TAMPICO TO COSTA ESMERALDA

Costa Esmeralda is a nice stretch of Gulf beach about halfway between

Tampico and Vera Cruz. I originally intended to go to Vera Cruz and spend

the night, but the beach sounded inviting -- we have all the stuff to camp

out, and haven't had to do that yet, so we took some VERY BAD ROAD from

Tampico to Poza Rica, bypassing Tuxpan, and then down the mountains to the

coast. The road, when it has been repaired, is good to wonderful. When it

is bad, it is as bad -- or worse -- than the Arkansas roads we traveled on

in 1946 right after my daddy retired from the Army.

"We're still driving on roads my grandaddy wore out" the Arkansawyers would

say, because those highways were the worst in the country. The aluminum

companies -- Reynolds & Alcoa -- came in -- stripped all the bauxite out of

Arkansas and left big holes, hundreds of feet deep, filled with blue water,

with a big pile of tailings right next to it. And a few politicians got

rich, and Arkansas roads got worse and worse. Sound familiar, Belizeans?

Well, Texas got smart. When they started pulling oil out of the ground in

Texas, the state made them pay a hefty tax which they used to finance the

roads that we love so much now. There's a lesson there, but some people

never learn.

At any rate, those were my thoughts as I drove those patched, patched and

repatched Mexican highways. As we came south, the roads in the state of

Vera Cruz are much better, because, according to Sanborn, Vera Cruz is the

richest state in MX, thanks to fruit and oil. It is a nice place, very

reminiscent of Belize, and I started feeling very much at home.

We are camped at a campground which says "English Spoken," 

owned by a 75-year-old Idaho-born Gringo and his

Mexican wife. He's been here for 15 years. The place is empty except for

us; very nice, cold showers & clean toilets, and easy access to the

70-degree gulf water. Tim got in and splashed around -- I waded. I'm

waiting for the warm Caribbean Sea.

RZ

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