Veracruz Beach

As it was the weekend, we decided to check out the local beaches. As we don't have a car and can't easily go wherever we want, we decided to take a bus to the nearest beach to Panama City - Veracruz.

We went to the bus station and tried to figure out how the bus system works. It turns out there are no schedules for buses. When a bus comes, it waits until its filled with people and then leaves. Then comes another one and again waits until it fills up. Economically efficient, but frustrating for an time respecting European like me :) There was a 5 cent toll in order to get to the bus waiting area, but nobody was selling tickets to the bus. We figured it must be the bus driver selling the tickets, but as people just went in and sat down we were puzzled. Later we discovered that you pay when you leave the bus. Never seen such a system before. The bus was again the ancient US school bus that I had described before. No AC. The seats were quite comfortable, but a seat big enough for 2 was meant for 3 people here, so it wasn't that comfortable after all. The bus filled totally up and had a lot of people also standing up. It picked up more people in little bus stops until it got so heavy that the bus had hard time accelerating. People were actively talking to each other, yelling and shouting. For a quiet Nordic person like me this was too aggressive, but an experience to remember for sure. On our way back we had to stand up, and that was quite frustrating. There was no room to move and still people got on and off the bus and were cussing at me for taking up space. That was a true struggle for survival. The bus was also not high enough for me, so I kept hitting my head to the ceiling. As the law of physics is that the warmer air is lighter than cold air and warm air is always at the top of the room, because of my height I was sweating like a pig. Anyways, it was worth it.

We walked through the small village and observed the life there with great interest. People observed us back and we received a 'How are you?' every now and then. Some of it was sincere, some of it seemed like laughing at foreigners, but maybe I'm just paranoid and need time to get used to Latino people.

Veracruz is amazingly beautiful, surrounded by gorgeous mountains. Pretty islands near the shore. The Pacific was warm and we could swim, but the water was quite dirty there. We had seen that in some places sewage is drained to the Pacific, so that might have something to do with it. Local people also didn't care about keeping their home clean. The beach was full of trash. I even saw 2 boys running into the water while holding plastic cups with some drink in their hands - and after finishing the drinks they just threw the cups into the water. Sad.

In another part of the beach there were many beach bars and restaurants where we also had a refreshing beer. 3 beers and garlic bread cost us 2.25$. Sweet! The beach was also cleaner next to the bars and the tourists seemed to hang out there. It was quite enjoyable.

As we were having that beer, it got to us that we are in a paradise. This is the kind of a place that people dream about. And we are living here. Can't say we are not happy!

(I took the pictures when it got cloudy, but it was nice and sunny most of the time).