Claire, Marilyn, and I met up with our tour group around 11 pm en el centro on Friday. Luckily we had signed up for the tour rather late, so we were in the back of the bus. This meant that we each got two seats to ourselves. I was exhausted from walking around Tequisquiapan and Bernal all day, plus I hadn’t had a full nights sleep in a few days, so I thought I’d fall asleep no problem. Wrong. I barely slept the entire way there. Even if I had been tired, the bus was freezing and it was impossible to get comfortable. We had about 3 bathroom breaks over the course of the night, and we arrived in Xico, Veracruz around 8 in the morning. There wasn’t much open, so our bus drove us down to the Cascada Texolco. The road down there was surrounded by green and it was beautiful. The waterfall was gorgeous. I guess there was an option to get closer to it, but it was raining pretty hard so no one did.
Then we drove back up to the town and were free to walk around. The tour organizer guy gave us an itinerary that had some of the highlights of each town. We found a bakery and bought some bread for breakfast and walked around the church and stuff. We ended up at the end of a road that lead down to a different little waterfall, so that was neat.
We walked around some little Artesanía shops and wandered back to the bus. We then drove to the next little town, Coatepec. Here we really saw some fog. We wandered around a market and stuff, and eventually found a little restaurant to eat at. We probably stayed there an hour and a half because we were too tired to walk around and it was now raining harder. We stopped at a few shops and eventually got back on the bus. We drove a little bit to a coffee place…it’s the coffee capital of Mexico. We learned some stuff about coffee and had a little sample and got a tour. I then ate some coffee marshmallows, and they were delicious. Then we drove to Xalapa (pronounced ha-lah-puh. It can also be spelled with a J. This is fun, because then the people from Jalapa are called Jalapenos.), which is the capital of Veracruz. Everyone got off the bus and got the key to their hotel room. We were pretty exhausted and it was already around 7, so we just hung out. Around 10 when we decided to go to bed, a band started playing, and it sounded like they were RIGHT outside our window, making it difficult to get to sleep.
Sunday we woke up and got ready and ate in the hotel restaurant. It was 70 pesos for the buffet, which is expensive for food in Mexico, but it was $5.40 in US dollars, and I think I ate enough for 3 people, so I don’t feel too bad about it. We got on the bus and drove a ways to a museum – Ex Hacienda el Lencero. “The house, which takes its name from Juan Lencero, a soldier of Hernán Cortés, was the property of Antonio López de Santa Anna in the 19th century. Today, it is a museum which displays furniture and items dating from this period. It also has a chapel and spacious gardens surrounding the property which include a sculpture by Gabriela Mistral who spent time there while in exile.” It didn’t sound too exciting, but the grounds were GORGEOUS. The furniture and everything in the rooms was also absolutely amazing. It was a huge house.
Then we drove back to the Museum of Anthropologia of Xalapa. It was pretty huge, and it had some cool stuff.
We got back to the hotel around 3, so we walked around the city. It’s supposed to be famous for flowers and stuff, and it also has the most parks of any city in Mexico, but you couldn’t see much because of the fog. We walked all over and eventually found a place to eat, which was difficult because a lot of places were closed. We went to Parque Juarez, this huge park, as well as a few other random places. We started to head back to the hotel when it started to rain again.
A view from Parque Juarez
Monday we woke up and walked around to find some breakfast. Then realized that our hotel was right next to Parque Juarez. We didn’t figure this out the day before because of all of the fog. We walked all over again to find a fruit stand to have some food for the road. We packed up our stuff and checked out of the hotel, and made our way up through the mountains (such incredible views...)to Naolinco. It was a little town, and their claim to fame is leather and leather products, mainly shoes. We saw a sign for a waterfall, so that was the first place we went. We walked down a little trail and could hear the water, but could only see fog. We asked someone and they told us that there was a lookout nearby, and the fog would lift in a few minutes. Sure enough, within the time it took us to ask, we could see part of the waterfall. We went to the lookout, and the view was pretty much the best thing I’ve ever seen. There were actually two waterfalls. The fog moved back in within a few minutes of us seeing it though, so our timing was perfect.
la miradora
ahhh so pretty
We walked back to the “centro” of the town, and there was literally store after store after store after store of leather cowboy boots and other shoes. We stopped in a park and bought some dulces. We walked around for another hour or so and then realized we were supposed to be back on the bus in a half hour and we hadn’t eaten. We inhaled some food quickly and made it back to the bus just as it started to pour. I was planning on accomplishing a lot of reading on the way back, but unfortunately they played three movies in a row. We arrived back in Querétaro around 11:30 and caught a cab home. My family was already at the new house, so that’s where I went. It was a long, rainy, foggy weekend, but I think it was worth it.
Here are the links to my facebook albums:
Ruta de la Niebla
Ruta de la Niebla 2
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