Day 24 - Campeche

February 9th 2009

After our coconut Olympics on the beach, and saying our final farewells to our travel companion Petr, Lukas and I continued onward along the coast to a place called Ciudad del Carmen. We were expecting some potential kayaking and wildlife spotting opportunities in the gigantic lagoon that the island the town sits on encloses with two large bridges. Turns out this funny little town actually presents none of these opportunities (unless you happen to be carrying your own kayak), and the town itself offered little comfort or interest. So we swiftly moved on to the capital city in this state, Campeche city. Updated visual journey map.


This city is famous as the first place the Spanish landed (in what is now Mexico), as it was set up as a central trading port for the region, one that was fraught with Pirate and buccaneer raids. Many famous names raided these shores for 160 years, including the infamous John Hawkins, Barbillas, and 'Peg-leg' (Pato de Palo) himself.


The Spanish recognised it's importance as a trading and fishing port, and so fortified the town with a hexagon 3m thick wall that literally made the seaport an impenetrable fortress. The town recently received UNESCO World Heritage Site status, and a lot of money was invested restoring 200 of the cities buildings (to attract more tourists). It is very pretty, but for us a little too clean and picturesque for us; it has become very westernised. We have a lovely hotel room, in a stately building with two balconies. Even the hotel receptionist is lovely, having slipped a secret hand-written note under our door inviting us out clubbing that night; very sweet, but was all happening to late for our tired selves.


After looking around this town for an afternoon, we spent to following day visiting more ruins, a complex not far from here called Edzna. Once a central Mayan city on the area, abandoned 500 years ago, the central acropolis is quite an impressive structure, but the rest of the site left something to be desired of the previous temple sites we have visited.


This time, we almost had the complex to ourselves, and spent a few hours exploring, and waiting for the right lighting condition to snap the pictures we were after (above).


Following a great meal in the town center, we watched a traditional brand play local music (nice to look at, but not great on the ears), and the local women played a form of bingo in the temporarily pedestrianised plaza over which the impressive cathedral overlooks.


Sunday, we have fallen victim to the 'day of rest' effects of Sunday close-downs, having put our dirty clothes into a launderette previously, we spent too much time at the ruins yesterday and the shop closed. Today it's not open at all, and so our plans to move on have been thwarted. So we had a bit of a lazy/relaxing day; been doing some reading, some meandering around town, eating some really nice seafood grub, while it's still available.

Following retrieval of our clean clothes we hit the road and headed inland to a place called Hopelchén. Updated visual journey map. We ventured here in search of more temples, a scattering of over 30 in the region. We spent this afternoon visiting a few, and although the architectural style of the Chene temples is different to the traditional Maya, the scale is disappointing and the state of restoration poor. With little else to do in this seldom visited part of Mexico, we feel a bit templed-out now, and are ready for a different scene. Tomorrow we head north in search of something different...



More pics from Lukas