A.-Jr. drove the big van today. A-Sr. and L. both were working that day so didn't come with us. I fell asleep and was woken up when we had to pull to the side of the highway for a Federal police check. They looked at his license, the rental papers for the van and then we were on our way again. Not a big deal but a little intimidating as some of the police wore machine guns.
We get to our hotel, a Fiesta Inn in Boca Del Rio, which is right over the border from Veracruz. We are too early to check in (I think it was around 11:30am and check-in was at 1 or so), but they took all of our luggage and held it and it's decided we'll change into our bathing suits and go to the pool. Well, there was no way I could change into my bathing suit in a bathroom stall because of my compression stockings and I didn't feel much like pool lounging anyway but I go out there to watch Z. It was horrible, first it was so hot and humid that it hurt, it felt like an oven to me, and to make matters worse there was some kind of liquor promotion thing going on. There were a bunch of guys and women and a bunch of loudspeakers and extremely loud music right next to the edge of the pool. I was starting to melt down when A. came over and said that the others would watch Z. and we could go inside to the bar and have a drink. (I am pretty high maintenance these days when it comes to the pool or beach. Partly because of the compression stockings, which I really shouldn't have off of me unless I am actually in the water, and partly because of my back which does not do well in those lounge chairs. Add the heat and well, it wasn't pretty).
We found a seat near the window so we could see the others but thankfully not hear much. A. ordered a beer, me a diet coke, and an order of chicken taquitos since it was lunchtime. While we were eating our room was ready so after getting Z. squared away with lunch by the pool (chicken fingers, her favorite) we got our luggage and went upstairs. Initially it was really, really hot in there and it took me an hour to figure out that the a/c was set on high fan and not on high cool. Thankfully once I changed the setting it cooled off as I had to lay on the heating pad because my back was unhappy which was making me almost as hot as I'd been outside. Our room looked out over the pool and had flimsy windows so it was almost as loud in there as it was outside by the pool.
A. put on his suit and went down to swim a bit with Z. Some of the others went to the beach but Z. wasn't interested (she loves the pool, but is really not a beach girl). I stayed in the room on the heating pad and read and dozed. After a while they both came upstairs and Z. was happy to hang out in the room for the rest of the afternoon. She was taking the writing pads from the hotels and making lists of her "to do" items (all Pokemon DS things) and then started drawing page after page of comics and drawings. We had some nuts as snacks (that we had brought with us on the plane, I'm glad I packed extra snacks this trip), read, drew and dozed till it was time to go downstairs and meet everyone to go out to dinner.
We drove through Veracruz a bit as we got to our destination, a touristy section with lots of restaurants, shops and people. There were guys with rags in their hands on bicycles that would help you find a parking place (for a tip of course, and if you wanted I guess they would wipe down your windshield) and A.-Jr. had one help us find a space. We walked from there to a big restaurant, kind of like a diner (like a diner at the shore, tiled floors and walls) called Gran Cafe de la Parroquia de la Veracruz which N. said had been around for years and years. I had basically a ham and cheese sandwich Veracruz style (not sure what made it Veracruz style but that's what it said on the menu) and A. ordered a steak. Z. ordered a "hot dog" which is all it said on the menu, figuring how bad could that be. Well, LOL, she'd never ordered a hot dog in Mexico! Z. likes her dogs plain, nothing on them, so this hot dog comes out on a flat sandwich bun so the meat is cut into strips. On the dog is lettuce, mayonnaise, ketchup and salsa! I did my best to scrape it off but she ate about half of the meat and left the bun and the rest of the hot dog on the plate. She got a vanilla ice cream for dessert which she said tasted icy (maybe it was ice milk?) but ate every last bit of it. A. and I had flan for dessert (okay, but I still think the best flan I ever had is flan that I made myself from a recipe in Diana Kennedy's Art of Mexican cooking book. It uses heavy cream instead of evaporated milk, which most recipes use, and I really prefer the cleaner flavor of the cream to the cooked flavor of the canned milk). A. also got a lechero, which some of the others ordered earlier. They would bring you a glass with some very strong coffee in the bottom. Then you are supposed to tap your spoon to your glass (similar to getting the bride and groom to kiss at a wedding) to get the attention of the waiter who had both a pot of hot coffee (which you could get him to pour some of the coffee in your glass back into if it was going to be too strong for you or ask for more if that's what you wanted) and a pot of hot milk in metal coffee pots with long spouts. When he poured the milk he would do it from high up above, and you could tell him to stop or he could just pour to the top of the glass.
Z. and I were sitting at the end of the table next to the window so could watch all that was going on outside. There were turibuses with cartoon characters giving the tours (Goofy, Scooby Doo, etc.) which Z. kept wanting me to photograph but between the glass and the fact that it was getting darker I didn't get much of anything (this was the best shot). There were people eating outside who were getting harassed fairly often by people selling things. One guy was selling a cloth version of The Last Supper (I'm not sure how it was done but I don't think it was woven). There was also some live music on the corner.
I had wanted to buy something for our next door neighbors who were watching our house and our cat Calvin so we walked down this long line of souvenir booths, but for the most part that's what it was, tacky souvenirs so we didn't get anything. I was willing to buy Z. a Veracruz key chain but she wanted me to buy her an actual starfish. I told her that I would buy her one when we went to Ocean City but not now as there was no way we were going to be able to get it home in one piece. Later on, after we were past all the shops A. says something to me about how we could have gotten a cute little Mexican handmade shirt for our neighbor's new baby. Now you say something, after we can't go back there. Oh well.
So on we walk, stopping at a shaved ice place for a couple fruity shaved ices that were passed around. I'm not sure what the flavors were (some of the fruits didn't sound like anything familiar) but they were very good. We ended up in a plaza (which reminded me of the plazas in Santa Fe and NM) where we just missed seeing a bunch of people dancing (we saw something similar in Santa Fe once), but we did get to see a bit of a clown act while we waited for N.'s nephews to go back and get the van. There were some nice vendors (jewelry, textiles, etc.) around the plaza but I was too hot (my hair was completely drenched from the heat and the humidity) and too tired at that point to focus on shopping.
As we got back to the room I realized that my throat was scratchy and I hoped that it was just from exhaustion. The bed was a bit soft so I had to sleep almost sitting up but I slept (and no dogs to wake us up in the morning!).
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