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.
