We like to get off the beaten path when traveling and relish those times that we feel like we are the “only” tourists (we know this is never really true). We like being in restaurants with mostly locals or the only Caucasians on a local bus, because it feels like a more real experience. But rarely are we the only foreign tourists in a town. We have been in Orizaba, Veracruz for 5 days and only saw one other non-Latino couple. This is definitely a tourist town, (a Pueblo Magico), so we were surprised to have only seen Mexican tourists. We’ve enjoyed visiting most of the cultural and tourist attractions in this town, but at first were a little disappointed that very few had English translations. Then we started looking at the museum guest books and had to search for many pages to find someone that wasn’t from Mexico. I guess they don’t really need to translate anything :>)
Being the only gringos can have its challenges, of course. Besides forcing us to try and translate museum placards, we also had to try more extensive Spanish with our Airbnb host, taxis, most restaurants, grocery stores, and at the bus station. But we love practicing Spanish and we usually find a way to communicate enough to get by – and google translate is amazing. We got to thinking when the last time we were the only Americans in a town. It rarely happens in Europe and it often doesn’t matter, because so many Europeans speak English. Note – we do try to learn and use a handful of words and phrases wherever we are. Starting any interaction with hello/please/thank you, etc. in the local language goes a long way. We have been in Mexico, Central America and South America for most of the last 7 months and we are usually in a big enough town or a tourist town that we aren’t alone. Even in Asia, we go to the towns and attractions that most tourists want to see so we usually be among many English speakers on tours or museums. We can’t remember when we were in a town for more than a few hours that did not have foreign tourists. Anyway…. it is kind of cool and we need to try stretching our language boundaries and find out of way places a bit more on our future adventures. We liked Orizaba and enjoyed our 5 days being the communication-limited Gringos. It is a beautiful town and I’m not sure why it isn’t on the tourist path for anyone besides Mexican tourists.
Our favorite attraction in Orizaba has to be the river walk that goes through most of the town. It contains a free zoo with a caged animal spread out over a couple of miles. Like most Americans, our opinion has changed about the ethical treatment of animals in zoos. While most AZA accredited zoos are now focused on educating the public of why we need to protect animals in nature, it still is difficult to see animals caged up, especially the larger animals that need to roam in nature. It is even worse to see a non-accredited zoo like Orizaba with many large animals that don’t seem to be thriving in their small enclosures. That being said, we really enjoyed the peaceful path that we used every day to get to and through town. We stopped to visit and appreciate the animals close up, at the same time bothered by the size of the enclosures for the jaguars, bears, lions, coyotes, hippos and ostriches. Our Airbnb was right above the the river walk, and at times we could hear the coyotes howling, jaguars grunting, or lions roaring from our deck. My favorite was the spider monkeys that were amusing to watch and seemed to be enjoying playing with their caretaker in their cage. M like to talk to the big cats every day hoping that some interaction might decrease their boredom, although they largely ignored us. Leaving out our conflicting feelings on the animals, we really relished the peacefulness and beauty of just walking through a shady river amidst a hot, humid, and busy town.
To be labeled as a Pueblo Magico, a Mexican town must offer tourists offer visitors “cultural richness, historical relevance, cuisine, art crafts, and great hospitality”. Orizaba has a lot of that, and we visited many of the attractions in our 5 days here. Some places we stay in our travels, we are just temporarily “living” there, but in Orizaba we were definitely in tourist mode. We visited 11 of the 13 smaller (and quirky) museums on the “Oritour” 50 peso museum ticket. We also checked out the palace, the cathedral, and the convent. The Iron Palace (Palazio de Hierro) is one of the main attraction downtown – built in the 1890’s, it was designed by Gustav Eiffel to be the headquarters of the municipal government, and is considered to be the only art nouveau metal palace in the world (a rather specific distinction). It currently houses a few museums and a cafe. We took a teleferico (cable car) to the top of Cerro Del Borrego hill which had the remains of a fort used in the war against the French in 1862. Also on the top of Cerro Del Borrego, there was a glass walkway to venture off the cliff to admire the views a little better, although the smoggy haze diminished the impact. I took a ride on the alpine coaster/toboggan – a drive-your-own-car roller coaster ride down a hill. Alas, we skipped the nearby dinosaur park, dragon park and medieval fair attractions (all these attractions grouped together called “Casavegas”, it was just too cheesy-themepark for us). We also visited the Poliforum which was a huge mansion that is now a “cultural center”, we just ate lunch there. We walked a few miles down the river walkway to a botanical garden that was mildly interesting. Like many of the other attractions in Orizaba, there seems to be a focus on setting up photo opportunities/insta spots. It definitely gave places like the botanical garden a strange vibe. In fact, none of the attractions in this town were really top notch… but there sure was a lot of them. Orizaba is at the base of the 3rd highest mountain in North America, the Pico de Orizaba at 18,500 feet but we barely saw it because the air was always hazy – the air quality was terrible our whole time there. But I did get some good pics of the attractions we visited.
The biggest thing we are going to remember from Orizaba was the heat. When we got in to town it was 98 degrees, and we realized we didn’t have any air conditioning in our Airbnb. We did have a patio to escape the stuffy stone house, but at night the fans weren’t enough to keep us cool enough to sleep well. I’m not sure why we thought this would be a good idea, but I think we learned our lesson. We have stayed in hot and humid places before without AC, but we always had some place to cool down, whether that be the surf, the pool, or an ocean breeze. There isn’t a place to cool down in Orizaba. AC is not common here but it is definitely necessary in most of Mexico during May, at least for us gringos – many of the locals were rocking jeans and hoodies. Next Location – Oaxaca!!! and we found a place with AC, whew! (yes, we realize that we are spoiled and entitled sometimes)
