We rested yesterday so that today we could go north to see the Totonic ruins of El Tajin. they lie in a jungle setting about 25 miles or so north of our campground...near the town of Papantla. It is the vanilla growing center of Mexico. The site is an archaeological gem with beautifully restored buildings and pyramids. It was looted long ago until the government proclaimed it a protected site and is now continuing to uncover and rebuild the crumbling walls. It was occupied for many hundreds of years and flourished long after Palenque and Teotehuacan fell. It had some 25, 000 inhabitants at it's zenith. Many of the buildings depict days of the calendar with their cymbalism. The people were given names that corresponded to their birthday. They were prone to human sacrifice.
We are pulling out in the morning headed for Veracruz and the cuota route to the Yucatan. We have learned that PaaMul is filling up and our travel mates want to be sure we get a spot before the place is filled. Most of the people going through here are headed for that park. We will probably dry camp on the way down. We are about 800 miles from the Caribbean coast.
I now have a Picasa Web page where I am uploading more pictures. go to
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