Chilling on the beach

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Campeche

Our overnight journey to Campeche was interrupted several times by army patrols boarding and marching swiftly up and down the bus while we all blinked blearily in the unexpected bright lights - not sure what they were checking for but fortunately no one on our bus was it!

Arriving safely in Campeche (quite an affluent and stylish town), we headed straight for the sea front and fresh sea breeze. Though slightly less humid than Palenque, Campeche was still really warm with the hoped for sea breeze doing little to alleviate the heat...or the mozzies (from Palenque onwards Kate proved to be popular dining for the local mosquitoes). Overall our hostel was good (kitchen/laundry facilities, free breakfast, internet, balcony view over the Zocalo) but Room 0 with only a small high window did a good impression of a slow cooker on steady cook mode!! In early Spanish times Campeche was one of only two ports permitted to import/export goods, making it a prime target for pirate raids. Remnants of the old fortifications together with the colonial buildings and cobbles give the old part of the town a great character.

Beaches are sadly lacking near Campeche despite being on the coast but following our Footprint guide we took a 'collectivo' bus bound for Sebylaplaya - a fishing village 45 minutes out of town. Helpfully what the book didn't really make clear was that while there is a long beautiful sandy beach running the whole length of the village it is exclusively for the fishermen and no one swims off it! The swimming beach was actually 3 km out of the village. Happily though it gave us a good excuse to have our first ride on a Mexican motorised tuk-tuk (sadly no photo!).

Merida

The capital of Yucatan state was our first inkling of how much of a tourist focus the Yucatan penisula has. Even in the off season the industry is kept well fed with cruise ships busing groups in every few days to shop their hearts out. Innocently chatting to a young mexican keen to practice his English, we got suckered in to see his family's hammock business conveniently "just round the corner". The building itself was quite facinating: an old colonial house now rented/owned by a cooperative of Mayan familes to sell their handmade wares. Each family/group specialises in a different craft: hammocks, traditional wooden or jewelled masks, colourful bags & blankets, traditional dress, etc. But they had the hard sale down pat and "because we are a cooperative it is not for me but is to benefit my whole family and village". What makes it harder to resist is that much of what they say is true, apart from the bit where they tell you they're offering you mexican not gringo prices!

Being approached 20 minutes later by another elderly Mexican also keen to chat to us in English we were instantly on the alert, but this time he was genuinely just being friendly and we spent a good 1/2 hour sitting with him in the plaza hearing all about the town and local history and the two Thompsons (apparently it was the American explorer who took the Jaguar's jade eye and the English one who returned it to the Maya people - hurrah!).

Probably the best tourist site in Merida is the Athropology museum, where they've got lots of info on the local area both in Spanish & English and some fantastic artefacts from the local ruins + blissful air con!

Celestun

After the bustle of the big cities of Merida and Campeche we were ready to get back to a slower way of life and chose Celestun - a quiet little village on the coast with a reasonable beach to relax on. It was also host to a large flamingo (flamenco) population which made for a great day trip that included a pertrified forest and mangrove swamp. Bloody mossies though, DEET seemed to have little effect as they managed to get us (well mostly Kate) good and proper.

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Comments

[fdfd]

Check points
They were looking for illegal immigrants, drugs, and smugglers. If they see something suspicious, usually they ask for an ID.