We had a great weekend in Veracruz. Betty was very pleased with her result in the Sprint Triathlon: 750 metres swim, 20 K bike and 5 K run - in 35 degrees c! She finished in 1hr 50 mins which was a few minutes faster than in her last event. She was particularly chuffed with her swimming time - 17 mins - because she's had no opportunity to train in the sea. It's a difficult event not least because of the heat and humidity. There have been drownings in the past but the sea part was extremely well monitored. Lots of canoes, boats and divers and they swam in a sort of semi circle so that they were exiting the water in a separate part of the beach. There were 3,000 competitors between the Olympic and Sprint events I think and they started in age groups (different coloured swim caps). I always find the logistics of these things fascinating. They all wore an ankle bracelet with a chip (?) in it which was activated/deactivated by passing over a mat at the beginning/end of each discipline. We saw one guy trying to cheat: there were a few people who had had to drop out of the swim for whatever reason and they were brought back to the beach, just where we were standing, by one of the boats. This chubby guy - about my age: off the boat, turned right towards the finish place, back into the water and the swimmers, swam a few metres and out as though he had done it all! I wonder did their system catch him out? Hmmm.
Anyway, despite lots of people telling us not to go, we saw no trouble apart from a fair bit of police activity outside one of the Casinos, just opposite the hotel, on Saturday night. But you know things are a bit iffy when your son says to you, as you are driving along the Boulevard in Boca del Rio gazing out at the Gulf of Mexico shimmering under a blue, blue sky with pelicans flying overhead: "what would you do if you heard gunfire Mum?"
With my years of training in Norn Ireland I would have been down in the footwell of that Jeep pdq. Thank goodness there was no need.
The Hotel Gran Diligencias was good - great location overlooking the Zocalo with its marimbas and mariachis - with a lovely outdoor pool on the first floor with a great view of the centre of Veracruz. Watched 'El Danzon' on Friday night, but not too close in case I got asked to dance! I think it has Cuban origins and was created at the end of the 19th century. Very slow and intricate: a bygone era still being enacted. The ladies were so elegant with their dresses and fans and the gentlemen all dressed in white wearing hats.
Betty found a lovely restaurant in the brand new Hotel Emporio on the Malecon (seafront). I had fish stuffed with seafood which is a Veracruzana speciality. Very tasty it was too. We breakfasted in Sanbornes (the hotel was looking for US$13 a person for brekkie so we declined) which is a chain of very traditional Mexican restauarants/stores, usually housed in historic buildings (e.g.House of Tiles in D.F.) The waitresses all wear traditional dress and they serve, well, traditional food strangely enough :D
Off to Xalapa on Friday - next post after that x
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