El Tajin

The next morning we got up early and went out to catch the second class bus to El Tajin, some ruins near Papantla. It was already heating up and we wanted to get there before it was too unbearable.

The second class bus was really bumpy, and the seats were about 5" too close for my legs to fit comfortably, but I've come to accept this as a normal part of traveling through Mexico. We weren't sure where to get off, but some people gave us directions and made sure we got off at the appropriate time.

We got there shortly after opening time, and I immediately noticed that the entire parking lot and entry to the ruins were filled with vendors hawking their wares...most were selling similar items and I wondered how they make any money if they all sell the same thing!

We headed past the vendors and up to the museum toward the ruins, bought our tickets and headed in. Sierra was not too excited about seeing the ruins and was being difficult and whiny, while the sun was blazing hotter and hotter by the minute. El Tajin has essentially no shade, so I was motivated to get a move on to see it. We approached the first set of ruins, some pyramids. They were really neat and it is just amazing to see what people did thousands of years ago with their bare hands and rock tools.

Sierra was dragging her feet and complaining about how bored she was at every step of the way and I was sooooo annoyed! I didn't want to just leave her to catch up, though, because we were the only people there and I didn't feel safe doing this. So, I pushed her on and she complained louder. Can you feel the love? We were both getting hot and oh, so cranky.

We pushed on to see the ball court, a lovely place where the ancient civilizations played a game similar to basketball...except they used the head of the tribe leader they had just conquered!! There were carvings in the rock and they were fascinating (to me anyway) to look at. We continued on to the largest pyramid and noted that there were 52 niches (thus it's name...Pyramid of the Niches...clever, don't you think?), representing the 52 weeks of their year and planting cycle. The ability of the people to make bricks and mortar was cool, and their craft was not only enduring, but beautiful. I thought my dad would have been interested to look at the building craftsmanship and took plenty of pictures to show him.

Si and I were getting madder and madder at each other. Why didn't I just give it up?? Who knows...I guess we're both pretty stubborn. Besides, I'd paid $3.00 to get in to see these ruins and it was a LEARNING OPPORTUNITY, darn it!! We were getting EDUCATED! Now, pay attention and LIKE IT! Here, a month or so later, it seems pretty ridiculous...but I guess that's the way it is sometimes.

We headed down the path to another part, but didn't even really look at it and started heading back. We took a different path and ended up going up the back side of one of the pyramids, getting a view over the ruins. It would have been pretty, but we were too mad to appreciate it. We headed down and decided to leave...finally!

On the way out I saw a woman cleaning the cracks of one of the pyramids and stopped to talk to her a bit. She was doing preservation work and looked like a regular archeologist. Si and I left and kept walking in angry silence, with a few mean and angry words scattered here and there. We were truly the picture of mother-daughter togetherness, I tell ya! (then i saw a bug. it was carrying a piece of poop!! that was from sierra!!)

And then, yes...Sierra saw a bug carrying a peice of poop. It was lovely!! It did serve to break the chain of our anger, however, and we watched in fascination while this bug took it's little peice of poop and rolled it along toward its' home. We remembered reading about "Dung Beetles" before, and had even seen some replications of them at Disneyland's "Bugs Life" show. We laughed at the bug, and thought it was pretty gross, but in an interesting way.

We kept on walking, and were still a bit annoyed with each other when a man asked if we wanted our picture taken. I said to Sierra..."come on, let's get our picture taken...pretend like we don't hate each other!" Sierra said she still liked me even though we were mad at each other...which I thought was really sweet and all my anger melted right then and there. We ended up leaving and laughing with our arms around each other.

We were hungry and went to where they had a cafeteria, but it was closed. We went out to the vendors and found a place to eat and got some taquitos. They were so good we got another order of them. I tried on a few shirts, but didn't find anything I liked so we went to the bus stop.

We weren't sure which bus to take, but a guy selling fruit juices helped us out. About 30 buses going the wrong direction came by before one going the right way came. We hopped on and were off, back to Papantla.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out at the Plaza and looking around town. I think it would be neat to go back another time when the Vanilla is ripening to smell the town and see the vanilla ripened on the vine and see the people harvesting it...and also to buy some fresh vanilla beans!!