Xalapa
I arrived in Xalapa happy to be somewhere where it wasn't ridiculously hot and I was not disappointed. I arrived in the early afternoon after an exhausting 22 hour bus adventure accross half of Mexico. Thankfully Anilu managed to keep me awake for long enough to see part of the downtown area. Xalapa (pronounced Halapa) is one of the prettiest cities I have been in, modern, relatively clean and very green. The University of Veracruz area was especially nice and reminded me a lot of Uni of Queensland. That night was a quiet cafe rendezvous with some of Anilu's friends but on the way we ran into a street performance of Veracruzan dancing.
On Tuesday we went on a road trip to Veracruz Port with Christy (one of Anilu's friends). A lot of the town was not memorable but the port area and main road that runs past it was quite nice and is obviously a bit of a tourist trap. Before that though we went to the Aquarium and were amazed with all the magical creatures of the deep, and stuff. Also in Veracruz we visited the San Juan Ulua prison which is a very old Spanish fort which dates back to very early in Mexico's history. It had some very nice views of the city too. That night I was snuck into a graduation party for some of the students from U of Veracruz, it was a lot of fun and the alcohol flowed as freely as the sweat (more fans please!).
Whitewater rafting!!! The next day I got up much to early and went whitewater rafting with two Danish guys that Anilu had met. We went to an area just 45 minutes outside Xalapa and got psyched up for a big day. Luckily our tour guides were a group of very cool guys who basically let us do whatever as long as it was safe. A series of capsizings and shenanigans later we made it down the river, a group of very tired guys. The setting of the river was amazing with lots of beautiful rainforest and mountains but unfortunately like a lot of the most beautiful areas of Mexico rubbish from tourists was all too present. On Wednesday night I had a late dinner with Anilu and friends, including churros and hot chocolate with corn, before heading out to a club for some dancing and drinking (at 20 pesos who wouldn't drink rum and coke?).
I caught a midday bus to Mexico City today and arrived at my hotel in record time thanks to the super duper metro system. My hotel is actually rather plush this time and for only a small bit more than some ofhte dumps I have stayed in so far. Tomorrow I hope to conquer the Anthropology museum because I imagine that I have a heavy weekend of partying ahead.
On Tuesday we went on a road trip to Veracruz Port with Christy (one of Anilu's friends). A lot of the town was not memorable but the port area and main road that runs past it was quite nice and is obviously a bit of a tourist trap. Before that though we went to the Aquarium and were amazed with all the magical creatures of the deep, and stuff. Also in Veracruz we visited the San Juan Ulua prison which is a very old Spanish fort which dates back to very early in Mexico's history. It had some very nice views of the city too. That night I was snuck into a graduation party for some of the students from U of Veracruz, it was a lot of fun and the alcohol flowed as freely as the sweat (more fans please!).
Whitewater rafting!!! The next day I got up much to early and went whitewater rafting with two Danish guys that Anilu had met. We went to an area just 45 minutes outside Xalapa and got psyched up for a big day. Luckily our tour guides were a group of very cool guys who basically let us do whatever as long as it was safe. A series of capsizings and shenanigans later we made it down the river, a group of very tired guys. The setting of the river was amazing with lots of beautiful rainforest and mountains but unfortunately like a lot of the most beautiful areas of Mexico rubbish from tourists was all too present. On Wednesday night I had a late dinner with Anilu and friends, including churros and hot chocolate with corn, before heading out to a club for some dancing and drinking (at 20 pesos who wouldn't drink rum and coke?).
I caught a midday bus to Mexico City today and arrived at my hotel in record time thanks to the super duper metro system. My hotel is actually rather plush this time and for only a small bit more than some ofhte dumps I have stayed in so far. Tomorrow I hope to conquer the Anthropology museum because I imagine that I have a heavy weekend of partying ahead.
posted by denny at 4:43 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home