We left Isla Aguada almost a week later than we planned. It wasn’t just that Freedom Shores was an all around nice place to park ourselves for a while (it was), but rather the weather.
Lori and I were having coffee one particularly ideal morning and talking about which day we should head on to Veracruz. Lori suggested we look at the forecast. I thought the idea was nuts.
In four years of living in Mexico it never once crossed my mind to consult a forecast in March. It’s the middle of dry season, after all! Water temperature? Absolutely! Weather forecast? Wha…why?
Our Mexico-USA RV Journey 2024-25
As I should have known by now from our winter in the Yucatan, this part of Mexico marches to a different beat from the Pacific Coast. And sure enough, the forecast confirmed just that.
A cold front was coming our way, from the Southeast U.S., nonetheless. The Yucatan, Tabasco, and the Veracruz Coast was expecting cooler temperatures and heavy rains in a matter of days.
We knew that Freedom Shores was a fairly good place to wait out rain (we’d done it before). We weren’t so sure about Veracruz. So, we added another five days to our stay and planned to leave early next week.
But something else caught my eye on the Veracruz City extended forecast. It was an icon I hadn’t seen used before on the app. Tapping on it revealed high winds. That’s interesting, I thought. I dug a little deeper. How high are we talking? I scrolled down and…oh. That’s windy. Well that’ll be interesting, I thought.
Fast-forward two weeks later, and Lori and I had just closed up the RV and put the boys down for the night when there was a knock in the door. Well, that’s a first, we thought.
It was one of the workers at the RV park warning us that high winds were expected tonight and to make sure we have all of our things secure.
And sure enough, just as I was heading to bed around 11:30pm, the rig began to shutter, and rock and roll, and didn’t stop until the next afternoon.
We’ve experienced high winds three other times in the RV—every afternoon at El Mirador (accompanied by a sandstorm), one hot and gusty night dry camping next to the beach on the Oaxacan Coast, and our drive to Chiapas through one of the windiest corridors in the world.
But none of those were quite like this.
It felt like a combination of being on a rickety, clickety-clack night train in India and a rough night crossing on a ferry—for hours.
I awoke the next morning to take stock of things and could barely get the coach door open due to the wind. All the palms were blowing sideways, and the sea was a foamy white mess.
The four of us spent the rest of the day until 5pm holed-up in a rocking and shuttering 25-foot RV, trying to find ways to pass the time that wouldn’t result in cabin fever or seasickness for us or the boys.
When it was all said and done, the wind blew at a sustained 35-45 mph (gusting up to 65 mph) for 17 hours straight. The rig was faced into the wind, so we knew it could take it (we drive down the road at 65 mph, after all).
What I hadn’t counted on was the thick, brown layer of muck (a mix of sand and salty, wet air) that had completely coated every north (sea & wind) facing surface of the vehicle.
I estimated anywhere from 1/16″ to 1/8″ in some places. I had just washed the rig on our last day in Isla Aguada, too.
It would not be the last time this would happen to us in Veracruz. By the time we rolled out of town, we’d have three more wind storms just like this one.
The next one happened five days later on Sunday. We knew we couldn’t spend an entire day in the rocking RV again. We knew if we could get to the highway without anything falling on us in the jungle, we’d have a chance of a day out.
Lori and Noe had already been into town for doctors’ visits, but Riley and I hadn’t yet. So we were eager to leave the compound and explore the largest city in Veracruz State.
The bus was a bit rocky, but not as bad as we thought it might be. It’s not exactly a short journey into the center of town, as Veracruz is a long and narrow city and the historic center is toward the northern end.
Haven’t seen a Chuck E. Cheese’s in years…
Not an ideal beach day, to say the least.
45 minutes later, we hopped off the bus and fought the intense winds into a coffee shop for some breakfast.
There are a couple of very historic cafes in and around Veracruz. There are lots of locations, but the original locations for the two are near each other, just off the main plaza.
Gran Cafe del Portal is known for its very popular pulled coffee, which reminded us of something similar that we’ve had in Malaysia. Not sure if there’s a connection there, but the similarities are striking.
This cheese-covered pastry is a popular accompaniment to the coffee.
Central Veracruz City is an interesting place to explore. I believe it was the first city settled by the Spanish in the early 1500s. I don’t doubt it given how old many of the buildings in the city center look.
But most attractions and some restaurants were closed either because of the winds, power outages, or because it was Sunday. So there wasn’t a whole lot to do in town today but walk around and try to hide from the winds.
We hoped to take refuge in the Naval Museum for a couple hours and learn a thing or two about the Navy, but apparently even the Mexican military has its limits.
It felt a lot like a ghost town, or some post-apocalyptic movie set. Surely this can’t be how it is every sunny Sunday, can it?
Veracruz has one of the largest ports in Mexico, enveloping a large portion of the center of town.
More shabby than chic, Veracruz isn’t everybody’s cup of tea. But there’s no shortage of interesting things to photograph.
Still blowing. 2pm and we’ve got steady 38 mph winds with gusts of 60 mph.
This was a first—a Supercito Chedraui. Que chiquito! Que mono!
The Veracruz malecon stretches for miles. But there isn’t a whole lot going on. At least not today.
We hopped on a bus and headed south Costa de Oro, which is kind of like Veracruz’s “Golden Zone”, the swankier gringo-fied part of town. Not usually our bag, but on a day like this, beggars can’t be choosers.
We took refuge in this fancy mall that overlooks the ocean. Andamar has easily got to be the fanciest mall I’ve seen in all of Mexico. Nothing in the ritzy Polanco neighborhood of CDMX compares.
Andamar’s got a forest of trees in the middle of each section, and the entire mall fronts the sea (with floor-to-ceiling windows to let in light and views).
It’s also got a Burger King, so we weren’t going to pass that up.
We caught a bus to make our way back to CocoAventura just as the sun was setting and the winds finally died down, capping off an interesting first day in Veracruz City.
