The Costa Esmeralda of Veracruz

La Costa Esmeralda

Palm Trees, and Quiet Beaches
The Gulf Coast of Veracruz

Photographs and Text by John Todd, Jr.

The Dead of Winter
The other day a friend from Canada wrote :

"The days are shorter now, and after the first blizzard the range cattle stay close to home. It is where food and water are, and shelter from the cold winds. It is a time in the north when the hearth fire is warm, and home cooked food tastes even better."

"Can you send me some pictures of the beaches in Veracruz and some of the things to do there?"

These pictures are of some of my "secret" places near Veracruz for my friends in Canada and other places in the world where the weather is cold now.

The Dead of Winter Ottawa, Canada Photo Courtesy of JP, Juniper Hills Farm, Canada	The Dead of Winter "I would like to get away for a couple of days", she said. "I would like to go to an island in the South Pacific with clear water, blue skies, and palm trees, or spend a week or ten days in South America." That´s when I thought about the Costa Esmeralda. It´s about 2 hours north of Veracruz. The Costa Esmeralda of Veracruz is not as glitzy, and it´s not as well publicized as Cancun or Acapulco. But, it has warm weather, palm trees, and long stretches of quiet beaches.
The Gulf Coast of Veracruz La Costa Esmeralda	It has what I like most about Mexico: a slower pace of life, excellent seafood, and the special courtesy of the people you meet along the way. La Costa Esmeralda When I saw the palm trees, I knew what she was looking for. Just a quiet beach to get out of the cold and snowy weather. Where you can go outside and walk around without getting bundled up with heavy winter clothing.
How to Get There	This time of the year on the Costa Esmeralda, there are vacancy signs in front of the hotels along a 19 km. stretch of the federal highway that follows the beach. You can have it all to yourself, and it´s not that expensive this time of the year. A 12 Hour Drive to Brownsville For me living in Veracruz, La Costa Esmeralda is along the highway on the way to Texas. Since it´s a 12 hour drive from Veracruz, most people whiz through the straight stretch and never stop. The Costa Esmeralda is too close to Veracruz to stop and spend the night. It´s too far to drive up for the day, and drive back that night.
A Walk Around	A Chance Overnight Stop On the way back to Veracruz last November, I was delayed in crossing the border and got off to a late start. When it was getting dark, I realized I was close to the Costa Esmeralda. I was tired and started looking for a hotel and didn´t feel like driving the last two and a half hours to Veracruz in the dark. When I saw the first decent looking hotel, I pulled into the driveway and stopped there for the night.
First Coffee at Dawn	I´m glad I did. I was the only one there and it was really nice. First Coffee at Dawn A good thing to bring along on trips is a a jar of Nescafe instant coffee. At a lot of hotels in Mexico, especially the small ones, most of the restaurants aren´t up and going when you get up. Besides, it´s no fun to have to shower and get dressed just to go the restaurant for coffee.
Walking Past the Quiet Bungalows	That morning took my coffee with me to take a look around as the sun was coming up. There weren´t many people around yet. The Cool of the Morning The lady at the hotel told me most of the visitors come to the Costa Esmeralda at Christmas and Easter. They don´t get many visitors the rest of the year. I noticed there was one other car in front of the bungalow down the little cobblestoned street.
Early Morning Beach	By the time the sun had come up, I had finished my coffee and continued my walk around the grounds. There were no joggers, or people walking along the beach with dogs. It was nice. Mornings on the Gulf Coast By now my first coffee was finished and I walked back towards my little bungalow to get a refill. Mornings in Veracruz on the Gulf Coast are peaceful.

Winter on the Gulf of Mexico in Veracruz La Costa Esmeralda

Testing the Water	Tropical Birds The tropical birds in the trees, and the coolness of the humidity are a change from yesterday when I was driving across the border in Brownsville, I thought to myself. Two days earlier, I had been driving into Arkansas after two weeks of below freezing weather, snow, and ice. It was a world away and difficult to fathom, as I thought to myself, as I made another cup of coffee to take back outside.
Looking for a Better Place	An Early Morning Stroll By now the sun was up, and I walked down to the beach to take another look around. A man and his son were the only people on the beach. Last Night´s Tide I walked down the sidewalk from my bungalow towards a wide open grassy area. It looked like a place where the kids play volleyball.
Quiet Walkway	Some Lounge Chairs There were some lounge chairs, so sat down with my coffee and looked around at the palm trees and the birds in the trees. A couple of ladies were coming back from an early morning walk on the beach to look for what the tide had brought in the night before. They looked like they were comparing notes on what they´d found.
Beach Combing Results	Beach Combing Results
Breakfast Room	Time for Breakfast It was time to get my day going, so I went looking for the restaurant. When I got there, I found I was the only one there. During breakfast, I began to think about the day ahead, and the last leg of the drive to Veracruz. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I also began to think of some of my pending projects. The Costa Esmeralda might be a great place to come for a couple of days and work. To take a break, I could take a swim in the hotel swimming pool or take a walk on the beach.
Costa Esmeralda Lighthouse	After Breakfast After breakfast, I went back to my bungalow and packed up for the drive back to Veracruz. At the little town of Casitas, there´s a lagoon that probably has some big bass lurking back in the mangroves. Maybe I can find a local fisherman with a boat to take me out fishing. I passed the lighthouse at the end of the Costa Esmeralda and continued on through the sugar cane fields and cattle country towards Veracruz. Maybe next time I would stop and take a tour. I´ve never been inside a lighthouse and the people around here are friendly.
A Closer Look	This Morning After I got the letter from my friend in Canada the other day, I got out a map of the Gulf Coast and looked at the Costa Esmeralda again. Now I am planning my next trip. There are quite a few little hotels in the area, and I don´t think I´ll need any reservations. Maybe I´ll spend the night there, and visit El Tajín the next day. It is a very long day to drive to El Tajín and back. I haven´t been fishing in a long time, and it´s time to go again.
El Tajín	Other Things to Do Besides hanging around the beach, I was thinking of other things to do in the area around the Costa Esmeralda. Papantla is nearby and I would like to spend some time with José Luis Hernández strolling through his vanilla and orange grove at his Xanath Ecological Park. Each time I go, it is a little different. The pyramids at El Tajín are also interesting. Perhaps I could catch a performance of the Voladores de Papantla. Just south of la Costa Esmeralda is a little pyramids called Las Higueras. They found 19 layers of the original paint and the original stones are on display at the Museum of Anthropology in Xalapa.
Gulf Coast Restaurant Chips and Sauces	My "Secret" Restaurant After you have lived on the Gulf Coast for a while you find a couple of places you like to keep to yourself. In my spare time, I do tour guide work for special visitors at the Veracruz Convention Center. One Sunday I got a call from one of the travel advisors. "There´s a couple who are here for the convention and they´ve seen everything. Can you help us?" It was a beautiful Sunday morning, and I wanted to do something different, too. After talking to the people, I said: "Let´s go get a shrimp cocktail at my "secret" restaurant. It´s just up the Gulf Coast, not far from Veracruz." When we arrived, even though it was a Sunday, there were few people at "my" restaurant. They probably thought it was their "secret" place, too. As soon as we arrived, the waiter brought us chips and sauces and took our orders for drinks.
Gulf Coast Restaurant	Gulf Coast Restaurant
A Shrimp Cocktail	Pictures Are Not Enough Sitting at our table in the shade of the palapa was like sitting in your own front yard. While we were enjoying the chips, and hot sauce, I realized photographs are rather dry and don´t show what the atmosphere is like. You can´t hear the sea breeze or hear the music in the background. Then I looked at my camera and found it has an .mpg setting. and took a couple of short video clips which will give you an better idea of the sound and sights of the Mexican Gulf of Mexico: Three Short Video Clips Here are three short video clips: Video 1 Video 2 Video 3
My Personal Palapa	Gone Fishing Nothing is going on, and it´s is a good time of the year to spend some time in the winter sun exploring the 19 km. of quiet beaches of La Costa Esmeralda. Maybe I´ll hang it up for a couple of days and go fishing. Right now, it´s hard to believe this is the dead of winter in the rest of the world. It doesn´t make any difference if the fish are biting or not. I know where to get some good seafood this time of the year. It´s something you never get tired of. I know it´s not going to be easy to make the drive back to Brownsville. So, today, I guess I won´t think about it and will take another walk around the grounds of my favorite hotel.

Just One More Walk Before It´s Time to Go... La Costa Esmeralda

Later: Heading South Out of Houston
This article was written a year or two ago, and I have been in the States for awhile working on a large engineering and procurement project for the booming oil business in the Galleria area of Houston. We have a break of a month or two and now it's good to have some time off.

Now at last, it's time to head back south again, and about noon I turned the last of the reports in to my now former boss. He shook my hand and wished me luck, somewhat enviously, because he knew I was going home again. It felt almost as if it I knew someone warm and special would be waiting for me once I reached the Rio Grande River at Los Indios, the next little town up from Brownsville. I knew it would be the same as it always has.

As the traffic began to thin out on the Southwest Freeway, I took one last look at the skyscrapers of Houston in my rearview mirror and head into the flat coastal plains that were once known as Austin's Colony, named after Stephen F. Austin. I thought for awhile about how Santa Anna had encouraged these small colonies to keep the French from moving into Texas.

The November weather is cloudy and cold and I am looking forward to the drive back to Veracruz.

Looking for the Phelps Plantation
On the weekends living in Houston, I'd had some time to do some exploring around the old Fannin Colony that he called Washington on the Brazos, and later looked for the Phelps Plantation where Santa Anna had been tied to a tree "like a dog" for 4 months, until Dr. Phelps asked for permission to allow him to be under house arrest in his home.

Santa Anna and the family became good friends, and years later, when Phelps's son was captured and marched 800 km. to the grim prison at Perote, Veracruz in the "Black Bean Expedition". Later Dr. Phelps wrote a letter to Santa Anna who was once again President of Mexico asking for his intervention.

Santa Anna himself rode from Mexico City to Perote and released Phelps's son, and hosted a magnificent dinner in honor of the Phelps family who had saved his life when he was chained to a tree. The next day, he personally escorted the boy to the docks at Veracruz where he booked passage on the next steamship to Galveston.

"Please send my kindest regards to your family," he was reported to have said. Santa Anna was like that. He never forgot a favor.

Soon, I passed the road towards the Phelps Plantation, and mentally put that on my list of places to continue my search when I return again to Houston.

More to Come...

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