El Tajín

Our last BCA trip was a journey down the coast of the state of Veracruz. We left around noon (a few later hours than planned) on Saturday. The final destination for the day was a beach called la Costa Esmeralda, but we made several stops along the way to break up the 4 or 5 hour ride. The first was in the little city of La Antigua to see the oldest church in Mexico and the “Casa de Cortés,” which Rob told us was never actually Cortés’ house, but ruins from his era. We also stopped at the Fortaleza de Cortés, which is mostly just lines of brick and cement that can be imagined into five-hundred year old walls. That night at the beach we made hobos (just like RMMC) and s’mores over our beach-side campfire.

Sunday morning, we went to El Tajín, the most impressive archeological site in the state. I’m just about over ruins, but the architecture was really different from any of the other sites I’ve been to this semester. The nearest town to the place is Papantla, where are the famous Voladores. These are the guys who swing around, upside-down, from an extremely high pole. There was a performance in El Tajín, and we drove by another group (using a much taller pole) when we went to Papantla for comida.

This seemed to be the hottest day I’ve experienced in Mexico. It may have only felt that way because there was no shade at the archeology site and I didn’t bring a hat or enough water. Whatever the case was, I was happy to sit in the air conditioned Suburban for the rest of the day.