This week’s travel dream: Living la vida Veracruz

While most travelers to Mexico’s Gulf Coast steer toward the beaches of Cancún or Cozumel, I headed to the city of Veracruz seeking a richer cultural experience, said Isabella Tree in Condé Nast Traveler. The historic port can rightfully be called “the ground zero” of modern North America because the 1519 landing of the Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés led to Europe’s first permanent foothold on the continent. Even then, this coast was home to an intriguing mix of cultures—four indigenous populations that would leave monuments to their civilizations scattered about the jungles. Veracruz became a melting pot of old and new that today feels “refreshingly, movingly Mexican.” I used it as a base for exploring the whole region.

Just north of Veracruz lie “some of Mexico’s most spectacular archaeological sites.” At El Tajín, the northernmost stop on my tour, I was able to watch a re-enactment of a Totonac ritual to summon the rain god, Tlaloc. At Quiahuiztlan, I climbed ancient temples and wandered ghostly ball courts. And at the anthropological museum in Xalapa, I was greeted at the entrance by the “aptly named Cabeza Colossal, a 20-ton Olmec stone head.” Each stop, it seemed, “provided me with a rare glimpse into a civilization that has all but disappeared from modern knowledge.”

When I returned to Veracruz, I was drawn to the Zócalo, its main plaza, by the sound of joyful music. While the ornate merchants’ houses along the plaza’s edges reminded me of Europe, marimba players and mariachi bands filled the cafes. Often joining the chorus are salsa, reggae, and zapateado, making Veracruz sound as if it embraced “every musical influence to ever let down anchor in the port.” Yet as dusk falls, the Zócalo becomes oddly quiet—until dozens more musicians mount a stage. Danzón, a dance from Cuba, turns out to be part of a daily ritual in the square. One evening, as the music began, the weight of all the history I had absorbed lifted from me as I threw “myself into the jostling throng of gyrating bodies”—all celebrating the spirit of modern Veracruz.

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