Tampico and my first Baby Shower

I had the honour to stay for four days with Adriana in Tampico, an important town in the state of Tampaulipas. I got to know Adriana during my stay in Veracruz and so she offered me to stay with her. In Tampico I enjoyed time at the beach, observed a lot of animals like crocodiles in the lagoon and I attended my first Baby Shower. Thanks to the Couchsurfers Luis and Javier and Adriana and her family I always had people accompanying me.

The day I arrived in Tampico Adriana picked me up from the bus central and on the way to her home we stopped at the Laguna del Carpintero (Carpenter's Lagoon). The next morning I made a morning trip with Adriana's mother and uncle to the Escolleras (breakwaters), a path with a distance of more than one kilometre separating the sea and the river Pánuco. Under good weather conditions, the colour difference between the two waters can be admired. The Escolleras are home to a lot of raccoons which were initially considered a plague. Today they are an icon of the city. The adjoining beach Miramar was completely empty this morning and also during the other days I went there. Around Easter Week it will be really crowded as tens of thousands of Mexicans from the country will spend their holidays here.

A few years ago the region of Tampico was a quite dangerous zone because a lot of drug gangs fought their wars here. Numerous inhabitants told me that it was not unusual to find dead bodies on the beach early in the morning. Still the state of Tamaulipas is considered as one of the most dangerous states within Mexico, the epicentre of violence, however, lies further north. It isn't recommendable to visit the capital Ciudad Victoria, the border towns with the USA or any other city up north. My journey goes therefore, after this small excursion to Tamaulipas, further inland to other federal states.

Tampico forms a metropolitan region with its neighbouring cities Ciudad Madero, Miramar, Altamira, Pueblo Viejo and Pánuco and is lined by rivers, canals and numerous lagoons. The Canal de la Cortadura, a canal which connects the Laguna del Carpintero with the sea is an urban landscape project to reactivate the central area of Tampico. At the Plaza de Armas (Square of the Weapons) in the city centre of Tampico the Cathedral de la Inmaculada Concepción and the Kiosco "Pulpo Rosa" (pink octopus) are situated.

The port of Tampico is one of the most important ones of Mexico as a large proportion of the petrol which is consumed within the centre of the country is being brought ashore here. Furthermore the harbour serves as a freight handling location for all kind of things. For example, some large freighters with sand from the Tamaulipas coast recently left Tampico to create artificial islands in Dubai. Who actually sold the sand is not that clear as it's not supposed to be sold at all.

The Aduana Marítima (Maritime Customs Office) of the Port of Tampico is an emblematic building, built by an English company in 1902 with prefabricated iron pieces and red partition walls. The doors, windows and other wooden elements come from the United States, and the railings and blacksmiths from France.

One day I spent with Luis at the Miramar Beach. There he explained to me the saga of the aliens who protect Tampico from hurricanes and other natural catastrophes. Tampico, despite being an area with a lot of hurricane activity, from 1966 mysteriously they stopped coming. The alien legend comes from time immemorial. It began in the 1970s, when Alberto Zecua, an engineer from Mexico City who came to this area, said he had been contacted by aliens. Then others repeated the story. There's an underwater base about 40 kilometers off the coast. Inhabitants of Tampico say: "It's not with the desire to protect the city, it's with the desire to protect the city where they live, because they found a way to be there."

Some researchers believe that the reason for the diversion is the presence of cold water currents in the area. But in Tampico and Ciudad Madero no one is unaware that there is a belief that something supernatural is defending these lands. There exist various newspaper articles and documentals about the aliens of Tampico so that the phenomenon has reached attention internationally.

The Laguna del Carpintero (Carpenter's Lagoon) is just one of the many lagoons within the region but the best-known and most easily accessible, as it lies in the heart of the city. I spent a few hours there watching the wildlife which not only consists of a lot of crocodiles but also various types of birds, turtles and iguanas. Sadly the lagoon is also filled with all kind of waste.

The baby shower celebrates the delivery or expected birth of a child and is an originally US-American tradition but is also becoming more widespread in many other countries, in Mexico it is quite common. Usually only female guests are invited to the celebration, which takes place about two months before the calculated date of birth, such as the friends and female relatives of the expectant parents. Sometimes men also take part. The invitation is often issued by a friend or relative of the pregnant woman in order to save the future mother the work, in this case Adriana was the main organizer.

Adriana and I started the day before the baby shower with preparing desserts like custards and gelatins. Adriana had already taken the trouble in advance to design numerous prints for gifts and as decoration. We stuck some of the stickers on disinfection gels, baby powders and little soaps. The celebration was moderated by Adriana all evening long, numerous activity games were played and the future baby received a variety of clothes as gifts from all the guests.

On my last day in Tampico I visited the Museo de la Cultura Huasteca (Huasteca Culture Museum), together with Adriana and Luis. The Huasteca is a geographical and cultural region on the Gulf of Mexico which includes parts of the states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Puebla, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí and Querétaro. When groups of Mayas emigrated to the region of Pánuco, around 2000 B.C., the huasteca civilization was born. The Huastecas did not disappear with the Spanish Conquest and so their descendants continue to live in the region historically inhabited by their ancestors. The museum shows a lot of interesting artifacts the Huastecas used like e.g. little rattles out of copper which served first and foremost as personal adornment.

1. Agua de Huapilla: The water of Huapilla is an artisanal drink that is prepared with this wild and organic fruit located in the Huasteca.
2. Torta de la Barda: This famous sandwich receives its name from the place they were originally sold (a wall in the port of Tampico). The first customers were the dock workers and the ingredients were a variety of things as the workers were always hungry.
3. Torta de Ternera: Sandwiches of shredded beef, accompanied with cheese
4. Ceviche: The originally Peruvian national dish Ceviche is raw fish marinated and cooked in lime juice, it's also a typcial dish in Tampico.
5. Jaiba (crab): You can eat crabs in all kind of variations in Tampico: I tried stuffed crab and dumplings filled with crab.
6. Gorditas: Masa pastries filled with cheese, meat, beans, scrambled egg or other fillings, sold in many places in Mexico.
7. Bocoles de barbacoa: Thick corn dough tortilla mixed with fat, stuffed with meat of high fat content and strong flavor, prepared in a traditional way (over an open fire, or more traditionally, in a hole dug in the ground covered with maguey leaves).