Treasures in Tajin

We had ourselves a little adventure last week.

On Wednesday, Oct. 7, we traveled with our neighbors, the Misbach's, for about 130 miles south to Poza Rica in the state of Veracruz. It took us about 4 ½ hours which should tell you how the roads were. They can best be described by the words: Potholes and Topes (Topes are GIGANTIC speed bumps). But hey, the countryside was beautiful and lush and we traveled through the areas where they grow oranges and bananas, etc. Poza Rica is a good-sized, very bustling city because of the booming oil business there. Anyway, when we got there, we learned that I had goofed up and made our hotel reservations for Thursday and not for Wednesday. The Poza Rica Inn was all booked up. The Fiesta Inn was all booked up, another Poza Rica Inn had a suite that we could all share. Not acceptable. No one brought PJ's. Three snorers in the bunch. We kept looking. The Emerald beach motels were full. Oh no. We found another hotel employee who was nicer and more helpful. We got reservations at the Hotel San Francisco. Definitely a one star hotel. But hey, so what if there were no railings on our second story platforms which led to our rooms, the rooms weren't that bad (TV & Air Conditioning)and the price was wonderful. We finished up the rest of the KFC we brought, for dinner. (We saw the kitchen at the hotel restaurant)

The next morning, we were off by 8:00 for Tajin. It is near the city Papantla and is a very amazing archealogical site from a civilization of Totonacs dated around 300 a.d. To 1200 a.d. For unknown reasons it was abandoned by its people, then it became overgrown by jungle so much that even the early Spanish explorers never found it. That is why it is so well preserved. There's a market place, ceremonial buildings, pyramid structures, and ball courts--imagine a game somewhat like volleyball where you only use your knees, hips or shoulders to move the ball and the ball weighs about 8 lbs, and it's not supposed to touch the ground. Now imagine the winning team captain allowed to be beheaded for a human sacrifice to the Gods. Sorry I was side tracked there. There's the palaces and places where the merchants and the leaders lived, and the places where the lower class lived. Many places are still being excavated. Tajin means city or place of THUNDER. And they have a lot of it there. We felt very fortunate to be there during good weather. There were hardly any crowds. We hired an guide who spoke English which was great. Perfecto.

Here's dad at one of the ball courts.

This is the market place.

This was Elder Misbach's 80th birthday. He said it was his best ever.

After touring the area, we decided to do some business in the nearby marketplace putting the extra $$$ we saved from the change in hotels to good use. This area is known for its vanilla and its embroidered shirts and dresses. I love them all. We were off for Tampico by 1:30 p.m. Arriving home just as it was getting dark --exhausted but having had a great time! It was a nice diversion. We want to visit it again.

< This is my Tajin skirt and top.