We had been told that Papantla would be warmer than Xalapa, and boy were they right! It was downright HOT. We were told they were in the middle of a heatwave...it must have been over 100 degrees every day we were there. I was really wishing for some cooler clothes.
Papantla is on a hill, with the Plaza at the top of the hill and everything else going down from there...think San Francisco type hills...our hotel was a few blocks down from the Plaza.
Our first night there, we went up to the Plaza to watch the people and get an ice cream. As it
happened, they were having a celebration of the Toltec people, the indigenous indians of the people...and also a celebration of grandparents. We watched some Toltec dancing, and then went up to a little restaurant for a soda and watched the people below.The dancing was really neat...there were several men in red pants and white shirts with these really colorful hats on their heads...the hats were like feathers sticking up. They were on a wooden platform and used their feet to make the rythym. A man at the side played a little flute instrument with a small drum attached and played traditional songs to which the men danced.
Later that night, several artists sang and a bunch of children recited poems and letters in celebration of their grandparents...it was really sweet. While we were watching them, a Toltec man named Guadencio approached me and asked where we were from. He was impressed with my Spanish and wanted to show off his English. He was really nice and he ended up hanging out with us most of the time we were there and acting as our informal guide.
Guadencio told us that he had been born in El Tajin, the Toltec ruins close to Papantla. Apparently back in the 60's the government had allowed about 50 Toltec families to live there at the ruins. We told Guadencio that we were interested in seeing some Vanilla Plantations as well as the El Tajin ruins.
The next morning we went up to the Plaza for some breakfast and had the most fan
tastic vanilla shake ever. You can't imagine how good it was...so rich and creamy and the vanilla was the most fantastic flavor. While we were sitting there, we were able to watch a really incredible thing...the Voldadores.The Voldadores are amazing...these 5 men in beautiful Toltec costumes climb this humongous pole...it's over 100 feet tall...and all get on this tiny little platform at the top. The platform is really a tiny little spot for 1 guy to stand, and a wooden square shaped frame for the other four. One guy with the little flute/drum contraption gets on the little tiny
platform, a hundred feet in the air and dances and plays his flute up there. The other four take ropes and wind them around the pole, one on each corner of the square. The flute guy plays to each direction for several minutes, and when he stops, all four of the other guys fall backwards, head first. Their ropes unwind as they fly around the pole, until they ultimately reach the bottom. It's a pretty amazing sight.As we were watching this, Guadencio showed up and visited with us. Sierra showed him how to play Dominoes and we spent a nice morning relaxing. Afterward, we went to the market to look at the vanilla items and bought some room spray and some real vanilla for cooking. They had little animal and other types of figurines made out of vanilla pods, vanilla infused coffee...really, anything you can think of, they've done it with vanilla. It was starting to boil and Sierra and I were tired, so we decided to go back to the hotel and rest for awhile.
Later that afternoon we met back up with Guadencio and went to check out a vanilla plantation. Sierra was more interested in the well on the property than the vanilla, but we did find out some really interesting things about vanilla. The plant grows like a bean plant, attaching itself to whatever is there to support it. It doesn't like a lot of sun, so they plant it in among trees to provide shade. It is fertilized by the vanilla bee. When the orchid is blooming, it blooms for only 6 hours and if it doesn't get fertilized in this time period, there will be no vanilla. Of course, not every orchid comes into bloom at the same time and fertilization takes place over about a month or so. Still, I think it is amazing that the flower has a 6 hour window of opportunity! They have observed the bees and now are able to manually fertilize the orchids, but it is a very time consuming activity.
The vanilla then grows out of the orchid and is a long, bean-like shape. It is initially green, and eventually becomes the black pod we are accustumed to seeing. It is very delicate and the smallest thing will ruin the crop. The beans ripen in in January and February and are harvested in March and April. I understand that during the time of harvest the entire town smells of vanilla...this is from the processing of the bean which entails boiling it to get the chemicals to come out properly.After this we started walking back to town to go the Plaza and let Sierra play. On the way, we stumbled across a new restaurant that had just opened. It was beautiful, but totally empty! It apparently was built primarily for American and European travelers. We went in and visited with the wait staff a bit and they showed us all sorts of pictures of the stars they had all over their walls. We got some sodas and were on our way. At the Plaza Sierra met up with some other kids and ended up playing with them for awhile. There were different types of squirrels...black and red and big and small...and they kept coming down the trees to get the peanuts that were being sold, which was fun to watch. We finally decided to head home so we could get up early in the morning to head to El Tajin.
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