Popular with Mexican vacationers, Veracruz offers a relaxed atmosphere with a few major sights. The center of action here is the sixteenth-century zócalo, the Plaza de Armas, a lively arcaded square planted with towering palms and tropical flowers.

Things to Do

The city has been the stage for many events in Mexican history, including the drafting of the Mexican constitution. It tells you of its compelling history through its historical monuments and attractions and museums.

Veracruz begs to be explored. Along the older streets of town, the faded clay-coated walls of ocher, gray, pink, blue, and green shield out the intense heat of the sun. Iron bars cover the windows, but great wooden doors swing wide open, revealing barbershops, print shops, doctor's offices, even banks, all open to the public view. You can either walk from the zócalo or take one of the tranvías to the shady Parque Gutierrez Zamora about seven blocks away.

The bell tower of the La Ermita del Santa Christo del Buen Viaje (The Hermitage of the Holy Christ of Good Journey), containing the chapel of the dark-skinned Christ and protector of travelers since 1598, said to be one of the oldest churches in the New World, rises to one side. Unlike other plazas in town, this square offers a green oasis of shade trees, a fountain, and an ice cream parlor. Stop and have your shoes shined at one of the numerous shoeshine stands. Over a block on Calle Zaragoza, the Museo de la Ciudad (Museum of the City of Veracruz), formerly the old Zamora Orphanage, offers a look into pre-Hispanic Veracruz's past through excellent collections of archaeological material and art from the Olmec, Totonac, and Huaxtec cultures, including Totonac yugos, large horseshoe-shaped stones used in ancient ball games, and objects from the Mexican Revolution (open Tuesday to Sunday).

Three blocks northeast, the tiny Baluarte de Santiago (Santiago's Bulwark), now a museum, is the only remaining bulwark out of nine built in 1526 to protect the city. Here, you can view an exhibit of pre Columbian jewelry and weapons.

Heading back to the zócalo, you come upon Los Portales de Miranda, an arcade named after its original owner, Francisco Xavier Miranda, a grain merchant. During the nineteenth century, evangelis-tas, or typists, sat under its cool overhang and wrote letters and documents for people who didn't know how to read and write.

Across from the Portales de Miranda on the southeast side of the plaza stands the eighteenth-century Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción (Our Mother of the Ascension), known to Jarochos as La Parroquia. On the northeast side, the Palacio Municipal, Veracruz's Moorish-style town hall, built in 1627 and seat of the first city council in North America, invites you into its beautiful patio. Take a break and sip a cool drink at a café under Los Portales overlooking the square, while you listen to the melodic strains of a marimba band. Around you, Jarachos play dominos, munch on tropical fruit, sip rich coffee, and watch the people.

Afterwards, stroll along Calle Miguel Lerdo toward the harbor. Follow the aroma of fresh tobacco just off the zócalo to the Factoría Cigarro La Prueba (La Prueba Cigar Factory) at Miguel Lerdo 500, where you can watch workers rolling cigars. (Open Monday to Friday 9 to 11 A.M., 229-932-2061). Then stop at the Plaza de la Republica, where people acquired merchandise arriving into the port. Across the street, the nineteenth-century Aduana Marítima (Customs House), built in 1903, contains part of the old city wall. The plaza's most striking building, the Registro Civil, was Mexico's first civil registry building. Continue on to the malecón.

Veracruz's malecón will remind you of what old Havana must have been like. And well it should. The English firm of Pearson & Co., which also built Havana's malecón, completed Veracruz's Correo y Telégrafo (Post and Telegraph Office), with its stately European façade and giant golden lions guarding its entrance, as well as the handsome nineteenth-century Estación de Ferrocarriles (Railroad Station) in 1902.

Along the malécon, the yellow-and-white–trimmed turn-of-the-century Museo Constituciónalista Venustiano Carranza houses a lighthouse and museum dedicated to former Mexican President Venustiano Carranza, whose hulking statue stands in the front yard. It was at his residence in Veracruz that he met with fellow statesmen to hammer out the post-revolutionary Mexican Constitution from 1914 to 1915.

Across the street, boats depart for harbor cruises, costing $5 per person, that include a running commentary on port sights sung out by the guide like a sailor's chant. Here, also, boats go to Castillo de San Juan de Ulua, a fort on an island east of the harbor. You may also want to take a boat to Isla de los Sacrificios (The Isle of Sacrifices), so called because the Spaniards witnessed a human sacrifice there. Today, it's known for its sandy beaches.

If you love the Agustín Lara song Granada, you'll want to visit his museum, Casa Museo Agustín Lara, located in Boca del Río. He began playing the piano in brothels and eventually took up bullfighting. Lara described himself as being born under “a silver, rumba-inspired, Jarocho moon, a real troubadour.” Here, you'll see sheets of his music, notes, and photos, as well as a replica of the radio studio from which he hosted La Hora Azul (The Blue Hour).

For the Kids

Veracruz's ultramodern Acuario (Aquarium), north of Playa Villa del Mar, continually packs in the crowds. Designed by Hiroshi Kamio, it includes 100 tanks featuring salt and freshwater fish from Mexico and other Latin American countries, a touch-me table, tropical rain forest, and closed-circuit television showing algae and small life forms. The aquarium's gigantic circular main tank, holding 325,000 gallons of salt water with fifteen species of sharks, sting rays, and groupers, is the largest in Latin America (229-932-7984).

Beach It

Though Veracruz has a variety of beaches, only those farther south, away from the port, are good for swimming. Even though those closest to town — Playas Hornos and Villa del Mar — have hard-packed sand and murky waters, you can still watch fishermen repairing their boats and mending their nets. If you want to swim, you're better off doing so in your hotel's pool.

Five miles south of Playa Villa del Mar lies the fishing village of Boca del Río and Playa Mocambo, one of the best beaches, alive with concessions and watersports activities. Both it and Playas Costa de Oro and Los Arcos have finer sand and sometimes heavy swells, making all three perfect for WaveRunners, windsurfing, and surfing. Weekends, they overflow with Mexican families, as vendors, selling seafood and beer, and dancers move to continuous tropical rhythms.

Beyond Boca del Río, along the Río Jamapa, you'll come upon the village of Mandinga, which means Devil's Corner. Here, on Laguna Mandinga, a mangrove lagoon, you can munch on huge shrimp and soft-shelled crabs, washed down with an ice cold cer-veza, at al fresco marisquerías (seafood restaurants) along its shore, where local children may entertain you with an impromptu son jaro-cho dance to the mellow tones of a harp.