On to Tajin

11 June

We left the base of the Tampico bridge after a very hot and restless night.  We learned two things:    1) Use regular batteries instead of the self contained rechargeable batteries in our fan;  2) if a Coke Cola semi parks next to you and runs his diesel all night, it’s OK to fire off our generator to run the AC.  From Tampico we moseyed on down the bumpy road to Tajin, which is an archeological site that has several pyramids.  Every small town along the way has “topes” which are speed bumps and run the gamut in size and or height.  We left at 7 and arrived at 1.  I consider us lucky, because all the bouncing along caused Sandra’s external storage tray to bend and there was a close call on her cargo.  Fortunately we were in Poza Rico and the road was wide enough for us to safely remove the tray and donate it to a very grateful local.  Sandra was annoyed, because it was a Cabela’s tray and should have been better constructed.  We put most of the storage bins in our RV storage until we got to Tajin, where the group did some readjusting and most all the extra weight is out of our rear storage.

Tajin is the site of a civilization that lived from 300 BC to 1200 AD.  They were a peaceful group and more than likely got conquered by a more warlike group for assimilation/enslavement.   Most Mexican pre-Columbus civilizations had both a solar and lunar calendar.  The Tajin group maintained two and used the solar Spring/Fall equinox for alignment of their pyramids.  The pyramids were built one on top of an older one every 52 years, when the solar and lunar calendar’s matched up.  This wiped the slate clean and the gods required them to re-construct everything every 52 years.  The pyramids had an underlayer of river rock, covered by limestones, that were mortared with a limestone mixture (ancient adobe cement).  They always constructed niches in the walls and one pyramid had 365 niches in it.  They worshiped many gods and had in common the serpent with several other god representations.  We had a guide and he was OK, however I ended up doing my fair share of translating despite his being an “English-speaking” guide.  We ate lunch at a restaurant in Tajin where Norm is friendly with the staff.  Roger ended up ordering several different things and split them with Sandra.  I played it safe and ate quesadillas, which were very good.   Norm ordered for us to taste pumpkin seed enchiladas, which were different but Roger liked the mini-tostadas the best.

After our tour of the park, we got to watch a demonstration of  “Los Voladores de Papantla”  (the Flymen of Papantla).  Five men climb a now metal pole (in the old days it was a wooden pole) up 100+ rungs to the top.  There’s a guy who’s playing a wooden flute and hand drum.  This guy stands on the top of the pole playing, while the four other men carefully wrap ropes around the top of the pole.   Once this is accomplished, the four guys with ropes tied around their waists, flip off backwards and start slowly spiraling downward, upside down.  When they almost get to the ground they flip again and land on their feet.  The whole demo took about 10 minutes and cost us $2 USD a piece.

Now we’re trying to cool off and call it a day.  It is humid and Roger is one hot sweaty mess.   We’ve been told that we’ll be hot until we get up in altitude, which won’t occur for several more days.  Such is RV life.