2021.12.29-2022.1.8 Orizaba, Veracruz - Wintering in Mexico, part 15

12/29, Wednesday. My AU bus arrived at its terminal in Orizaba ~12:30pm. It's a 20 minute walk to my AirBnb. A pleasant walk: over a river (I was surprised to see some Orstrich here. More about it later.), then into the proper downtown, passing Palacio de Hierro (Iron Palace, a Gustave Eiffel marvel). I arrived a couple of minutes before my scrum meeting at 11am PST. The check-in is from 1pm. So I was late a little bit. The girl, Kia who received me, sprayed some disinfecting mist over me, my bags and my shoes.

Later this afternoon I heard talking. An older Irish gentleman checked in, and talked a lot with Kia. When I was done cooking dinner, he came to the kitchen with some takeout. He heated his take-outin the microwave, and we ate together. My first meal with anyone since I arrived. He said he really liked Tehuacan. I made a note to visit it, because it's quite close. He's traveling around Mexico looking for a place to live in winter. Like me, coming from a rainy chilly place, he doesn't like heat, so didn't even go to Yucatan Peninsular.

12/30, Thursday. Up at 5am, in order to watch sunrise on top of the funicular (on Cerro del Borrego). I budgeted 30 minutes to walk to the southern trailhead (Pte 5 + Sur 18), and 1 hour to get up (~960'). Sunrise was at ~7am. It turns out, it's a sub-20 minute walk and a 30 min hike. There was light at the trailhead. It has proper signs and benches to sit. There are lamps. I brought headlamps. There was a girl ahead of me, with no lights at all. All stairs the first 2/5, wide and easy. About 1/3 is a mix of root+rock+concrete. Headlamp is useful here, because not all lights were on. The very top is again paved, not steep. Overall, about a mile. I could reach this Orizaba sign in 27-28 minutes. A good work-out, good sweat. At the viewpoint, I asked the people there (about 4-5) about climbing Pico de Orizaba. One lady gave me a name and phone number to call.
After the sun rose, I walked down. Now I was able to see resting pullouts along the way, a small prayer statue, and actually see the trailhead. There and then, I decided to stay put in Orizaba, and hike here every day.

I took a different route coming back. First I visited the city hall (Palacio Municipal). I was surprised that I was let in at 7:40am. Very stately. Nice and big courtyard. You can see the viewpoint at the top of the funicular in this photo, marked by a red circle.

The museums on the 2nd floor of the Iron Palace open at 9am everyday. They are very small, just a room or two. All free. I was doused with some antibacterial spray, and then was let upstairs. One on history, one on beer (Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma was founded in Orizaba), one on soccer, one on science. The lower level is stores and cafes. Nice garden outside.

The next door of the Iron Palace is the city market (a city block), but mostly selling souvenirs. Very disappointing. The cathedral is also next door. The park (Parque Castillo) south of the cathedral was lined with ~20 shoeshine booths. Not sure why so many.

I contacted the owner of the Airbnb to reserve the following week. Also contacted two persons regarding to climbing Pico de Orizaba.

12/31, Friday. Headed out early to Ojo de Agua, a water park about 2 miles to the east. On the way, stopped first at La Concordia, a church with a nice facade. The art museum is next door, but too early (~7:30am). Then the Pantheon (municiple cemetary, completely walled off), another one with pretty facade. In the cool morning, the walk was pleasant enough (not on my way back). Can see the snowcap of Pico de Orizaba here and there. The park is quite nice. No doors, so open 24/7. Benches, swings, bathroom, food vendors. There were a few swimmers. I couldn't see where the water came from. It's quite clean. I didn't bring swimsuit, as it was a bit chilly in the morning. Afternoon is a better time to visit here. But I don't have afternoons available.

500 Estalones is my next destination (I should have reversed my visit of these two). About 1.5 mile south. Depending on where you start/end the counting, I counted 279 or 286 steps.
At the bottom, you can walk over the dam bridge to the other side of river Manzinga. There's a gravel road along the river. I returned the same way.

The last this morning is Poliforum Mier y Pesado. I really like this place. Large groomed lawns, fountain, view of Pico de Orizaba, handsome building with stately room and long archways. It was free to walk around. Downstairs are cafes, upstairs have exhibitions, and maybe meeting rooms. Today I saw traditional dresses, miniature buildings, large paper bugs.

Bought some food from Chedraui next door before going back for my day of work. Found Kia, and paid my weekly fare for the following week. Got a message from Ricardo Blanco about climbing. He has a group of 4 people going 1/1-3. Summit day is 1/3 (slightly windy, and some percipitation in the afternoon). US$390, including everything (not clear what this everything is). They would be going from the north (via glacier, a little easier). 1 guide per 2 clients. I would be the 5th person if I went. For some reason, maybe I questioned why not summitting on Sunday (perfect weather), he didn't send me the final info.

After dinner, I went out for New Year's Eve. Firecrackers exploded here and there, but I didn't see fireworks. Nice lights, but not overly festical. My Irish neighbor was checking out the next morning. I packed for my weekend outing, leaving my carry-on suitcase behind. After some research, I decided to go towards the mountain, and see if I can find a way to the north trailhead of Pico de Orizaba, or the small village of Nuevo Jacal.

2022/1/1-2. Overnight trip to Coscomatepec.

1/3, Monday. It's still a day-off. Day trip to Nogales.

1/4, Tuesday. Hiked up Cerro Borrego 8:55-9:22am. Now in day light, I found more structures on the hill. A very nice 2-story cabin with tables and chairs. Framed historical photos of the city and the trail. Here's a photo of a motorcycle race in 1960s. There's a watch tower (torre) with circular 53 steps. Totally worthwhile to get up, for a good view to the west and Pico de Orizaba. I continued the trail northward. Did a half traverse and came down at Pte 24. No stairs here. Met only 2 hikers and a couple of dogs. A bit slippery due to the drizzle of yesterday, and I was in sandals (yes, not smart). Need better shoes here.

Walked to the tigers and hippos along River Orizaba. Then to the market of San Juan de los Cerritos. Outside, a long line of people waiting for the vaccine. This is a real market with many fruit and vegetable vendors. I bought broccoli, papaya, potatoes, tomatoes, parsley, spinach, cactus. Very content. On my way home, bought some tamales from a street vendor. They are sweet. Not sure what's the filling.

1/5, Wednesday. Woke up late. Visited museums of the legends and religion. Spent more time in the former, because I was trying to read some of the legends with the aide of the dictionary on my phone. Visited 2 travel agencies.

Hiked up Cerro Borrego for sunset today. Walked up the tower for photos. More people waited for sunset at the zipline station (I never saw the zipline running).

1/6, Thursday. Woke up a little too late for sunrise. Hiked up to Cerro Borrego 7:52-8:17am. Afterwards, walked to AU terminal inquiring bus to Tehuacán. Then visited wild pigs and ostrich along the river.

Municipal Library is a plain modern building. Pretty small. Almost no readers here. One room houses "museum of books". The employee has to open the door to let me in. Not really worth coming here.

Visited Art Museum. 2 rooms of contemporary paintings. 3 rooms closed. Last room is dedicated to Diego Rivera's paintings. A guard opened and closed the door of each room. Nice building.

Museum of hospitality. Small but cute.

Walked by the Adelas terminal, took a photo of the schedule for my weekend. Went to a Chinese buffet near Chedraui for dinner. Saw this Christmas tree of beer.

Bought an ADO ticket from Tehuacan to Puebla, and reserved hotels for Tehuacan and Puebla. My next state is Puebla.

1/7, Friday. Up Cerro Borrego for sunrise: 6:29-7am. No view. Overcast.

Visited municipal archive, to check out another small museum on Orizaba history. They let me in a couple of minutes before the official openning at 8am. A lady escorted me through all the rooms explaining everything. I prefer to read the notes which I can use my dictionary. At the end of her tour, I was allowed to wonder around. One thing seems odd to me: she said the city boomed with fabric manufacturing using cotton. I don't see any cotton fields, ever. This place has a nice courtyard, with the view of the dome of Rectoría de Nuestra Señora del Carmen.

On the way back, saw a parking lot adertising rate at 12/hr, 700/month.

1/8, Saturday. Day trip to Zongolica in the mountains.
Packing. Heading to the state of Puebla tomorrow.

A little confession to make: prior to this trip, I had never heard of the town of Orizaba. What lured me here, is the possibility of climbing Pico de Orizaba. At 5,636 m (18,491 ft), this peak is the highest in Mexico, and 3rd highest in N. America. It's not techinically difficult. Now Orizaba has become my favorite town in Mexico. At elevation 1200m (~4200'), the climate is pleasant (still a bit too warm for me). It's also a bit wetter and greener than other major Mexican towns. I stayed here for 1.5 weeks.

This also concludes my visit in the state of Veracruz, and here's the map of my journey in the state.

2021.12.28-29 Córdoba, Veracruz - Wintering in Mexico, part 14

12/28, Tuesday. I arrived at Córdoba just before sunset, much later than I initially planned. I only planned for one night here, because of its historical significance. Wasn't sure what else to see. I stayed at Hotel Virreynal, right by the main plaza. It is very pretty. Large room. But wifi is bad. Checked out the plaza and downtown as sun was setting. Cordoba is only at 800m above sea level, still quite hot. This week it seems to be hot everywhere.

12/29, Wednesday. Checked out the plaque of independence of Mexico. In this building, on August 24, 1821, Treaty of Córdoba was signed, which established the independence of Mexican Empire. Now a cafe.

Then, I visited the palacio municipal. No one was watching the gate at this early hour (~7:40am). The cleaning lady saw me taking photos of the murals, waved me into the chamber where meetings are held. She also opened the door to a French balcony so I could take a picture of the plaza below. So nice.

Not sure what to see. I walked to a couple of small parks south of downtown, none worth visiting. On the way back, saw people waiting for buses on Ave 11. Saw an AU bus. Asked one lady who was boarding the bus. Yes, it goes to Orizaba. It was about 8:15am. So I figured there maybe a bus every hour or half an hour from the main terminal. I couldn't find any information online, all tells me to go to the main ADO terminal, which is 1.5 mile east. Yes, for direct bus, you have to. But Walking 10 minutes here is much easier from downtown.

Google map says that the cane museum is open at 9, I walked there, because it was too early (took a bus back). Pleasant walk. 1.2 miles, passing a bridge, some sports stadiums and a nice park. Well, the museum wasn't open at 9 for sure, and didn't look like it would open today at all. I walked around and checked out the Hacienda San Francisco next door, from the outside. Google says it opens at 10:01, which didn't. Then I went to that little park. Locals came here to job and excercise. Other than walking paths and excercise machines, there's a tiny creek with bamboo all over (and a fair amount of trash).

At about 11:15. I caught an AU bus to Tehuacan (at the time, I had never heard of this town) at the main road between Calle 2 and 4. 28 peso to Orizaba, 15 miles. Can use AhorroBus card. However the driver didn't want to open the luggage bin. So I had to drag my suitcase through the bus. It was almost full, and soon, standing room only. Here you can catch all westbound buses. Another frequent bus I saw was to Huatusco.

There's a toll bridge east of Fortín de las Flores. Traffic packed for over a mile. At the junction with hwy-143, right in front of the tollbooth, many people got off and more got on. Now ~15 standing. The bus was making a long detour north of the city. I got a bit anxious. Asked the guy sitting next to me. We conversed in English. He used to teach English. He visited Atlanta once for a friend's wedding. He also learned French, Italian and German. He told me that the bus is going to a different terminal than ADO. Stupid me, the AU terminal is marked on Google map. It's about 0.8 miles walking to my AirBnb. The walk goes through some main attractions in town, quite pleasant.

2021.12.27-28 José Cardel, Veracruz - Wintering in Mexico, part 13

12/27, Monday (still a day-off). Lazy morning. My eye is better. Still did not dare to put on contacts. Tried to catch a combi but ended walking 1.5 miles to terminal CAXA. Cardel: 89 peso TRV bus. Platform 21 Leaves right away. Mine was at 11:30. Terminal CAXA has sinks to wash hands, with paper towel. The city of Cardel is hot, no merit for a visit. But I stayed for one night as a base for 2 places.

In Cadel, as my bus turned into its terminal (different from ADO terminal), I saw a bus signed for Cempoala. Walked back to where it was. Checked in Hotel Cadel right there. It's a real dump.
On the corner of Calle Azueta + Juan Martinez. The Cempoala bus leaves every half an hour. 14 peso. This bus is in the worst shape I've seen during this trip. The floor has holes, covered by cardboard or rubber mat. I managed to sit on a seat where my feet could stick outside of the bus. I got off before it turned into the town center. The ruin was closed, despite of the daily opening on its official website. A mother and two teeagers were eating ice cream hiding in the shade while waiting for the father to get their car. It was hot. Apparently this family came on the wrong information as I did. A guy by the entrance said it would open tomorrow. Oh, well, good that I decided to stay in Cardel for the night. Took the same bus on its way back. The driver said that there is another pyramid in town that I could see, right there. I craned my neck toward where he was pointing at, couldn't see anything.

Back in Cardel, got on the next TRV bus to Veracruz. The bus runs every 20-30 minutes. I asked to disembark at La Antigua, the very first Spanish city in the new world. 6 miles, 20 peso. The bus actually took to the local road to the town of La Antigua, the first real Spanish town in Latin America. I should have gotten off one block earlier to take a photo of La Emita del Rosaria, the first church in America. La Casa de Cortés is open. It seems to be open 24/7. On Google map, it's listed as Primer Aduana de Hernán Cortés. It is right next to the main square, with an uninteresting church. The long roots draping over broken walls are very photogenic. There was a wedding party there then. Lots of fancy dresses, a professional photographer with tripod and light reflectors. I took a photo of this gal. Later, her family asked for the photo. It took a few trials, eventually, we were able to pair our phones, and transfer the photo via bluetooth (slow). The compond is not big, easy to walk around, socking in the mood of a by-gone era. There's a canon by the broken house, not sure if that's original.

Then I walked towards the river (Rio La Antigua), picked the street with the most souvenir booths. They led me to a large ceiba tree surrounded by a chain, and shortly thereafter a suspension bridge, with tour boats below. Quite nice. A guy was spraying water on the gravel from a hose to cool down the air.

Walked to the highway, via E.C. La Antigua, crossed the divided highway just north of the tollbooth (caseta). The traffic of this busy highway is slow right here to cross safely. In just a few minutes, I got on an AU bus back to Cardel. Standing room only. Also 20 peso.

12/28, Tuesday. I took today off work. Took the 9am bus to Cempoala again, same driver as yesterday. He remembered me, and reminded me again about the other pyramid when I got off the bus. Cempoala was the capital of Totonacapan. The nearby Actopan River (the bus goes over) provided stones and fish for this capital. Totonacs forged alliance with Cordes at Quiahuiztlan (~30Km north), which caused Aztec's downfall, and the take of Tenochtitlan (present-day Mexico City). However, the most important archeology site of Totonacapan is El Tajín, which, unfortunately, was closed during the pandemic. The entrance of Cempoala is 60 peso. I was allowed in before the official opening time of 10am. Later, I saw one group of 4 with a guide. Cempoala is also the site of battle of Cempoala (1920/5/27) between two fractions of conquistadors (Cortés vs Narvarez. not big. The ground was recently mowed. Orderly planted palm trees. Stray dogs. One followed and barked at me. Two main structures you cannot climb. No tall pyramids here. The oddity is the round kiva-looking structure. For half an hour, you can walk around everything here. This ruin was only open 4 days a week.

Walked a bit to the town. But didn't want to miss the bus. Just 1 block south of the turn (where I waited for the return bus), I did find the the pyramid that the bus driver was talking about. It's not tall. There's a fence around it.

Got on a return bus around 10:25. Back in Cardel at 10:45. Walked to the ADO station asking about buses to Cordoba. There's one at 11:10, then at 1pm. $324. I quickly checked out of my hotel, and came back to the ticket booth. The 11:10 bus was full now. So I bought a ticket to Veracruz at 11:30, $104, hoping to catch an earlier bus to Cordoba. That was a mistake. True, there are more buses to Cordoba, but also more people. I arrived at Veracruz just before 12:30, but the 1pm, 2pm buses were both sold out. I got on a Oaxaca bus at 2:45pm. $220. I paid with visa. The lady asked for my passport, not only wrote its number, also the immigratuon card (a small white card they gave me at the airport) number. Only 4 seats left. AU terminal is just behind ADO's, but it only has a schedule at 3:15pm. 200 perso. The only silver lining of this wasteful transfer is that I was able to see the Olmec head as the bus left Veracruz. I was lucky to have picked a window seat on the right side.