The Pirate town of Campeche


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North America » Mexico » Campeche » Campeche
June 15th 2011
Published: June 20th 2011
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Zocalo in CampecheZocalo in CampecheZocalo in Campeche

The beautiful zocalo in Campeche at night
There is nothing like a great hotel to get your new town off to good start and Hotel Lopez did not disappoint. A newly renovated hotel in the historical centre of town that offered a great room with air conditioning and most importantly a pool.

The historical district is a picture perfect area of Campeche with its multi-coloured buildings and its quaint tree-lined zocalo.

Campeche was an important stop on the trade route between the new world and Europe and as such was not immune to the odd pirate attack or two during its heyday. Due to this the city has 2 forts on opposite hills about 4 kilometers from the centre that overlook the area and kept watch for those pesky pirates.

On one day we headed out early to go to one of the forts and walked along the sea walk and up a bloody steep hill to the smaller of the 2 forts. This fort had an exhibition of the colonial history of the town with models of the ships, pictures of the governors and weapons on display. But alas no pirates were seen.

The walk back into town certainly warmed us up so
Enjoying a meal with the lovely Cathedral in the backgroundEnjoying a meal with the lovely Cathedral in the backgroundEnjoying a meal with the lovely Cathedral in the background

Bonny & Danny enjoying a meal overlooking the zocalo with the Cathdral lit up in the background
it was into the nice refreshing pool when we arrived back at the hotel.

That night we had dinner at a restaurant overlooking the zocalo and the cathedral. Even eating at a very tourist restaurant in the heart of the city we still found it hard to spend over $30.

The next day we visited the other fort but as we had left it until later in the day we hopped on a local bus to the bottom of the hill. Let me tell you, we have felt as hot as we did climbing that hill since our bus lost it air conditioning in Egypt. You can probably tell by the photos and video attached how hot we were. But, alas, no pirates were found.

This fort held an impressive display of mayan art and burial customs that we tried to enjoy as sweat kept dripping off our bodies. The top of the fort displayed the cannons that were used during the working life of the fort and the views offered were amazing. We felt sorry for the people on the local bus on our way back to town. Here are 2 sweaty gringos who are standing on a packed bus with their smelly armpits for the whole bus to enjoy their nasty aroma.

Needless to say the pool got a very good workout when we got back to the hotel.

That night we allowed ourselves a few recuperating cervezas and Danny even got his photo with an illustrious pirate (attached). We ended up in a small local bar called Pancho Villa with this extremely drunk couple who were not happy when the bar ran out of the beer they were drinking and a waiter who with broken english and spanish explained that his dream is to go to Los Angeles because he loves skating and surfing.

On our last day in Campeche we were doing a bit of shopping and in this boutique shoe and gift store we found a small kangaroo made from tin. We had to get a photo and the lady shop assistant thought that we wanted to buy it. We had to explain that we can get this sort of stuff at home and we just thought it strange that it was here in Mexico.

We enjoyed our time in Campeche but it was time to board the
View from Fort San JoseView from Fort San JoseView from Fort San Jose

What a hot walk - but the view made in worthwhile
bus and head off to the ruins at Palenque.


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