Xalapa

 I showed a little bit of Xalapa in my U is for Uphill post. Xalapa is a very old city located in the misty mountains, the capital of the state of Veracruz. This is my first time visiting. I am staying 4 months and hope to return next year for 5 months. 

It is a city for summer. Even March was too cold for me. April to September are perfect months to stay in Xalapa. This city has many beautiful parks. It's a great place for birdwatchers. So far, I have only gone to the parks within walking distance. This is part of the playground at a downtown park. 

Xalapa is located about fifty miles from Orizaba Peak, the highest volcano in North America at over 18,000 feet. It is the second highest volcanic peak in the world, after Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa. I took this photo from my kitchen window one unusually cloudless morning.

Xalapa is the site of the annual Orchard Festival, located in a little town on the outskirts of the city. It is always held end of March, early April as this is when the climate is most conducive for these sensitive flowers. I have no idea what these orchids are called, but they are just a few of the beautiful flowers we saw on display during the festival.

Okay, now I am saving the best for last. Xalapa has an archeological museum where $4.00 gets you a ticket to walk around viewing original giant Olmec heads and other artifacts from the Olmec period, which is the earliest known Mesoamerican civilization. It began around 1200 BC and disappeared around 400 BC for unknown reasons.

My daughter and I spent two hours here. Below are a few of our photos of these magnificent archeological wonders.

This final statue shows a man, likely a father holding his dead son. The man's mouth is open, which signifies a warrior, and probably the son killed during a battle or war. The face is so expressive, showing grief, captured in a sculpture of stone. It's worth a trip to Xalapa just to see the archeologic museum.

Why Mexico?

 I'm using W for Why Mexico simply because no other W word flew into my head. To write a full post on Why Mexico seems repetitive, since pretty much every post during this Challenge is about Why Mexico. 

Weather. Proximity to the US. Economy. More relaxed lifestyle. Friendly people. The opportunity to gain more fluency in a second language. Physical and Emotional health benefits.

Therefore, I will use this post to answer any questions anyone has for me about Why Mexico? Or anything else you might want to ask after following my April posts.

Meanwhile, here are a few more photos of Mexico specifically, since it's the country (outside of my home country) where I have spent the most time.

 

Tropical fruit with taste and price far superior to US prices. I can hardly tolerate bananas at the American supermarket after eating the ones here. American bananas taste like a storeroom.

The best diet cola you will ever taste, sold only in Mexico. Pepsi Kick. And I spend a lot of time outdoors walking. Being outside in the fresh air makes me happy.

Ruins of a once great people who covered the land. I love ruins. In another life, I would have been an archeologist.

And there is this. It's a fairly simple process to obtain residency in Mexico. The green card.

And last but not least.....

                                                    STREET TACOS!!

Any questions?

Veracruz

In 2020, I scheduled a 3-month trip to Veracruz for January through March. We all know what happened in 2020. By March, not knowing how bad this would be and worrying about airport crowds and flights getting cancelled, I took advantage of Delta's Covid-era offer to cancel or change flights without penalty. 

Besides, from the minute I walked into my Airbnb, I felt at home and never wanted to leave. Staying past March sounded great to me.

Maybe it was this chair that looked so much like Bruce's office chair. I never sat in it. I sat on the bed and looked at it, sometimes talking to it (him.) It was not even two years since he had passed away, and I still had not figured out how to handle the grieving process.

Or this beautiful site as I walked toward the sea. I truly felt like I was someplace else, and I really, really wanted to be someplace else. Far away from hospitals and cold air-conditioning and cold winters and everything since 2018 that had chilled me to the bone. I had come to Veracruz to get warm.

And Veracruz, a tropical climate along the Gulf of Mexico, is indeed warm. The city center itself is beautiful with striking architecture, walkable streets, lovely parks.

From my Airbnb, all of this was within easy walking distance. Sunny skies and high 70s in January and February. A nice beach, interesting scenery, an Airbnb at $300 a month where they cleaned twice a week, changing towels and bedding. Is it any wonder I didn't want to leave all this and go back to the Covid mess in the US? 

Covid did come to Mexico later, a few months behind America, but by then we had more information and clarification about it. It was not as frightening as it had been at first. This is how my three-month stay in Veracruz turned into a year, then another year, then finding a rental home and signing a three-year contract. 

I furnished it myself and I loved that house, in the same neighborhood as my Airbnb.

Course I was happiest when it was filled with my people who came to visit.

Even when they came in July and got completely knocked out by the heat and humidity.

Peter is ready for the beach! As in any house, it is the ones you love who come and make it a home.

Until one thing led to another, and it came time to leave this house and this city and go back to Utah. I sold my furniture to local people. Apparently, good, used furniture for sale is difficult to find in Mexico.

I don't regret leaving that rental home. It was time. I will still return to Veracruz, though, and stay at the Airbnb that first welcomed me and my broken heart in 2020.

Uphill

The city where I'm currently living, Xalapa, the capitol city of the state of Veracruz, is in a mountainous area. Streets are on an incline, some quite steep. Walking up those hills is good exercise, good for the lungs, but oh my goodness, I do get tired of going uphill.

This is the view from a park in the city center. I wonder if this might be the highest elevation in the city, explaining why they chose this location for the official government buildings. My apartment is about six blocks from here, uphill of course.

This uphill walk is near one of the mercados I shop at. This view is from the top of the walkway, followed by the view from the bottom. 

My camera view gave me nine stairs out of the fourteen in total. It's quite a climb.

Even going to church is an uphill climb. Whew!

I walked up this street today to get to a tailor shop, where I had a new zipper put in a jacket. It may not look so steep from this view, but I promise it's on an incline all the way from the bottom of the street to the top, where I stood to take the picture. Five blocks uphill.

Another crazy incline street. You can tell what I'm talking about by the line of that house. 

Can you imagine living down there and having to walk up those stairs every day to get to the main street at the top? I have not gone down there, although I've thought about it, just to see what's at the bottom. But then I'd have to climb back up.

Tacos, Tamales, Tortas, and Tortillas

 The Mexican taco is a corn tortilla folded over meat--generally shredded pork or beef-- and topped with a variety of salsas and pico de gallo, with cut limes and chopped cilantro to finish off the garnish. There is no cheese.

Street tacos are better than restaurant tacos, everybody knows that. This taco stand was directly across the street from my house in Veracruz. Such a favorite with guests! Their hours were from about 9 to 4. The one pictured below was a few blocks away and opened from 7 - 11 pm. So day or night, we could get amazing street tacos.

Now about tamales. At the bakery down the street, a lady would bring her pot and set up outside, selling tamales. People lined up to buy them. I don't have a photo, but they were the traditional Mexican tamale wrapped in corn husks. 

The photo below is of tamales sold in a mercado in Arequipa, Peru. People lined up for these, too. They look different from Mexican tamales but are just as good. I ate a lot of tamales in Peru.

A torta was one of my husband's favorite street foods. I wish I had a picture of him enjoying a large torta. These are basically a sandwich made of a thick bread filled with meat and cheese, then grilled. 

Did you know that what we call tortilla chips in America are called nachos in Mexico? If you order a plate of nachos at a restaurant, they'll bring you plain chips with salsa on the side.

The humble corn tortilla is so ubiquitous to Mexican cuisine, every meal comes with a basket of freshly made tortillas wrapped in a towel to keep them warm. 

When I traveled to South America, I missed the tortillas. In Chile, bread and empanadas rule, with not a tortilla to be seen. In Peru, it is potatoes. Oh, so many potatoes. And soup. No bread on the table like in Chile, which is a shame. Bread would be perfect with all that soup.

I think the tortillas in Guatemala are better than those in Mexico. They are handmade, without the large automatic tortilla mill used in Mexico, and there's something about the masa dough they use that has a distinctive flavor not found anywhere else.  This lady takes a hunk of dough, patting it and flattening it as she flips it back and forth in her hands. Then cooks it on the cast iron grill. They smell so good cooking and taste even better.

In Guatemala, the basket of unlimited tortillas comes with every meal, just as it does in Mexico.

This is an order of rabbit at a street fair in Mexico. To eat this meal, you pull off some meat, fold it into a tortilla, add your salsa and lime as you wish, and use it to help scoop up the rice and beans. That's a taco. That's a meal.

One more important point about tortillas. When a flour tortilla is used, it's not a taco. It is a burrito.

Sharks

 I lived along the Gulf coast for several years, in a city with amazing seafood and a renowned aquarium. Fishing is an industry there, not just for sport. More about the city is coming on Letter V day. 

Because of the Gulf and the aquarium, images of sharks were common around the beach area. I wish I had more in my photo collection from Veracruz, or El Puerto as it is commonly known. These are pictures of the sharks I took in the aquarium.

As you walk through, you can go under the tanks and see all kinds of fish varieties swimming above you. My personal favorite is the shark, of course.

You can also see sharks as you walk next to the tanks. These two guys are taking a rest from all that swimming for company.

The aquarium draws tourism to the city. It's one of the best I've seen. At the entrance, a sculpture of dolphins in motion greets people.

At my favorite neighborhood restaurant, La Palapa Perea, the shark is front and center. Can you see it?

And another one painted on the wall. This guy looks like Bruce from Finding Nemo.

The menu at this restaurant is amazing. When I have guests visiting, it's a big favorite. Breakfast, lunch or dinner--it's all delicious at the Shark Restaurant, as my young grandson named it.