Days 4 & 5: Papantla

After only 48 hours Mexico City has already come to feel like home and I'm glad to have booked a return just before this trip ends. Meanwhile I'm heading for the city of Papantla towards the Gulf of Mexico and a 45 Metro ride takes me back to the northern bus terminal, one of four in the city.

Mexican land transport is generally good. The intercity buses are classified, with the first and second classes sometimes located in separate parts of the city, or under one roof as here. Transport is privatised and the main player in the south and east of Mexico is ADO. The staff, neatly kitted in red and white uniforms, are courteous and efficient. To confirm the transaction, they read back the destination, date, time and seat number. Security is efficient too: the terminal staff do two baggage scans and an ADO man photographs all the passengers in their seats.

Four hours after departure, I'm in Papantla. It's an unremarkable city of about 50,000 people; there are sometimes dancers in the main plaza and the cathedral lists an intriguing number of Ps and Qs to be minded: crossing one's legs is disrespectful! What makes Papantla special is the spectacle of the "voladores". This is a team of five men wearing indigenous costumes; one of them plays a small flute while the others encircle a metal pole about 100 feet high. Then they climb the pole; at the top the musician continues with his flute and a drum. Meanwhile the others coil ropes around themselves and gradually pay these out, rotating round the pole in ever-increasing circles until they reach the ground. I'd rather them than me but it's a great spectacle, repeated hourly.

A few miles outside Papantla lies the pre-Columbian site of El Tajin. This city flourished around 600 to 1200 A.D. before the Aztecs and covered an area of 10 sq. km. (4 square miles). Among the wealth of pyramids lies the Pyramid of the Niches, with 365 of them for each day of the year. It's nice to be visiting a little known site; there are a few hundred visitors but I seem to be the only foreigner.

And it being a Sunday, El Tajin too hosts an hourly voladores display.Read more