In the Footsteps of Cortes : Meeting the ghosts of history on a bus tour from Veracruz to Mexico City

In a corner of an old hacienda, a crackling fire took the chill off the January night. Further warmed by our host’s tequila and spicy enchiladas, we sat around the table, hands touching, staring at a flickering candle.

Prompted by tales that the hacienda is haunted, Ron, one of my fellow travelers was leading a seance. “Let the table rise, let the candle flicker, let the fire speak,” he intoned dramatically.

It’s appropriate that we were calling on spirits from the past, because we were retracing the route Hernan Cortes took during his conquest of Mexico. Much of what we saw along the way summoned up spirits of Aztec warriors, Spanish conquistadors and powerful Indian leaders who helped Cortes defeat the New World’s mightiest empire almost 500 years ago.

Cortes is one of history’s more amazing characters. He landed on Mexico’s mainland in 1519 with 508 soldiers, 100 sailors, 11 ships and 16 horses. At the time, Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital city, had more than 200,000 residents. It rivaled Constantinople in size and riches; it was four times bigger than Seville, Spain’s largest city. The Aztec empire extended all the way to Nicaragua.

Outnumbered hundreds to one, Cortes and his men defeated the Aztecs. Swords and armor, horses, gunpowder and cannons helped, but other forces were at play. The empire was not united. Various surrounding Indian states resented the Aztec leader, Montezuma, and joined forces with Cortes. When Cortes finally marched on Tenochtitlan, about 150,000 Indian allies marched with him.

Our eight-day trip began in Veracruz, on the Gulf of Mexico. Following Cortes, we headed north through the ancient town of Cempoala; up through coffee-growing highlands; across the chilly plains of the altiplano region to Tlaxcala, and finally to Tenochtitlan, the site of modern Mexico City.

We toured with Mexico City-based Intercontinental Adventures, which began offering this bus trip 2 1/2 years ago. Since the route’s total distance is less than 200 miles, most of our daily bus rides were only an hour or two long. We spent most of our time sightseeing in towns and historic sites.

Cortes’s army included “32 crossbowmen and 13 musketeers, 10 brass guns, four falconets (light cannons) and much powder and shot,” according to Bernal Diaz del Castillo in his book “The True History of the Conquest of New Spain,” published in 1568. Our army of eight--all but one were middle-aged professionals from the United States--included a tour bus, a guide, a driver and lots of cameras and luggage. The bus was air-conditioned and heated, had a bathroom and a wet bar with hot and cold drinks. Ours was a quest, not a conquest.

Diaz served with Cortes during the entire campaign. I brought his book along and tried to read each chapter (sometimes by flashlight in the back of the bus) before we arrived at the place it described.

Our first two days and nights were in Veracruz, Mexico’s second-largest port city (after Tampico). Coffee drinking, music and promenading along the beach-side malecon (walkway) are major preoccupations in this relaxed city of 2 million.

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On our second night, the wind howled furiously. In fitful dreams I saw waves lapping at the hotel’s front steps, the city evacuated and me trapped alone, surrounded by the sea. Our guide, Agustin Arroyo, said the storm was one of Veracruz’s notorious winter nortes that sweep down from the north with high winds, stormy skies, chilly temperatures and sometimes rain.

Cortes’ first settlement, and our first bus stop, was La Antigua, today a pretty village with cobblestone streets and tile roofs. Cortes later relocated 18 miles south, at present-day Veracruz, because it offered a better port.

A lacy wrought-iron Victorian gazebo graces the small plaza at La Antigua. A few blocks away is Mexico’s first church, the tiny, white-stucco Hermita del Rosario, built in 1519. But around the corner is perhaps the most haunting sight along the entire route--the ruins of Cortes’ first hacienda.

Trees grow up where the roof used to be; huge trunks protrude out the windows. Tangled roots cover the original stone-arched entrance and have crawled along the walls and floors of the dark stone structure like woody snakes.

Nearby is the famous ceiba tree, where Cortes first tied his ships. Cortes originally sailed up the Antigua River from the Gulf of Mexico. As we crossed the river on a rickety footbridge, the norte winds threatened to blow us into the water. But when Cortes began his journey, the omens were good. His arrival seemed to fulfill Aztec prophecies that said men coming from the direction of the sunrise (in this case, Europe and the Atlantic Ocean) would rule the land. In addition, Huitzilopochtli, the god whom the Aztecs believed brought the sun each day, was depicted with a helmet that resembled the Spaniards’.

From La Antigua, it’s less than an hour’s ride to Cempoala, a major turning point for Cortes. Several stone pyramids and a ceremonial ring are all that’s left of the city. White plaster originally covered all the structures, and when the Spaniards arrived at the city gleaming in the sun they thought it was covered in silver.

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Today, the plaster has worn away, but the structures, built with round river rocks instead of cut stone, are still striking. The tall palm trees surrounding the ruins were blowing nearly horizontal in the norte, which mirrored the dramatic, turbulent atmosphere of the Conquest.

Cempoala was ruled by Tlacochcalcatl, who was known as the “Fat Cacique,” or chief. He was so corpulent he couldn’t walk. Fat Cacique resented Montezuma’s costly taxes and annual tribute, so he was happy to ally with Cortes.

Cortes’ next destination, and ours, was Xalapa, now the Veracruz state capital, in the coastal mountains. The higher we climbed the lush coffee country on the wet side of the mountains, the colder and rainier it got.

Wearing a borrowed sweater over several other layers, I read Diaz’ description of the Spanish trekking through the same area: “We had no clothes to protect us from the cold wind that blew off the snowy mountains and made us shiver. Our lances, muskets and crossbows made a poor covering.” I could sympathize with Cortes’ soldiers and implored the bus driver to turn up the heat.

Xalapa, a city of 150,000, is home to one of Mexico’s finest archeological museums. The collection focuses on pre-Conquest material and gives an overview of Mexico’s ancient cultures. Built in 1985 and constructed in giant steps down a hillside, the Xalapa Museum of Archeology displays thousands of artifacts, ranging from giant 12-foot-high stone Toltec heads to fine pottery, carvings and jewelry.

That night, in the pretty colonial town of Coatepec, we stayed in an old hacienda that specialized in exotic Mexican dishes. I ordered pizza with huitlacoche, Mexico’s corn fungus delicacy. Someone else got tacos de platano macho con mole de xico--plantain tacos with mole sauce. Mole de xico is a special Veracruzano mole made with bananas instead of the traditional cocoa.

On our fourth day we crossed the Sierra Madre Oriental--the spine of mountains running north to south--and came out of the clouds to bright sunshine and blue skies. A cheer went up in the bus--we had finally escaped the norte.

Now we were in the sunny but frigid high country of Puebla state. Cactus fences and stacks of corn stalks lined the brown fields. Cofre de Perote, a snow-dusted 14,000-foot peak with a squared-off summit, basked in the cold sunlight of the altiplano like an imposing fortress. The air was piercingly clear. Pico de Orizaba, the highest mountain in Mexico, at 18,701 feet, rose in the distance--a beautiful, slightly irregular snow-covered cone.

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After a long, dusty ride, we stopped at the newly unearthed ruins of Cantona, which flourished from AD 600 to 1000 and is now considered the second-largest archeological site in the country, next to Teotihuacan, near Mexico City.

We left Cantona as sunset turned Pico de Orizaba pink and arrived late at the Hotel Hacienda La Escondida--site of our seance. Besides worrying about ghosts in the night, we worried about freezing in the unheated hacienda. It turned out that Mexico was having the coldest winter in decades.

But the ambience and human warmth of the hacienda overpowered the piercing cold. Our hearts and bodies were warmed the next morning in the kitchen with a wonderful breakfast, cooked by the owner’s mother.

The hacienda was our base for two nights as we explored other pre-Aztec ruins in the area and the city of Tlaxcala. The Tlaxcalans were allies of the Cempoalans, who sent word ahead that Cortes was coming. The Tlaxcalans were also bitter enemies of the Aztecs, who denied them essential salt and cotton.

But the Tlaxcalans didn’t trust Cortes and sent other allies, the Otomis, to fight him. About 60 Spaniards and all of their horses were wounded at Tlaxcala, though only one or two Spaniards died. After alternately battling and trying to make peace with the Tlaxcalans and their Otomi allies, Cortes eventually got them to help him fight the Aztecs.

We spent the afternoon exploring Tlaxcala, including San Francisco, the first convent in continental America, and the Governor’s Palace, where vibrantly colored murals (painted over 30 years by local artist Desiderio Hernandez Xochitiotzin) tell the story of the founding of Tlaxcala, the prophecies of the god Quetzalcoatl, the Conquest, Mexican Independence and more.

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On Day 6 we headed for Puebla, the first planned Spanish city in Mexico. Puebla is the site of many firsts in the New World. It claims the first college, glass factory, textile mill and butcher shop. We spent the afternoon exploring antique shops, a Talavera pottery factory and the Biblioteca Palafoxiana, the oldest library in the Americas, built in 1646.

The final leg of our trip was over a 13,000-foot pass--now called the Pass of Cortes--between two lofty volcanoes, Popocatepetyl (17,887 feet) and Iztaccihuatl (17,342 feet). Cortes chose this most difficult approach to Tenochtitlan for the element of surprise. We chose an easier route that our tour bus could navigate--though the tour company offered the option of riding across the pass on horseback.

Descending into the Valley of Mexico, surrounding Mexico City, we stopped at Cholula. The church, Capilla de la Virgen de los Remedios (built in 1666), with its dazzling blue and yellow tiled domes, sits atop a large hill that is actually the earth-covered ruins of what may be the world’s largest pyramid.

Like us, Cortes entered Cholula peacefully, but then he found out that the Cholulans, allies of the Aztecs, were planning a surprise attack. Before they had the chance to make it, Cortes slaughtered all of the local officials in the town square.

Reaching Tenochtitlan, Cortes and his men gazed with wonder at this splendid city of pyramids, temples and the largest market place in the Americas. Today, visitors in Mexico City can see the beautiful Spanish colonial architecture built on the ruins of Montezuma’s great city. The Plaza of the Three Cultures in the Tlatelolco section of Mexico City, where the Aztecs finally surrendered to Cortes in 1521, combines ancient, colonial and modern Mexico.

Montezuma welcomed Cortes to Tenochtitlan as the god Quetzalcoatl. But it was all downhill for him from there. Cortes eventually imprisoned Montezuma, who was killed during an attack by the Aztecs. It took Cortes two tries to take Tenochtitlan. His final siege of the city lasted 90 days and was accomplished with ships he had built in Tlaxcala to cross the huge lake--since dried up--surrounding Tenochtitlan.

We spent our last two nights in Mexico City and one day at Teotihuacan--known to the Aztecs as “the place where men turn into gods”--climbing the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon, and exploring colonial churches and museums. I wasn’t quite finished with the Diaz book by our trip’s end, so I finished it on the way home. But it only inspired me to read more. When I got back I bought Hugh Thomas’ 1993 book “Conquest: Montezuma, Cortes and the Fall of Old Mexico.” It’s 800 pages long. I’ve been reading it since I got back. Only 125 pages to go.

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GUIDEBOOK: Following Cortes

Getting there: Aeromexico and Mexicana offer connecting flights to Veracruz; advance purchase fares start at $392 round trip.

Traveling the Route of Cortes: Intercontinental Adventures, Georgia 120-9A, Mexico, D.F. 03810; telephone 011-52-5-536-3700; fax: 011-52-5-669-0086. Offers several Route of Cortes tours from Veracruz: four days, $780; six days, $1,020; eight days, $1,290 and 11 days, $1,650. Prices per person (double occupancy) include: lodging, meals, airport transportation, excursions, museums and other side trips, a multilingual guide, tips and taxes. Minimum of four passengers; price break for groups of 10-25.

AMTAVE (Mexican Assn. for Adventure Tourism and Ecotourism), Ave. Insurgentes Sur 1971-251, Mexico, D.F. 01020; tel. 011-52-5-661-9121; fax 011-52-5-662-7354. A consortium of 24 tour operators offering customized cultural tours. Prices and itineraries vary.

Where to stay: Hotel Hacienda La Escondida, Carretera Huamantla-Puebla, Tlaxcala; tel. 011-52-247- 2-1466. Rates: $20 per room double occupancy. Eight rooms. Funky but comfortable, in 19th century hacienda. Hotel Posada Coatepec, Hidalgo 9, Esquina Aldama, Coatepec, Veracruz; tel. 011-52-91-28- 16-0544, fax 011-52-91-28-16-0040. Rates: 25 room, $40-$165 double occupancy. Remodeled hacienda, charming large rooms; traditional food with contemporary touches.

For more information: Mexican Government Tourism Office, 1801 Century Park East, Suite 1080, Los Angeles, CA 90067; tel. (310) 203-8191.