Destination...the city of Carmen

Veracruz was a great city...we definitely needed a break, a nice hotel and a fun evening. The minute we hit town we found the downtown Holiday Inn in Veracruz. It was a very old colonial-style hotel...tall ceilings, huge staircase, outdoor court with a swimming pool and small lawn for relaxing. The wood work and tile work in this place was beautiful.
From the hotel we walked to a downtown square...we heard a live band. It was the typical Saturday night celebration with couples doing traditional dancing in the square. The square was lined with many outdoor restaurants. While we sat and had dinner there were other bands that were playing...most of them traveling through the crowd working for tips. We walked around a few blocks and found a band that was playing Cuban style music...there were people enjoying the evening everywhere we went. Like I said...just another typical Saturday night in Mexico.
Yesterday (Sunday) we left Veracruz and drove to Cuidad del Carmen.
In Mexico there are "libre" roads which are free, but go through all the little towns and can be very slow. Between major cities there are some "couta" roads. Couta roads are toll roads and are the equilivant of U.S. 4 lane freeways. The roads are usually in very good condition and there is much less traffic. We took the couta roads from Veracruz, to Villahermosa in the state of Tabasco and almost to the state of Campeche. The scenery was so interesting, nothing like what I would expect...such lush vegetation everywhere, huge trees...very hilly country, great valleys and lots of rivers to cross. Mexico has built some beautiful bridges!! As we got closer to Tabasco there were many more tropical trees...banana and pinapple plantations.
From there we were back on the two lane roads...through the little towns, lots of topes (speedbumps), traffic. To add to the stress we were running low on gas with no PeMex stations in site for a couple of hours! We arrived in Cuidad del Carmen on fumes and then had another struggle to find a hotel. We need to get better at that! We drove around for quite a while...one way streets, construction zones, dead ends...finally Gigi saw the green Holiday Inn sign!!!
Last night there was a huge tropical storm that blew in sometime after midnight. Incredible lightning and thunder...sounded like it was going off right on top of our heads. It rained so hard that the balcony outside our room flooded and water was coming in our room through the sliding patio door!!
Today looks like a beautiful sunshiny day. Perfect for our last driving day...tonight we should reach our destination. We have driven over 2800 miles already and today we will be on the road another 6-7 hours. Our final leg will take us through the historic pirate city of Campeche...I'm looking forward to seeing that and maybe taking a break to have lunch there! From there we will enter the state of Yucatan and drive to the capital of Merida which is 45 minutes from my new home.