April 22 - Xalapa to Veracruz - 90 Miles

This was the day for one of the primary goals of the trip -- to see the huge carved stone heads done by the Olmec natives of the Gulf of Mexico -  Veracruz area.

We visited the Museum of Anthropology in Xalapa, and while we intended to spend just an hour or so and go on, we spent about three hours because the exhibit was so interesting.  This museum contained stone sculpture from 1500 BC to 1500 AD, along with continual upgrade in the art of those people, until they were doing marvelous ceramic figures.  

The people were first Olmecs, then Toltecs, Tolmecs, and Hauxmecs, and maybe a few other “mecs and tecs” thrown in.  3,000 years of art of the people living in the Veracruz part of Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico.  It was a wonderful display, a must when visiting the Gulf part of Mexico.

Then I had planned to have our trip to Veracruz be just a 70-mile day.  That worked out fine, and we arrived in steaming Veracruz all sweaty -- 97 degrees and humid.  It was finally time to have all of our clothes washed, and luckily there was a "lavandaria" (washeteria) near our hotel, where we could just take the clothes and pick them the next morning.

Alex wanted to go to the beach, just to say that he had been to the beach on the Gulf of Mexico, so we took a ride in one of the little wild Mexican taxies.  We survived, and it was fun.

This was a most satisfying day, with the museum being the focal point.

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