We arrived in Tampico fairly quickly - it was only a short journey from La Huasteca. Our first impressions weren't the best, it seemed noisy and busy and not very clean. We found the hotel which was possibly the worst we stayed in on the entire trip. Saying that, it wasn't totally horrible - just a bit old and past it's prime.
We wandered into town, which was ok but nothing special. We had a great smoothie from a nice little juice, smoothies, milkshakes etc. We didn't spy anywhere that inspired us for dinner and the smoothies were pretty filling and so we went back to the room for a while before plumping for a pizza for dinner, in the hotel in front of cable TV. After our clssy start in the spa we'd taken a step down in th world, but we enjoyed it!
The next day we headed for Playa Miramar - we went out there fairly early in the morning and it was just miles and miles of golden sand and it was totally deserted. We found a little spot and not wanting to get stung for a deckchair fee later on in the day, put up our little umbrella and lay down our mats on the sand. We got changed and ready for the sea and went for a swim. The water was shallow and wonderful for swimming so we had several dips in the sea.
I enjoyed lying under the umbrella and relaxing, although it was extremely hot. Later on in the day I went for a walk up the beach and noticed a weird thing on the shoreline. Getting closer I could see that it was a rather pretty blue jellyfish. It didn't look too friendly so I started walking back to our little camp to inform Ed of this unwelcome visitor, on the way I spotted two more. Swimming time was over.
Over the next 20 minutes or so more and more of them washed up on the beach. They were a bit scary. We stopped a small child from grabbing one and getting stung. His stupid parent decided to pick them up with a stick and flick them further along the beach from where they were sitting which to my mind was a bit of a crap idea and wouldn't stop anyone getting stung.
I also noticed I was looking a bit red and so we packed up, had a quick shower and then went to one of the few beach bars which was open for a drink and a bite to eat. The food was good and we enjoyed chilling out in the shade gazing out in the almost deserted beach.
After that we started to drive back. I wanted to stop at a supermarket and pick up some suncream and aftersun for my red bits. When we got back to the hotel and I took my clothes off to put the aftersun on the full extent of my horrific burns became apparant. The sun umbrella had clearly not provided the protection I had assumed it would and I was red. Very very red. The pain was unbelievable. It was not one of the best nights of the trip for me as every move I made hurt.
I was glad that we weren't staying in Tampico much longer and were getting away from the beach the next day. In the morning we went out to take some photos of the city and found a much prettier plaza, which made Tampico a little better than the boring place we thought it was. But it was definitely time to move on and I was excited about the ruins to come...
