Thursday, July 6th, 1995

Day 12: Villahermosa to Nautla, Mexico

Overlooking Catemaco- the truck is orange from the drive out of Belize

On the way out of Villahermosa in the morning we make the mistake of not fueling up in the city, when the gas stations are only a hundred yards apart.  Twenty minutes later and just a few miles out of the city we are driving on fumes, so we pull over onto a wide gravel shoulder.  I stand in the blazing heat pouring gasoline onto the ground and all over my hands.  Some even goes into the truck.  Had I climbed onto the rack, I would have seen the big green Pemex station 200 yards around the next bend.

We cover a lot of ground today, our last full day of driving in Mexico.  Passing Catamaco without stopping in is a bit hard.  As we round a bend in the mountain road, the town is revealed to us suddenly, stretched out along the lake shore like a perfect little dream.  It looks peaceful and inviting in the bright afternoon sun (photo left).

The city of Veracruz is the largest we've seen the whole trip.  The highway enters the city along the misty Gulf coast shoreline and peters out into tight busy streets.  We enjoy being lost in the crowded city for a while, navigating by compass.

We decide to cut short our driving so that we can stay on a beautiful Gulf beach our last night.  We park the truck in a well-kept campground near Nautla in the late afternoon.  Across the street, a touristy-looking restaurant feeds us an early supper of various fried seafood appetizers.  I tie my hammock up between the rack and a palm tree while Sean explores the soft gray beach.  As the sun sets, a huge cloud lined in gleaming silver appears over the beach to the west.

We are the only people at the small campground and it is very quiet.  We take the opportunity to reflect on the past two weeks.  I can't wait to get home and tell my friends and family all about it, and yet I don't want the trip to end.

Sean explores the beach

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