills. Altitude ranges from 500ft to 1500ft. Vegetation is green. It appears as though the land erroded about a 1000ft in most places of this area leaving resulting in a flat plane. However in places, high hills were left the errosion for some reason did not occur. Nice riding country. We drove by some interesting farming villages. The homes in the villages we saw typically had a thatched roof and cement walls. Some had a thatched roof covered open dining area. It seemed odd to see a small poor looking thatched roof home with a big areal sticking out of it. One home had a ~10ft white satelite dish out front that was half the size of the home. Like the guidebooks describe, Tampico is a seedy looking oil refinery town which we drove on through. We drove by a Corona brewing plant to which I tipped my helmet for complimenting many fine mexican meals I've had up in the US in the past. We also drove by the Sol beer brewing plant. Just South of Tampico, 180 turns into a toll road which they charged 21 pesos each. I handed the toll collector a fifty and told her I was paying for the both of us. She didn't have change, and ran to four other booths to dig up the eight pesos change. On the other side of the toll is a potholed road with a small shoulder (the only shouldered road I've seen in Mexico thus far) that runs through some small seedy towns. 180 splits from 105 and then we hit another 10 peso toll. This toll had rifle carrying guards posted out front. The previous one just had billy club and pistol carrying guards out front, however it looked like something like a gate might pop out of the ground if you tried to skip toll. One of the toll guards asked if we were police. I assume because of the remote push to talk walkie talkie clips on our jacket. We passed another military check point. This one the guard asked me where I was going. His finger meandored through the air and then landed on the topbox indicating he was interested in seeing the contents. I opened the topbox for him, and then was distracted as a bus snuggled up on Sharon's rear at the check point. The guard let us go. Both times I've been inspected, I really got the feeling the guards could care less about inspecting my bike. They just seem to willynilly decide to see the contents of my bike. I don't think this guard saw anything more than a loaf of bread, and half a bottle of water before he got distracted and told me to go on. About an hour outside of Tampico, the scenery picks up again as the roads run through green hilly regions. The roads are in pretty good shape. There are a lot of potholes which offer a cheap thrill on a motorcycle. We call these Illinois twisties. The last two hours, we were hurting, from hardly eating anything, and only having a 15 minute gas fillup break. my head was numb, my back ached, my butt was hot and sweaty and it ached from pothole impact and lack of blood flow. My right ear was in great pain from just having put back in my radio speaker into my helmet and not having the headphone speaker adjusted in the correct place. We had hidden the radios at the border crossing not knowing if they were legal or not. When we arrived in Tuxpan, we drove down to the water front, and found a hotel on the water called Hotel Riviera. It was a twice the price as the hotel we had the night before at 130 pesos ($17). It was a nice place with a nice view. Soon after we checked in, Sharon spotted a bunch of ants on one of our beds. I got out my pocket dictionary, and practiced my Spanish phrase on the way back to the counter. I slowly ennuciated to the clerk, "the bed has many ants". Without question, she handed me the key to the room above it which turned out to be fine. Moments later, we heard them spraying (I assume insecticide on the bed?) We walked down to the main plaza, and then through the market. Some young shoplifters ran by us followed by some old overweight cops. Walking through the streets, we stand out and are noticed as caucasians. The areas we've been to have been all native american or metismo. Unlike in China and Burma where people stare and watch caucasians do the most mundane things, here the locals will at most make eye contact and then continue about their business. After a long and hungry day, we treated ourselves to one of the nicer restaurants in town. The specialty is seafood in this area, and so Sharon ordered some breaded fried shrimp mexican style. I had an interesting huevo cilantro concoction with a strange sauce on my cheese enchilada. I ate it so fast, I can't remember the details. I tried the Sol beer which is heavily advertised in this area. It tasted similar to Miller Highlife, and was half the cost of Negra Modela. For dessert we had a crepe with strawberry preserves, and a scoop of strawberry ice cream (crepe con fresa). They played American soft rock music and served cappucino, and had several pasta dishes on their menu. Most of the people in this nicely furnished airconditioned restaurant were in their 40s-70s. There were several groups of men sitting together, and one large table of 10 midddle aged women. All were dressed nicely. We noticed this at another nice restaurant down the road. These places seem to be social gathering for meeting with groups of the same gender. Didn't see any families or couples dining. We were the only mixed gender table in the restaurant which had about 20 people. Walking down the market area, there was a big crowd around a closed store. It was an appliance store that had left a TV on near the window. People were watching the Peru vs Brazil America cup soccer match. Mexico will be playing Peru on Saturday. June 27 1997 Tuxpan, Mexico - Hotel Riviera Rained in the morning, so we hung around. In the afternoon, I called back home and gave the fax number of a fax shop around the corner. Our traveler insurance is issued by Campbell Irvine Insurance of London. They're underwritten by Lloyd's of London. They offer by far the best and most comprehensive insurance of all travelers insurance I've checked out. We hadn't received the final paper work when we left since we started it so late, and so Mom faxed it to us from back home. It was very simple. They charged 2 pesos per page to receive a fax. Making calls from Mexico was extremly easy from a street payphone. I just dialed AT&T's Mexico toll free number, and the rest is the same as making a calling card call from the states. Quality of the phone line seemd equally as good. For lunch, we went to another nice restaurant. Sharon ordered the queso fundido con chorizo which was a white cheese (like chihuahua) melted, then had chorzio crumbled and springled on the top. This was then intended to be spread on a tortilla... Delicious. I orderd their menu of the day which for 25 pesos, consisted of: Chile Rellenos - breaded and fried humongous jalapeno pepper that was stuffed with ground beef. covered with a mild red sauce. dark refried beans covered with a wet white powdery cheese large grain rice cooked in chicken broth and lots of garlic. red fish soup peeled plum tomatoes stuffed with tuna salad orange supreme - sliced up oranges peeled and cleaned in orange juice. We ordered some cappucino which was a little different from back home. It was condensed milk at the bottom, milk and espresso, with milk foam and cinnamon sprinkled on top. We stopped at a drug store and picked up some chlorquine. Back in the states, we bought some mefloquine to use as a malaria profalactic. Although there are few areas that have mefloquine resistant malaria strains as opposed to chlorquine, mefloquine has some strange side effects such as hair loss, vivd dreams, manic depression, and extreme anxiety in rare cases. It's also not recommended to be used for more than 6 months, and cost $7 per pill (take 1 pill per week). We only noticed the first two symptoms while we were travelling in SE Asia and taking mefloquine. According to our Lonely Planet guide book, Chiapas is the only area in Mexico with known chlorquine resistance. The US CDC's malaria section said that Chloroquine is good for most of Central America, but didn't go into details. Because of the mefloquine side effects, we decided to go with Chlorquine. Even though it's precription medicine, they sold it to us over the counter. Cost was 17 pesos ($2.15) for 30 150mg tablets which is a 15 week supply. It is manufactured in Mexico under direction of Winthrop of New York, and carries the same trade name of Aralen. However in Spanish, it's called Cloroquina. From now on Saturdays are our Cloroquina day. June 28, 1997 Papantlas, Mexico R80G/S 24679 R100GS 16628 We woke up at 6:00am and were on the road by 7:00am. It took us two tries to get out of town. Navigating in cities without a map is a challenge. It's compounded by the aggressive driving style here, and the sometimes missing, or often too small signs...Not to mention being slightly handicapped by being far from fluent in the language. The GPS helps us from getting completely turned around, and certainly helps when leaving town is the same way we came in. We crossed the bridge taking us out of town, and paid another 14 pesos toll each. This led on to a beautiful 4 lane highway with shoulder and grass median, the likes of which we hadn't seen since the states. The posted speed limit was 110kph (67mph), and it felt very comfortable to drive this speed as the roads are new. At this hour, there was noone on the toll road yet. We drove through some beautiful hilly country with mist off in the distance filling the dips in the far off hills adding to the scenery. The hills were covered with carefully spaced mature orange tree orchards. We drove through Poza Rica, which guide books describe as another undesirable, seedy oil town, and then headed towards Palanta which is where we intended to stay for the night. About 12km from Palanta is an archeological ruins called El Tajin (In Totanac, "The Hurricane") The guide books say that it was one of the only remainig sites of classic Veracruz culture dating back to 100 AD. The area opens up at 9:00am at which we wanted to make it there as early as possible since we were warned that it gets very hot there midday, and that early morning mist makes for nice pictures around the pyramids. We arrived there and watched the Valadores perform a religious custom that they have turned into a tourist attraction. Once, they would hunt the forests for a perfectly suitable 40 foot tree. They would chop it down and offer a turkey and eggs to the gods for doing so, then they would perform the valadores rite. It's sort of like a super slow motion four person tandem bungee jump. Four people would wrap a rope around the top of the post such that it would unwind as gravity pulled them down. The other end would be tied to their waist. A fifth person would play flute and drum music from the top of the pole as they fly through the air. The rope unwinds and the Voladores flight time lasts for a couple minutes. We didn't see any chopping of a tree, or any turkey sacrifice, instead they perform this from a 40 foot metal pole with foot rings welded onto it for easy climbing. The voladores were dressed in pseudo authentic outfits as they performed. Plastic flowers woven into there hats rather than real ones. One of them wore a wristwatch which further removed the feel of a religious ceremony being performed 1300 years ago. We hiked around the pyramids which were interesting. However, the heat/humidity and lack of breeze was more than uncomfortable. I hiked off into the dense jungle that surrounded the area along a path thinking it would take us to another part of the temple. The jungle here was thick with vines and dense foliage. Without a cleared path, a machete and a lot of patience would be a requirement to pass through here. We were warned that a large stinging poisonous centipedes can be found in this area. Also, a sign post on the way to El Tajin fron Palantas declared this area as a dengue fever zone (spread by mosquitos). Our guidebook says that the Veracruz area never thrived likely because of being such a Malaria infested area. I wore my vented long sleeve shirt and zipoff long pants, hiking boots and gaitors and brought along an an assortment of repellents (Permethrin, DEET in 100% concentration, and Avon Skin-So-Soft). The latter being the repellent of choice in the back bayous of Louisiana. My personal experience is that nothing beats 100% DEET, but then again Avon SSS doesn't remove paint and melt plastic like DEET will. I was feeling over paranoid when we arrived at El Tajin and I was one of the only people out of approximately 200 other vistors not wearing shorts and a T-shirt. With the heat, humidity and sunshine,I took off my zip off pant legs, rolled up my sleeves. My body was drenched in sweat worse than if I put my clothes on after taking a shower without having dried off. I didn't see any mosquitos in the clearing where the ruins were. The only creatures we saw were tropical birds, geccos, and brightly colored grass hoppers. However in the dense dark jungle area that surrounded the ruins things could be different. The path that led into the jungle didn't lead to another portion of the ruins like we had thought, but rather to a small clearing ( a slightly less dense jungle canopy) where some turkeys were fenced in, and a small house sat. It belonged to the old woman we ran into near where we entered into the jungle. She was sitting in the shade selling peeled oranges to El Tajin visitors. To everybody else, she called them Naranjas, but to us foreigners they were oranges. We met some travellers from St Louis, Missouri. One couple had driven in a VW camper which they were living out of. They said last night they just popped the top on the camper, and slept at a Pemex gas station. They were on a three week tour of which they were just starting their second. Another guy from St Louis had driven down in his Mazda hatchback. He was planning a similar route through Mexico, Belize and Guatamala, and didn't have any time constraints. We hadn't seen any other travellers/tourists up until El Tajin/Papantla. Papantla area is known for being one of the largest Vanilla producers in the world. At tourist shops, they sell pints of vanilla for about 12 pesos (US$1.50). They also sell vanilla beans braded into things such as a crucifix, or a scorpian, or a tiny basket. Some tourist shops sell laminated vanilla beans meant to be used as bookmarks. Back at the hotel, we took a shower, napped, and vegged in front of the TV. I Watched a czech movie called Mouth of the Vampire subtitled in Spanish to practice reading spanish. In the evening, we walked through the main park which was very much alive with people. Kids were roller blading, adults were sitting in the shade, teenagers hung in groups and talked. Vendors sold Papas Fritas (potato chips), cassette tapes, bakery goods, drinks, etc. There was a row of shoe shiners, where one could sit under a little canopy that resembled an oriental sedan and get your shoes shined. These canopies all advertised Kentucky Fried Chicken with colonel Sanders smiling face looking over the shoe shine customers. We climbed up some stairs that led to an outdoor cafe where one could sit on a balcony that overlooked the square, eat snacks and drink. We drank some Corona beers which they sold for a bargain at .50 each. We counted VW beetles that passed below. 1 out of every 4 vehicles that passed below was a Volks Wagon Beetle (sample size 64). Throughout all of Mexico that we've seen, the VW beetles are by far the most popular. We had a good view of the cathedral and Zocalo below it. The Zocalo is a large stone carved wall mural depicting a serpent, El Tajin's pyramid of the niches, voladores and an oil rig. Walking the streets we saw some traditionally dressed Totonic men walking around in their white loose shirts and white baggy pants. From our balcony seats, we saw a wedding party leave the cathedral where the bride was wearing a gold and black dress, while the groom wore a black tux. They walked behind a black Nissan that was decorated in gold flowers. June 29,1997 Veracruz, Mexico Getting out of Papantla was pretty easy, since we had accidentally discovered the way out the morning before while we were searching for a hotel. It seems the further South we drive (at least so far), the roads get better. The roads were nicely paved and in good condition. There were few vehicles all the way to Veracruz 220km ~4 hours of driving. The road initially winds through green hills, and then about after about 45km, it runs along white sand beaches where the Gulf is visible from the road. The gulf water is a beautiful clear blue/green with white sand beaches unlike around Louisiana and Texas where is was an unattractive opaquish brown/gray. The beaches are lined with several hotels and restaurants. Had we known this was so close, we probably would have driven from El Tajin to one of the many hotels here. We stopped off at an attractive looking restaurant for breakfast. I had a huevo con chorizo while Sharon had some scrambled eggs with cut up bacon mixed in. The coffee was mediocre and had an acidic taste that I associated to coffee made a day or two before. The wait staff was friendly. There was a large overweight man in his early thirties who sat by himself and ate a hardy breakfast. Midmeal, he got up and used the office phone, and so I understood him to work there. It seemd his job was to scowl at the staff and take the money. When a bill was paid, he would get up and walk to the register with the waiter and put the money in the register pulling out the change, and then go back to stuffing his face. The scenery all the way to Veracruz was beautiful. There are mountains on one side of the road, and blue/green water on the other. We didn't have much difficulty finding our way through Veracruz. I asked for directions twice, and we were able to find the city center where our guide book said there would be a couple hotels. We found one called the Hotel Colonial which seemed very nice. However when I asked the clerk she told me a price that was twice what my guide book had quoted. I later found out that the prices sometimes double during the busy season which is now. While the price was about 3-4 times what we were used to, the hotel was much nicer than the musty Horizon Hotel dump we stayed in near Brownsville Texas. Sharon was waiting outside in the heat with her riding gear on, so I took the first hotel. After we checked in, we decided to take advantage of the swimming pool this hotel had. This is a rare bonus given the budget we're working on. The pool was in doors. It was so cold that it was a slow descent into the pool was particularly difficult. I noticed that the outline of the tiles seemed to dissappear in the deep end which was only about five feet deep. The pool didn't smell of chlorine like most do that I've swam in. Through the rays of sunlight, I could see particulate matter floating in the current. We decided to keep our faces out of the water in this country known for it's water born diseases, less we get a little Montezuma revenge while cooling off. We went back up to our US$32 per night luxury room, and took a shower. As we took our shower, the bottom of the shower basin filled up with water. I noticed the bathroom floor covered with water and quickly finished up. When we got out, half of the bedroom was covered with water. Fortunately it was a tiled room, and nothing would be ruined. I got dressed, and pullled out my phrase book and dictionary and wrote down in spanish, The sewage drain of the shower doesn't work. The floor has alot of water. The television doesn't work. The music doesn't work. And then in case all else failled, I drew a picture of the shower and drain. I found pictionary skills extremely useful in crossing language barriers in SE Asia. Feeling well prepared, I went down to the clerk and began to read off my list of problems. I stumbled at the pronunciation of sewage drain which is "desague" (with umlaut over the 'u') at which the clerk interrupted me and asked if I spoke English. She read my dialogue, and told me the TV works. there is a remote on/off switch above the beds. The piped in music which seems to be a common broken feature at most of the hotels we've stayed at didn't work in any of the rooms. She gave us keys to another room and we moved our stuff. Just outside our hotel is the main plaza for Veracruz which was the happening place to be. All along one side of the plaza are outdoor cafe type bars of which we sat at one in the middle. An acoustic band that played classic mexican music was setting up 15 feet in front of us. We ordered two Dos XX lager's. Almost immediately upon sitting down, the street vendors started approaching us. Approximately one would arrive every 1-2 minutes. They would try to sell hammocks, T-shirts, balloons, flowers, peanuts, cookies, dress shirts, candy, gum, magic tricks, donuts, lottery tickets, wood carvings, musical instruments, nurses doing blood pressure checks, etc. They would make their rounds around the square about every 10 minutes, and then ask us again. By the third time, some would recognize that they've already visited us and move on. This is part of the entertainment. To expect to relax in conversation while drinking a beer at an outdoor cafe would only result in frustration. The most annoying however was a seven year old kid who had a trained pathetic look and moan. He would come by with his little box of chiclette size gum, and give a pathetic moan, not leaving until we bought some. After about 5 minutes, I think he got bored of trying and took off. I hate to encourage his pimp by paying this extortion money. The more successful the kid is, the more likely he would continue being put to the streets extorting pity money from tourists. The live band stood around the table next to us and played several tunes. They had a play list of which you could pick a song for 15 pesos. After they left and we were done drinking our beers we went to the Gran Cafe de la Parroquia where I ordered a white fish prepared Veracruz style. I couldn't find a translation for the name of the fish, and have forgotten the spanish name for it other than it starts with a 'p'. One waiter thought it was robalo which is sea bass, another told me the other thing I can't remember now. Veracruz style means it is cooked with green and red peppers, garlic, green olives, and thyme. Delicious! Sharon had shrimp in chile and garlic sauce that was loaded with Chiles. For dessert we had grilled plantanos in creme, and Flan Napolito which was the biggest and tastiest flan I've ever had. The Mexican navy has a large presence here. Sailors in uniform as well as naval military police are commonly seen on all the streets. We missed the naval academy band playing tonight on the main plaza as we ate our dinner. June 30, 1997 Verecruz Mexico I woke up and worked on journal while Sharon slept in. Later in the morning, I went out foraging for water since we had run out. The nicer hotels like this one supply large 5 gallon jugs of water in the hall for drinking, however water in third world countries I prefer to err on caution. It costs us 50 cents for a 1.5 liter jug of water which on most days will last us the day. Small price to pay compared to being bed ridden with diahrea for 5-7 days. I went downstairs to one of the restaurants in the square. They wanted 10 pesos (going rate is ~4 pesos). They wouldn't bargain so I left. The next one down didn't have 1.5 size liter bottles, so I went out looking for a "grocery store". I'm not sure what they're really called. They're more equivalent to a convenience mart (7-11 mart) and there are typically found all over town within a couple blocks of each other and carry cold drinks, and some snack food. For 4.5 pesos, I got a nice cold 1.5 liter reverse osmosis purified water. We had to be out of our hotel by 2:00pm which is a typical checkout time in Mexico. We decided to move to a hotel more in our budget. One block down we found the Hotel Oriente for half the price at 118.5 pesos per night. This includes a/c, tv, phone and full bathroom. We could care less about the tv and phone, however the a/c is really nice along the gulf with the high humidity and hot climate. We were done by 2:45, and decided to get some brunch. We went to La Paella to have a little paella which our guide book recommended. We had the comida corrida for 20 pesos each. This included a fish soup or chicken soup, a paella made with rice, chicken, clams, bacon, and green beans. The third course was a fried fish filet followed by dessert which was a slice of multilayered mocha frosted cake. While eating our lunch, two nurses walked in wearing white nurse uniforms and stethascope (sp?) around their neck offering to take people's blood pressure while they ate. A hefty woman who sat behind us as well as the man she sat with took them up on their services. All sorts of hawker/vendor/services walk around the restaurants near the square. Another man had his shoes shined while he dined by the roving shoe shiner. We stopped in at the information center located on the square. They recommended some sights to see. We went to go see the 2nd church ever in the Americas. It was established by Cortes around when he was making contact with Montazuma. It's surpsingly simple. It's a little white church at the end of a busy intersection across from a neighborhood pharmacy. There are no signs proclaiming it's ancient and special heritage, nor is there anything particularly fancy about it. It looks like a simple little neighborhood church with cheap figurines behind aluminum framed glass on the walls. We walked by the city museum however it closed at 4:00 and it already 4:30pm, so we hung out in our a/c room taking a nap and doing some reading. Around 7:00pm, we went out into the plaza, and had a few beers. We were accosted again by hawkers but managed to continually turn them away in good humor. One persistant kid wanted us to buy his pottery, when we said "no gracias", he said he would go away for 1 peso. I offered him a seat, and started practicing my spanish on him. Hearing his mother tongue mutalated was more than he could bear and he promptly took off. We bargained some peanuts down to about a third of the asking cost to go with our beers from the roaming peanut vendors. I don't think they cared for cheap tourists who bargain hard on the price of peanuts, and so those that sold us some passed us by on later rounds. There was a live band playing in the square which drew quite a crowd. From our cafe seats we were out of the crowd but could hear the music quite well. The band stopped playing, and the scene turned into a pre election party. They had two air compressor horns, and what sounded like two locomotive train engines to power them. The horns were blasted to excite the crowd, but soon after they started they had the affect of driving the crowd away because they were so loud. The party candidate slogan was "Veracruz is my family", and handing out baseball caps with the candidates name on them. After we had our fill of peanuts, we headed back over to the black tie restaurant Gran Cafe de la Parroquia that we had eaten at the night before, and ordered another huge Flan Napolita and a cappucino grande. ------ July 1, 1997 Veracruz Mexico It had rained through the night and most of the morning. We spent the morning in our room researching what we wanted to do. At Papantla, a traveller had suggested going to Xalapa (or Jalapa) to see the archeological museum. We did some research in our guide books and decided to go for it. Sounds like a nice town, and it's up in the mountains away from the tropical Gulf heat and humidity. We spent most of our time researching Belize and route through Guatamala. One of the guide books say that less than 17% of the roads in Guatamala are paved, and we're planning to enter around the height of the rainy season. Tikal, an Aztec ruin which every source says is a must see, is along one of the more difficult looking routes through Guatamala. We had some brunch at a coffee shop. I had a melted cheese and ham on a croissant shaped bun, while Sharon had a bisquit with margarine and strawberry jam. The coffee shop looked like a hip one you might see in a Chicago suburb, and every table was full. Indepencia avenue was blocked off and a crowd of people were forming along the sides. People were sitting on chairs on the sidewalks. School kids in their school uniforms from various schools were walking down to the side lines of Indepencia avenue. I would guess the crowd started forming around 10:00am. School kids started arriving around 10:40am. I asked a guy on the street what time the parade starts, and he said 11:00am. We left the coffee shop at 11:10am and there was quite a crowd. The parade had not yet started, so we decided to find a spot and watch. We stood on the street corner in the crowd. By 11:30 some of the school kid classes that had taken a break from school had to go back. The parade didn't get going until about 11:45. Some politician looking people walked down the street in the opposite direction that the parade would go. Followed by their new GM Suburban transport vehicles. We could hear the band starting up from the main plaza which was two blocks away, and then they came. It was a military parade. Preceded by the military marching band, Singing bayonet carrying soldiers marched down Indepencia avenue. Overhead flew some airplanes and a couple helicopters all in formation. The miltary parade was all over within 15 minutes. Rather than walk through the crowd, we walked away, only to find that a block down the road the parade was passing back by and the crowd was rushing over to see them pass by again. We ducked into a bakery which as we were shopping for some bakery items, turned out to be the best spot for seeing the parade, as it was elevated, and not crowded, and had a great view through the glass windows. A couple blocks down the road, we checked out the Veracruz city museum. The museum covers the history of Veracruz and the area, with town models, pictures, and newspaper clipping of it's history. Very little of the museum covers pre Cortes (1519) They have a giant Olmec head on display. Upstairs, there is a wax museum of important figures over time. In addition to Cortes, there is the Terminator (as in the movie), E.T., Laurel (of Laurel & Hardy), Aijatola Jumehni (sp?) (of Iran). Also upstairs is a room dedicated to Carnival in Veracruz. I read about the spanish american war (all in Spanish), and was surprised to find that US troops occupied Mexico city as well as blockaded Veracruz and other areas. That war wasn't covered very well in my high school. It rained most of the evening, but around 9:00pm, the rain let up enough for the fireworks. Off our hotel room balcony we could see the fire works going off near the pier. Red, Green, White, and Blue umbrellas were fired off. They didn't seem to have a grand finale, like I'm used to expecting at firework shows. Some observations made over the past couple days... Like in parts of New York liquor stores are caged up. All business is done through the gate. This is not true for the fancier ones carrying liquors and wines, but is true for most we've seen carrying the cheaper stuff. Guards and police wear bullet proof vests, and sometimes military style helmets. Banks often have a rifle carrying guard posted outside wearing a bullet proof vest. Several guards I've seen even carry shotguns. One time we were approaching a bank to access an ATM. The guard wearing a bullet proof vest and wielding a shotgun looked a little anxious as we approached since there was an armored vehicle near him which was being loaded with bags of coins. Not wanting to appear as potential bank robbers diguised as tourists, we changed our route making as much distance as possible between him and us. It's common for some closed stores to have guards posted outside. It seems accepted that no one would park their car (or motorcycle) out on the streets at night. Most hotels have guarded parking lots for their guests. And if they don't when I ask, they usually recommend a place that does making the assumption that I wouldn't consider staying there if they didn't have off street parking. Women seem less conservative in their dress often wearing tight and or revealing shirts, and sometimes short skirts. It's not uncommon to see women with 5 inch high heels walking around with fishnet stockings. Most stores close down between 1pm and 3pm. Everybody eats the largest meal of the day between then. Most restaurant offer a comida corrida which is a set menu of around 4 courses and is by far the best deal for food. live music... every city we've been to so far has had some live music playing in the evening in the main park. Bands roam many of the restaurants with their big marimba, guitar and percussion looking for people that will pay them to play music while one eats making a nice atmosphere.