Puebla to Vera Cruz
November 2, 2009

We left on a sunny day today from Puebla today. Certainly better than last night when we were soaked after our scooter ride. That was memorable.
The ride after getting onto the cuota (toll road) was pretty uneventful. Getting onto the cuota only took two or three stops for directions even with the map.
We needed to come from an altitude of over 8,000 ft to sea level. As you can imagine this meant we had to go downhill. Why should we be surprised at this?
At first the mountains were really enormous (imagine the Rocky Mtns) with steep gorges and signs for snow. The views were really spectacular and the foliage was all as green as could be. The road after the first 40 miles was great and although it was a steep grade (probably 7% it was all downhill and 4 lane cuota with no sharp turns. We did pass through 3-4 tunnels and this made life interesting but easy to drive.
After the section of high mountains we seemed to be on a plateau of rather flat land. At first I imagined that this was the coastal plain. Not so, after 20-30 miles we reached the coastal mountains and although we did not have to climb these but merely go downhill they were there. Next the coastal plain with the vegetation turning to sugar cane and more jungle looking from the plateau eastward.
Upon reaching Vera Cruz again the inevitable stopping and asking directions and construction so that where we were supposed to drive was blocked off and we found ourselves in a detour. This is always fun when the traffic is heavy and you just know you don’t want to go to the Centro (center of the city which always has narrow crowded streets) and it looks like that is the inevitable way you are going. Finally stopped and asked the local traffic cops and they drew me a map of where I was to go and points along the way to check that I was going in the right direction.
When we got onto the coastal plain I noticed that the wind had steadily picked up and toward Vera Cruz it was actually getting somewhat difficult to keep in a single lane with the RV. Now we are in a campground south of the city just past the town of Boca del Rio. It is on the Golf of Mexico so that we have an ocean view but the wind is probably 40 mph. So far no one is here and there is water turned on but no electricity. I hope that we do not have a hurricane coming as we have not had internet for about a week or more to check the weather reports.
Well a walk down to the beach was nice and now it is probably siesta time.