Carnaval en Veracruz!

Last weekend we went to Veracruz for Carnaval! Selene, Kim, Kristina and I left on a bus just after class on Thursday. The bus ride was very scenic, winding through mountains and valleys to reach sea level in Veracruz. It took about 5 hours in the bus, however I have heard in a car it is usually no more than a 3 hour drive. When we arrived we took a taxi to Hotel Nautico where we stayed for the next three nights. It was a quaint little hotel “resort” (as the sign mentions), but really there was nothing special about it. Our room was nice enough with plenty of room for the four of us. After checking in and putting down our bags we headed out to get some food. We stopped at a little restaurant very near by and had tamales, tostados and empenadas. After dinner we decided to check out the nightlife of Veracruz. We asked the front deskman for recommendations on where to go and he mentioned a place called Casona. So we caught a cab and headed down to the waterfront to go to the club. The taxi driver was very talkative and had lots of advice on how to be safe. He told us all about how dangerous it is to walk around at night and that when in clubs you should always keep your hand over the top of your drink so that no one can slip you drugs. He was nice enough but his redundant recommendations got a bit dull after a while. When we arrived at the club it didn’t look as if anything was going on. There was a group of young looking people like ourselves crowded outside, so we decided our best bet was to follow suit. We waited around for a while until some club officials came out and started admitting people. They only admitted people in small groups in small intervals. It was so frustrating, they just kept choosing people from the crowd and letting them push past everyone. People kept shoving ahead to get in, but there didn’t seem to be a method to which people they let in. Eventually we got in and were shown to a table, but since we didn’t plan on buying a whole bottle to drink, they told us we couldn’t have the table after all. Around 12:30 a band started playing cover songs of popular Mexican favorites. They were pretty good. We did our best to find a place to dance, but we always seemed to end up in the aisle-way where everyone wanted to get through. Our obvious “gringa” appearance was not ignored for long, and we soon had waves of creepy old guys asking us to dance. We did our best to ignore or deter their gropes and attention, but it seems we are unable to blend in no matter where we go. All in all we had a great time dancing, but I just wish we could dance without getting accosted for being white girls.
In the morning we walked towards the Zocalo to see what was going on. It was very windy and overcast without a sign of sun. We stopped for breakfast in a café and had Spanish eggs and lechero coffee. Veracruz is famous because it was established long ago as a port town for imports and exports. Thus coffee seems to be a stable good in most restaurants. The lecheros are sort of like a latte, except they serve you with just a shot of espresso in a tall glass cup first, and then a separate waiter comes over with a cast iron pot and pours the milk into the glass from high above the cup. They are very delicious, and fun to watch the art of pouring the milk. In the zocalo we explored the market a bit and walked along the boardwalk near the port. The ocean isn’t very pretty in Veracruz and smells like boats and fish. In the centro there was a huge stage set up with bleachers and lights for the Carnaval. Nothing much was going on during the day, but we were told there would be a big concert that night. We went back to our hotel to rest a little and ended up taking a nap. When we got up we made our way back to the centro. First however we stopped in at a famous café called La Parroquia, which is famous for its lecheros. We all had torta sandwiches and lecheros, while listening to the live band. They had a harpist and some marimbas, and a girl dressed in traditional garb doing a tap dance to the beat of the music. In the centro this time there were crowds of people. Street cart vendors were selling mustaches, fake eyelashes, wigs, masks and hotcakes. The bleachers in the center were already full of people who had gotten there early to get seats. We met up with some of our other friends from the Ibero who are intercambio students from other places. Justin and Casey are both from Boston College and then their friend Dwayne from Holland. We decided against trying to get into the center of things and instead we walked around to take in the crazy atmosphere. Justin and Casey bought mustaches, which was funny. So many people were dressed up in crazy outfits and there were lots of fabulously garbed Mexican transvestites. We waited around for a bit in the center to see the crowning of the queen of Carnaval. But we were so far away because of all the people that we really didn’t see much. Later we decided to grab a table and just hang out. It was so amusing just to sit and watch the craziness unfold around us. Every bar and street stand was selling huge jugs of beer for about 20 pesos (about 1 dollar). They also had beer mixed with chile, which sounds terrible to me. They started playing some of my favorite salsa songs, and I danced for a bit, which was really fun. Except then we attracted more unwanted attention. It was a bit better tonight however because we had Dwayne and Justin with us. Dwayne is over six feet tall and was probably the only black man in all of Veracruz, so his presence kept most people from bothering us. However he got lots of interest and questions, as everyone wanted to know where he was from and seemed to believe he was some sort of famous basketball or soccer player. Later in the night we went to a bar after things started winding down in the streets (this being at about 3:30 am). Everything was going fine until Selene used the bathroom and the toilet started overflowing. It really wasn’t her fault, but the owner of the bar came over and told her she had to pay to have it fixed. We decided it was best to leave before things got out of hand, so we all left the bar. Except I guess somehow we got split up as we were leaving. The bar owner wouldn’t let Selene leave because he said she had purposely broke the toilet and that she needed to pay 1000 pesos to have it fixed. Then the police showed up and continued to insist that she needed to pay. Not only did she not have 1000 pesos, it was absolutely ridiculous to accuse her of breaking it intentionally. Needless to say a lot of arguing ensued, which in the payment of 540 pesos before we were finally able to leave. Thus we did not make it back to our hotel until about 5 am.
We slept in until almost 1 the next day after our long escapade from the night before. We were all exhausted and famished. We went to a corner Torta shop themed with Pirates and had the best chicken milanesa tortas ever. They were only 15 pesos each for an amazing toasted sandwich with tomato, avocado, beans and breaded chicken on a crispy roll. We hung out most of the afternoon up until the parade. We walked to the boardwalk to try and get good seats to see the parade pass. It was kind of a shady deal to get seats in the bleachers that lined both sides of the streets. I’m not sure who we paid, but he showed us to our designated seats and drew smiley faces on our hands to prove we had paid. We were very early, but there was no lack of entertainment. Thousands of people were already filing into the bleachers on both sides, and vendors pushed their carts up and down the street in the middle. A large group of very young looking boys occupied the three rows of seats above our row, and began talking about us as soon as we sat down. After a few minutes they tapped Kim and I on the shoulder and started bombarding us with questions. None of them looked to be over the age of 15, but one boy showed us his ID and he was 18. It was still pretty funny though. They had so many questions, and would tap us again on the shoulder if we turned away to watch the street. One boy took special interest in Kim and would not leave her alone. When the parade started everyone crowded back into the bleachers. The parade consisted of tons of crazy adorned floats with dancing ladies and blaring music. Groups of dancing troops and police brigades paraded in between what must have been close to 50 different decorated floats. We were getting really hungry after the parade wound down, so we made our way back out to the street. Unfortunately our newly made friends (including Kim’s new admirer) were not so easily deterred. They followed us out as we tried to find some food. He forgot her name as soon as we had left, yet no more than 15 minutes later was trying to convince her that he could move to Puebla to be near her. She finally got him to leave by giving him a fake telephone number. Talk about perseverance. Anyway we walked back to the hotel. The others made plans to meet up with Justin, Dwayne and Casey afterward, but I was so exhausted I went to bed. They went back to the centro for a while, but apparently nothing new was going on and they came back not too long after.
The next morning we got up at 8 to get ready to catch our bus back to Puebla. Grabbed some snacks for the road and headed out. The bus ride was about the same length as before, lasting about 5 hours. We reached Puebla around 4 in the afternoon greeted by the sunshine that Veracruz had most defiantly lacked. Ah, good to be back again.