Pico de Orizaba

This shot of the monster was actually taken from the small town of Naolinco, which lies a short distance to the north of Xalapa. I estimate Pico would be at least 70 miles distant from where this was taken.

The following post displays a hybrid mashup of a Google satellite picture and a cartographic map of the mountain and the surroundings. The town of Orizaba is to the southeast of Pico, but it is a bit hard to see on the following post because I have it set so both Pico and the town are in the frame.

Our next travel adventure is to drive up to the base of Pico, which if I have my information straight will be at about the 10,000 foot level. What I won't do for pictures to keep this blog interesting and unique.

Hybrid map of Orizaba, Veracruz and vicinity

View Larger Map

Veracruz triathlon 2007

At the Veracruz triathlon there seemed to be more contestants than spectators. Now I did not exactly go around and count noses. But I did read that 4,000 entrants showed up to test their mettle in what must be one of the more demanding triathlons in the world. The crowd seemed to number much less, maybe in the hundreds, but certainly not in numbers equal to the athletes. In the interests of accuracy I could have verified the number of athletes by walking down the long row of bicycles and counting them up.

One thing that puzzles me is that I saw a lot of youngsters competing. Surely they were not doing all the events. Perhaps there was a 10k run in conjunction with the triathlon.

You may have read or heard that Veracruz has a reputation for being hot and muggy, and based on my experience I think the reputation is deserved. The temperature was around the 90 mark and so was the humidity. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the experience of watching others test themselves while all I had to do was take photographs and swill water.

The venue for this annual event is the Gold Coast, so named because of the pricey sea side location. Nearby are many multi-story condominiums, international class hotels and a big modern shopping mall. I will go back and explore more of Veracruz during the winter when the temperature drops to something in the toleration range.

The best Xalapa street map ever

If you go here:

http://maps.google.com

and enter, Xalapa, veracruz-llave, Mexico you will land right on the map of Xalapa. Use the zoom in/out and left/right arrows to center the map where you desire and achieve the desired level of detail. Zooming in magnifies the region you are interested in.

This is a new feature Google has just released and besides mexico there are many other Latin American countries that are now covered. I will be writing more about using Google Map in future posts as I describe driving in Xalapa and share tips on intersections that have given me trouble and other ideas for surviving in a strange traffic environment. All made easier, because I can pinpoint these intersections easily to share with you. Likewise, I will make it a long term project to pinpoint important features, such as buildings, shopping centers, entertainment venues and the like. Should keep me busy.

Do I have to know Spanish?

Xalapa is not like the resort towns and cities of Mexico. In Mazatlan, for example, you find a great many hotels, restaurants, and shops that have employees who speak English. There is a large expatriate community of permanent English speaking residents and the place is swamped with tourists when cruise liners make port. Accordingly, you can survive quite well in most situations if your Spanish is limited or even non-existent.

Xalapa is not a big tourist destination like Mazatlan, Acapulco, Puerto Vallarta and the like. Although you will meet many people here who speak English it is much less common. Another difference is the fact that Xalapa is very cosmopolitan, probably because of the many universities located here. You will find people from all over the world living here.

For most situations you encounter in shopping, dining out, and site seeing you can probably get by with a pocket guide that has lists of common phrases organized by topics. Learn Spanish pronunciation rules and these little guides can be your lifeline. A different approach is a digital language translator, but these can get expensive if they are at all comprehensive. The best answer is to learn as much Spanish as you possibly can and work at it every day.

The good part is that the Mexicans you meet are extremely friendly, courteous and patient. Don't be hesitant to try out your Spanish on cab drivers, store clerks or just people you might encounter standing in line at a bus stop. In the big cities of the United States strangers rarely speak to each other. The exact opposite is true here in Xalapa (I cannot speak for Mexico City, it may be different there.)

Rest assured, there are strategies you can use to help get over the language hurdles.

TIP: Ask people to write down anything you don't understand. Most people find reading Spanish easier that interpreting speech.

TIP: Have trouble with pronunciation? Check out this unique University of Iowa website:

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/

that contains animated libraries of the phonetic sounds of English, German, and Spanish. You will be amazed, entranced, missing many hours of your life practicing Spanish pronunciation. I promise.

Keep watching this post for more tips and information. You can easily subscribe to The Free End either by email or by a syndicated feed.

How Lady Emmeline Stuart viewed Veracruz and Jalapa

Google, if you can imagine this, has set out to organize all the information in the world and make it available for free. Alright that may be a tad hyperbolic, but the staggering vision of these people boggles my mind. I guess if you have their billions you can set your sights high.

But to get to the point of this post, in the course of writing my blog entries about Cofre de Perote I thought it might be interesting to include a Google Earth view of the mountain. I like to turn on the various overlays in Google Earth and when I captured the view for the blog I happened to have an overlay turned on that displayed a dozen or more yellow icons. I had not noticed these before so later on I went back to that view to determine what these icons represented. Turns out they represent printed volumes that Google scanned and turned in to regular text that you can search, read on line, or download them as a PDF file. Each of the icons contains the word Jalapa and that is why they cluster around the callout for the city. I think the term for this scheme is geo-tagging.

One icon I picked at random represents the book Travels in the United States, Etc.: During 1849 and 1850 where the good lady Emmeline Stuart waxes enthusiastically:

One morning, at sunrise, coming from Puebla, we saw the great mountain, Orizaba, reflecting the light of the rising luminary, and looking as if it was literally made partly of gold and partly of fire, so gloriously was it beaming back those dazzling splendors from its huge crest of glittering snow. Between Jalapa and Perote, and still more between Vera Cruz and Jalapa, the astonishing prodigality and unutterable magnificence of the tropical vegetation is perfectly overpowering ! I could not have believed, without beholding it, that such a Paradise remained to this world ! Such colors—such blooms—such forests of flowers ! Such inconceivable luxuriance of foliage and fruit! You can not for a moment " begin to imagine" the glories of these scenes—their inexhaustible variety—their indescribable exuberance—their extraordinary and matchless brilliancy of coloring !

Very poetic writing, so typical of that long ago era. If you are fascinated to read more by the gentle lady here is a link you can follow.

http://books.google.com/books?id=3ca-CMu2kj4C&dq=xalapa

Seasonal views of Cofre de Perote

Clockwise from upper left: the "chest" from fairly close up, another view of the western side from several miles away -- taken in spring or summer, the eastern side of Cofre de Perote as viewed from my bedroom window in Xalapa, the area around the village of Conojo (picture was posted on Panoramio). Panoramio is the Google photo sharing application that allows you to pinpoint the spot on the earth the photo was taken from. To be really accurate you need a global positioning device, which I don't have yet.

Topographic map of Cofre de Perote

This topographic map shows the route up the Western side of Cofre de Perote to the summit. To see an enlarged view click on the map or to see an even larger view go to this web site and click on their map.

http://www.skimountaineer.com/ROF/ROF.php?name=Perote

On our drive to the summit, we left the main highway a few miles to the Northeast of the town of Perote at the Los Molinos junction. From there our drive was on good paved road to the small village of Pescado. Here the road changes from asphalt to cobblestone and you will think you are driving on a dry stream bed. At one point we were suddenly passed by some four-wheel off-road vehicles going like hell down the track. Later on we came upon a man leading three horses towards Pescado. Horses and four wheelers make sense on this kind of road!

I found it interesting that the Ski Mountaineer web site talks about possibly skiing on Cofre, but so far it seems no one has officially tried this. I've never seen any mention of skiing on Cofre in any guide book or any other web page that I know of, but my next post will show some photographs of Cofre dusted with snow so perhaps some day some hardy soul will try this.

If you seriously contemplate driving to the top of Cofre make sure your vehicle is up to the task and allow plenty of time. Weather can be a problem so pick a day when you can clearly see the top of the mountain and leave well before noon. Take a cell phone if you have one and let someone know you are going and when you will arrive back. Plan on at least six or seven hours for the round trip. I would not advise driving on the mountain if there is any snow or the forecast is for snow or even rain. This is not a trip to be undertaken lightly.

Google Earth view of Cofre de Perote

Cofre de Perote is classified as a shield volcano, a type that has broad, gentle slopes built by the eruption of fluid basalt lava. The terrain is very interesting from this vantage point. The west side of Xalapa is actually built on the eastern hills of Perote. The area immediately around the peak is designated a national park.

The summit of Cofre de Perote

At the top

At the summit we reach the end of the road. For those with the wind power and strength there are stairs you can climb to reach the very top. I say you can use the stairs, but use may be restricted to use by the technicians who live up here and maintain the communications equipment. Someone has to fix the things that get blown away or replace the navigation lights that burn out. It occurs to me though, that Mexico being Mexico, you might just nose around and ask someone if you can climb to the tippy top. Good chance they might even take you for a guided tour. Certainly, no one would frown on you for asking in a friendly tone of voice. It is not like they are hounded by thousands of visitors and I have the definite sense that Mexicans in general are very proud of their country and genuinely enjoy helping visitors.

It is windy and cold up here so we don't tarry.