Poza Rica, Papantla, Cumbre Tajín, Cristo Redentor de Tihuatlán, Tecolutla

I was visiting the Cumbre Tajín, a traditional festival in the Parque Takilhsukut in honour of the beginning of spring. It is a festival with four days full of concerts, dances, artistical shows, regional cuisine and handicraft workshops. To go there I stayed in the nearby town Poza Rica which is mainly known for its oil production. During my stay I also enjoyed one day in the Pueblo Mágico Papantla which is especially known for its Voladores, a religious dance and manifestation. Furthermore I visited the Cristo Redentor de Tihuatlán, a small replica of the statue in Rio de Janeiro and the beach of Tecolutla and its museum of the monster which was found here.

Most of my time within the region of Poza Rica I spent with Gigi whom I got to know during the carnival of Veracruz. I had the honour to have her as my tourist guide to explore nearly all the interesting spots. When I arrived at the bus terminal of Poza Rica after a seven-hour and 200 km ride from Mexico City Gigi and her friend Hugo picked me up. We passed by the house of my host Edu to get rid of my luggage and went on towards the city centre. In Poza Rica I did nearly all my trips in community taxis which make their rounds within the city and the region and have a fixed low price.

So far data on what happened to Poza Rica during the colony and the conquest are not very clear, but according to old documents for 1871 was already inhabited and recognized as Poza Rica. From that time comes the name of Poza Rica because it is said that in the backwater that gives name to the city there was a lot of fish. At the beginnung of the 20th century large quantities of oil were found in the region of Poza Rica. Since this time the town grew tremendously and is dominated by the petroleum industry. Again and again I could see fire around the city, because natural gas is torched since the costs for preparation and transport exceed the expected revenue. Since the gas contains various substances other than methane such as sulphur compounds and mercury and the combustion is often rather uncontrolled, a large number of toxic and sometimes carcinogenic pollutants are produced. As a result the air quality in Poza Rica isn't really good.

What I liked about Poza Rica were the amount of little market stalls in the city centre where elderly sell all kinds of fruits and vegetables they grow. With my host Edu I had breakfast and dinner a few times. The Parque de las Américas, a viewpoint near the city centre I visited with Gigi and Hugo and we enjoyed the mild evening hours philosophizing up there. This park is equipped with numerous columns, one for each country of the entire American continent. Normally the flags of the individual countries flutter at their tops, but as expected, not a single flag was hoisted that day. Somehow flags in Mexico seem to run away from me.

One day I visited Papantla, a little city where the tradition of the Voladores originates. The town lost its title as Pueblo Mágico during three years from 2009 to 2012 due to the fact that it didn't preserve its original arquitecture and a beautiful cityscape as required for this title. The main reason are among other things that there is a large number of overhead lines in Papantla that disturb the appearance of the city. This is why I couln't take a photo of the Parroquia de Cristo Rey without overhead lines.

The Danza de los Voladores (Dance of the Flyers) is a religious manifestation dating back to the Middle Mesoamerican Preclassic Period. In 2009 it was proclaimed Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the UNESCO. During my stay in Papantla I saw this spectacle several times. Nowadays this tradition is also shown in different touristic destinations in Mexico like the Riviera Maya even though the Voladores did probably never fly there. After spending a while around the main square of the city Gigi and I headed towards the Monumento al Volador, a viewpoint where you can appreciate the most beautiful panorama of the city, nestled at the tip of a hill in the centre of Papantla.

The Vanilla represents one of the most important aromatic spices for the food industry in the region of Papantla, obtained from hermaphrodite orchid. At the national level there are more than 5,000 vanilla producers, thereof more than 3,000 in the state of Veracruz. In Papantla you can buy vanilla sticks, powder, extract or lots of processed products as well as handicrafts like animals or jewellery formed from the remains of vanilla pods.

In the evening there were a lot of performances of dancing groups and concerts at the main square in Papantla. We enjoyed the evening listening to the different kinds of bands, having traditional local food for dinner and dancing a little bit.

One of the main attractions of the region is the archaeological site "El Tajín" with its "Pyramid of the Niches", a pyramid containing 365 niches, one for each day of the solar year. Furthermore it has several ball courts and pyramidal bases. It is believed that the city of Tajín was the capital of the Totonaca empire and reached its apogee in the Mesoamerican Epiclassic Period, between the years 800 and 1,150.

Takilhsukut Theme Park is the main center of Veracruz's indigenous identity and the most propitious place for its dialogue with other cultures of Mexico and the world. This imposing scenery of natural beauty has 17 hectares of infrastructure and various forums to present and develop the arts. Throughout the year, Takilhsukut Park is home to the Center for Indigenous Arts, which is part of the World List of Best Practices for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (UNESCO).

During the week of the festival Cumbre Tajín the park attracts a lot of tourists, who come to see a variety of concerts, shows as well as the traditional arts which are presented in various handicraft workshops. There were numerous small cottages which allow you to learn how to make flowers from corn leaves or weave clothes. Furthermore there was a large pavilion full of arts and crafts stands from various regions of Mexico. Thanks to Carlos, the little Couchsurfing community which came together on the main day of the festival, got a guided tour through some parts of the park. Apart from that there were matches of the game "juego de pelota mesoamericano" as well as spectacular acrobatic shows.

In the evening all the people within the park headed towards the main stage where a lot of bands performed this evening. Especially for the concert of Molotov, a very famous Mexican rock and comedy rap band, hundreds of people arrived late at night. The lyrics of Molotov feature a mixture of Spanish and English, rapped and sung by all members of the group. Molotov blends heavy basslines with heavy guitar riffs in many songs, such as "Gimme the Power" and "Frijolero". At one point of the concert a group of guys started a Slam. It is a dance characteristic of musical genres with strong lyrics and rythm that consists of jumping and pushing in an uncontrolled way. It serves to release overloaded emotions, frustrations, stress, or violent tensions. Originally this shouldn't be done in a violent way but in this case the Slam intensified, so the police finally intervened. A great advantage of the festival Cumbre Tajín is that when you enter the park before 1:00 p.m. you do not pay any entrance fee.

Another day Gigi and I visited the Cristo Redentor de Tihuatlán, a Christ statue about 22 meters high. Afterwards we made a stop in Tihuatlán where we admired the murals and saw another monument, a small obelisk in honor of the workers in the petroleum industry.

My last day in Poza Rica I decided to spend at the beach of Tecolutla, which is just about 60 kilometres away but we needed two hours to get there by public transport. Tecolutla is furthermore home to the Museo Marino Comunitario (Community Marine Museum), a museum which is famous for its skeleton of a monster. This animal was found by fishermen in the sea near the beach of Tecolutla in 1969, probably shortly after his death, as it was still covered with fresh meat bitten by sharks. Nobody knows exactly what kind of animal it is, some people say it was the last dinosaur, others claim it is an unusual fish.

There are a lot of typical dishes in Poza Rica as well as the whole northern part of the state of Veracruz and its neighbouring states. I tried a lot of them and try to give you an impression of the delicious variety of food sold here.

• Bocoles: Thick corn dough tortilla mixed with fat, cooked on a comal, stuffed with fried black bean puree, fresh cheese or other stew
• Estrujadas: Large tortilla cooked on a comal, before being served on the plate it is crushed and bathed in red or green sauce
• Zacahuil: Tamal of large size, prepared with corn masa and lard, with pork and chicken or turkey, wrapped in several layers of banana leaves; sold in portions
• Pellizcadas: (= sopes, picadas or picaditas, naming depending of the region), thick corn tortilla, originally fried with butter, different ingredients are added
• ... -> as you already see, the ingredients of the Mexican cuisine are usually very similar, the method of preparation varies, however.