Rainy weekend in Xalapa, Coatepec, and Xico

Early Saturday morning I got on a bus and went to Xalapa, the capital of the neighboring state of Veracruz. I’ve been to Xalapa numerous for work, but never had a chance to see most of the sites. After dropping my stuff at the hostel, I first headed to the botanic garden. Xalapa is at a lower elevation than Puebla and has a much more tropical climate.

I’ve never seen anything like this before and I’m not sure that it shows up in the picture, but all the thin, black things are spider legs. There was a huge mass of spiders on this tree, more than I have ever seen together at any one time in my life.

After the garden, I went to a town called Xico that is famous for its mole and its July running of the bulls. Before heading into town, I decided to walk out to a nearby waterfall (Cascada de Texolo). The 2ish km walk was on a cute cobble stone road that meandered through banana trees and coffee plants.

Coffee

Cascada Texolo

I got stuck in a full on down pour walking back from the waterfall and ended up having to hide out under a small roof for an hour until it passed. Then it was into the town of Xico to buy some mole before heading to Coatepec.

Coatepec is another small town (and a Pueblo Magico) that is known for its coffee. The whole town pretty much smells like coffee and there is a roaster or a coffee store on every block.

I spent a cold Sunday morning wandering around Xalapa and visiting the anthropology museum that features sculptures, jewelry, and skulls from the various ruins throughout Veracruz.

Buses, guns, and the beach

So last Friday, on my way to meet Kurt in Papantla, I was on a nice, 1^st class bus when at about 9:00 at night, 30 min before the next stop, 2 of the passengers pulled out guns, raised them in the air and declared that this was assault and everyone needed to close the curtains and their eyes. They went through the bus for about 20 min looking for the usual, cash, cell phones, jewelry and watches and then told the driver to stop and they hopped off on the side of the highway and we continued on to Papantla. I lost some cash and a ring, but we were lucky that other than one man who got punched, no one was hurt.

But the good news is that I got to spend the rest of the weekend on the Gulf Coast in Tecolutla hanging out on the beach and eating good seafood.

Xantolo en la Huasteca

After wrapping everything up with work late on Friday night, we headed to Huejutla, hidalgo for Día de los Muertos. The area is known as the Huasteca and includes parts of the states of Veracruz, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí, and a little of Puebla. There is a very distinct culture and still many indigenous people that live in the area, which is partly why Xantolo (the name given to the festival for día de los muertos in the Huasteca) is so different from other parts of Mexico. The altars are all adorned with an arch made of marigolds and instead of the traditional looking bread (pan de muertos), the bread is made in the form of animals and people. There are also traditional dances, one where the men dress up as women and another called “Comanche” where the dancers wear wooden masks and represent the link between the living and the dead.

Altar

Bread in the form of dolls, flowers, and animals

More bread, hanging from the arch over the altar

Papel picado

Row of altars

From Huejutla, we crossed into the state of Veracruz and went to the town of Tempoal. Planning on only spending the morning there, we arrived to find that the dances and festivities were later in the day. However, the market was already busy and there were a series of altar displays. The above photos were from Tempoal. Planning on returning to Tempoal in the afternoon for the dances (and they were shooting a TV special), we headed to Tantoyuca, another small Veracruzana town with one of the best markets I have seen. The zocalo of Tantoyuca was also filled with altars and people in wooden masks.

On the bus back to Tempoal you could see preparations for the night´s events on the dirt roads to the smaller towns. People had their bundles of marigolds and the men were already in their dresses and masks for the dances.

After waiting through the TV introduction for the night´s actual events (there is a huge push to get more national recognition for Xantolo and it is virtually unknown to international tourists, we were the only gringos in the area), some of the most amazing dances I have seen in Mexico began. All the dances were set to a trio playing Huapongo music (you can hear it in the video clip). There were a mix of men, women, and children, all dancing in hand-craved wooden masks with amazing outfits. Each colonia (neightborhood) in Tempoal had a dance group representing them and each seemed to get better and better as the night went on. The governor even stopped by for a while which was cause to set off the end of the preformance fireworks in the middle of the event.