Veracruz City is a good place to get caught up on doctors appointments, but there’s not a ton to do in town. Besides the Fort of San Juan de Ulua, there are also a smattering of museums—the most interesting of which might just be the National Naval Museum.
We attempted to visit the Naval Museum on the first Sunday we were here, but it was closed due to high winds. We tried a second time and were glad we did (more on that in a bit).
Besides that, it’s just been running big city errands and enjoying our usual routine of school, exploring, work, and play.
Our Mexico-USA RV Journey 2024-25
We finally broke down and got the boys phones…
Neighbors.
Video chats with the grandparents.
Somebody played hard today.
A couple more routine doctors’ visits ticked off the list.
We thought about trying to get a lot of these done in Merida in January, but it didn’t really work out that way.
For around 10 doctors’ visits between the four of us (dental exams, eye checkups, vaccines, etc., the total bill came to just under $700 (including a couple of specialists).
We booked our appointments out only a week or two in advance and didn’t have to wait long to be seen. In most cases, the level of care was on par with what we’ve had in the U.S. (and we never felt rushed by the doc).
The National Naval Museum of Mexico is located in Veracruz and was a very pleasant surprise. We weren’t expecting much, but it turned out to be one of the best museums we’ve visited in Mexico.
Noe, in particular, loved every room. So much, in fact, that I took him back a week later without his brother so he could read everything unbothered.
The museum is housed in the old Naval Academy building that, itself, is famous for being at the receiving end of heavy bombardment by the U.S. military during the Mexican-American war.
The cadets fought back from their dorms and managed to hold off the advances until reinforcements from the Mexican navy arrived and repelled the invaders.
It didn’t prevent the U.S. from taking over 50% of Mexico’s territory by the end of the war, but they never took Veracruz!
The museum traces the history from early Spanish galleons up to the country’s present defense force.
There’s something really refreshing about learning more about the proud naval history of a country that’s only used its resources and tax-payer dollars for defense. No Middle East shock-and-awe campaigns or pointless wars in Southeast Asia to read about here.
Final doses of MMR and Varicella (which isn’t exactly easy to find around here these days).
After another jam-packed day in Veracruz, it’s time to make the 40-minute bus journey back to the RV park.
The bus drivers in Veracruz seem to have been given full license to pimp out their public buses any way they choose.
This was our ride back to the RV Park on this particular evening. And yes, the very sizable audio system matched the mood.
Mommy-Riley provisioning run.
Riley was very excited to learn that you can get Oaxacan cheese even in Veracruz…at least at Walmart Express.
Noe and I spent the time putting together a solar robot from a kit I got some time ago. I thought it might be something that Noe could do himself, but too many of the pieces didn’t seem to fit together without a bit of customization with Dad’s tools. Oh well, it was still a fun challenge for the two of us.
During most of the week, the weather and sea state at CocoAventura were perfect for wading around in the shallows and hanging out at the beach.
The visibility isn’t great in these parts, and there’s not a whole lot to see, but it’s a nice chance to cool off and burn off some energy.
The pool’s also good for that, but we like to save that for the weekday when we have it all to ourselves. The weekends get pretty crowded here.
The big wind storms around here seem to happen on Sundays. This particular Sunday, 40 mph winds and 65 mph gusts had been forecasted for much of the week. So we were a bit surprised when a large bus with 70 passengers squeezed in between our neighbors and unloaded 80 day trippers.
Every single one seemed surprised to be hit by gale-force winds the minute they disembarked. Ah Mexico.
There had even been a number of campers that were caught off guard in the middle of the night and moved their tents into the central pavilion. Naturally, that’s where most of the bus passengers migrated to as well. It was a good day to get away for a few hours.
We took the bus a bit down the road to a little tourist town on a lake and walked around for a bit. Not a ton to see, but better than hunkering down in the RV for yet another all-day wind storm.
When we returned, the winds were still howling and the sea was unrecognizable from the day before when we went swimming.
By Monday evening, the high winds were a distant memory.
That’s a cloud, not a mountain.
Another day out and about in Veracruz.
We find these all over downtown here.
I’ve had a lot of specialty coffee from all over the world, but this was a first.
Whiskey-barrel-aged coffee (grown in the Veracruz highlands). I couldn’t resist grabbing a bag. Really good stuff. Wish we could find it in other places.
Another crazy windy day. Seems to be a thing around here. This is what Windy.app looks like every time we have one of these.
Fortunately for us, the wind lately has always been out of the north. The RV is pointed north, so the front gets the brunt of it, which is a good thing as that’s the only side of RVs that are typically built to withstand 65+ mph winds (i.e. driving).
When it’s not really windy (most days it’s pretty calm), I like to run a couple of miles along the beach in the morning. With beaches like these (hard-packed and flat), it’s hard to resist.
The boys are chugging right along on their school work. Looks like Riley will finish up his first grade curriculum a bit early, and Noe won’t be far behind on his third grade coursework.
Lori somehow convinced the staff at the hotel to do our laundry (we paid, of course). It arrived in a wheelbarrow and they ended up doing a better job than most of the lavandarias we’ve had over the years.
The boys’ new favorite card game, Cover Your Assets.
One day, we thought it would be fun to split up and each take a kid. We definitely don’t do this enough these days. Riley got to go do fun “Riley” things with mommy, and Noe got to do the one thing he’s been asking about for a week: to go back to the Naval Museum and get to explore without little bro.
I’m pretty sure Noe read literally every single placard, and I didn’t stop him. He was in museum heaven.
Meanwhile, down at the port…
…another very happy kid.
Riley’s not much into museums these days, and I don’t blame him. At [almost] six-and-a-half years old, I’d take gelato with mommy any day over another trip to the museum.
