Saturday, 24 Dec. Chilly cloudy morn. Dan was hoping to go to Orizaba for the second time. By the time breakfast was finished, the sun was out and the weather looked perfect for the journey. We walked a block and a half to catch the bus. Should perhaps have waited for the next bus, as this one had hard no-cushion seats. Carmen decided on this trip that when we have visitors, we will take them on this trip. It will surely give them a thrill. The fast ride around the curves of this hilly ride down across the green Metlac canyon and up the other side are quite exciting, as we said before. As we passed thru Cuautlapan, we saw off to the south a factory with tall smoke stacks. Some puffing dark grey and some white smoke. Turned out to be the El Carmen sugar refinery (
ingenio azucarero), the destination for all the trucks we have been seeing, loaded with the harvest from the cane fields. Weird for Carmen to be around all these places with her name.
As we got into Orizaba, we debated getting off the bus earlier than last time, and taking a different bus into the town center. Nope, we decided to continue on the same route which again dropped us off at it's journeys end in the middle of the city, about ten blocks from downtown, across from the huge stadium. This time we walked along a different selection of streets, to learn more about the city. Once we hit the central downtown area, the streets were mobbed with pedestrians and vehicles. Not a fun town to drive in, as the streets are narrow. But for a pedestrian the very clean streets are great, with smooth sidewalks and helpful whistle-toting traffic controlmen to smooth the flow and allow walkers to cross safely. We saw many city signs saying the pedestrians came first. We walked thru the central market which took a whole city block. Then across it to the
Palacio de Hierro (Palace of Steel), the former city hall which was assembled here from 600 tons of Belgian steel. There were musician groups playing beautiful marimba music with percussion & trumpet. We sat in the park at the palace and enjoyed the music, people and beauty of this place.
Orizaba's downtown is truly beautiful. The palace, sheathed and partitioned with distinctive steel plates, houses the tourist office, a restaurant and a number of free museums. First we visited the museum of Mexican presidents, containing flags, photos & history of each leader since the first. Dan snapped images of the display of the president who had held his daughter, Harmony, when she was 10 days old, at Los Pinos, the presidential residence at Chapultepec in Mexico City. (Just think, she could have had dual Mexican-US citizenship, had things played out just a little differently. But that's another story.) Then an interactive science museum, a beer museum, and a geology museum. There is also a football museum, this last which we didn't enter.
We got maps of the area and the riverwalk, which is something the city is very proud of. We found the nearest stairway down to the walk, which follows the course of the
Rio Orizaba (the city name derives from the nahuatl word
Ahuizapan -- place of happiness). Along this walk are various clustered areas of cages, a zoo of local wildlife species. This riverwalk also seems to be a lovers lane, as we passed several couples discreetly embracing under the trees. There is a waterfall and seemingly ancient buildings towering above the edge of the watercourse. Most picturesque. We crossed the river on a swaying bridge, Carmen first, vocally castigating Dan behind her, thinking he was not walking gently behind her, as the bridge swayed a bit more than she liked. Turned out to be a fellow behind him.
What a sight to see. In a street corner shop open onto the street, was a large bar with hundreds of bottles of liquor lined up high, and mixed drinks being whipped up to order. No tables. Women generally don't go into most
cantinas here, however nothing stopped them from lining up along with the dozens of men at this open hard liquor bar. Now just why would so many people need a drink during a gorgeous day.
From here we hoped to find an Arabian restaurant that we saw last time we were in town. Even knowing how we seem to misplace buildings, we had good faith in our directional ability today. So we walked thru Parque Castillo at city center then east along Avenida Colón. And we got lucky and there was Restaurante Biblos. It was having a buffet this day. And what a buffet we had! Every single item was just plain fantastic to our taste buds! We were the first to dine this afternoon, and while eating, several parties came in, walked past our table and very enthusiastically wished us
Buen Provecho! Needless to say, we left the restaurant very satisfied, terribly overstuffed, and all we had was one of each thing. We definitely will be returning. The family was from Lebanon, and the special Christmas Eve day buffet was a great introduction to all sorts of good things from their ethnic cooking traditions.
Now we had to find a bus back home. We decided to walk back to the street where we got off the bus. Was a good decision. After getting on the bus, we found where it then went to, so that we can get onto it closer to downtown next time. This bus - perhaps some of the gears went out on it while going up the last hill near Fortín. It chugged and sputtered it's way up the hill. We smartly got out where we thought the bus turned from the direction of our motel, only to discover that the bus then turned towards our motel. We could have walked fewer blocks. But in all, what a marvelous day this turned out to be.
Sunday, 25 Dec. Cooler this day. Plus much dense fog. We laid in bed late, and watched a movie on TV, passing up a dubbed version of George C Scott playing Ebeneezer Scrooge. Finally, after a leisurely brunch, we walked up to the park. Stood in front of the church with some of the overflow crowd long enough for a Christmas blessing. The fog gave a certain beauty to all. We were very damp when we returned, as the fog was actually
chipichipi, a light sprinkley type rain common to cloud forest areas such as this. Coming in after the walk, our faces were moist and hair wet on top, with the whole effect like having come inside after having walked through a light snow storm, except we were not chilled, as the temperature was in the lower 60's. How good it felt!
Our chuckle of the day turned out to be our main meal. We decided not to go out and cope with the wet weather some more, just to get to the restaurant for the Sunday paella, since we were still being overly satisfied with yesterdays buffet dinner. So what did we dine on? In contrast to our grand meal the day before, we dined on left over thick homemade soup made with our lamb bones, rice and cabbage, along with a bolillo. For dessert, one of those Noir extra dark chocolates, from Italy (silky smooth fondant with bits of carmelized cacao nibs)--well worth waiting for. Such a Xmas meal we have never dined on. Next came a long Spanish lesson for the both of us. Carmen's pronunciation kept Dan on his toes, but she is doing great at discerning the meaning of lots of vocabulary.. Now a bit of leisure reading-----------
