Back to the heat

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On Thursday we got the bus to Campeche, which we weren´t going to go to but the aussie girl had recommended it and we´re glad we did. It was a really cute town, the hostel looked over the Zocalo and it was on the ocean but no beach. There are still part of the old city walls that were built to defend the town against all the pirate attacks. Some nice wee churches as well. I tried a local speciality for dinner - pan de cazon, which is hammerhead shark sandwiched between corn tortillas with black beans and tomato and was very good. We went and bought our bus tickets for the next day to Merida and got the second class cos was a bit cheaper.

When we turned up at the bus station the next day it turned out our taxi driver had taken us to the wrong station, and despite us asking several ticket and police people that we were at the right place no one had said no you need to be at the other station, so we missed our bus to Merida! Luckily an Italian guy we´d met in Palenque arrived going to Merida and managed to talk us onto the next first class bus going, and they didn´t charge us anything extra!

We went for our usual wander around the city, standard zocalo and cathedral and churches and markets. Found the post office so could send a letter - that was a proper mission since the guide book was out of date.

I wasn´t feeling well so went to the pharmacy next to the hostel and asked for something for a sore head and blocked nose - using sign language, and whatever it was they gave me worked with just one pill!! Had a snooze and then the Italian guy cooked us a massive feed of pasta, which we shared with 2 swiss guys we´d been talking to.

I have lots of photos for the next one so will do it separate.

We saw a poster at the hostel to go to Celestun to see the flamingoes so decided to book that for the next day. So glad we did as it was amazing. The van picked us up at the hostel which made a nice change from walking to the bus station. There were 4 Mexican guys and one Japanese girl on the tour as well. The driver gave us info on the wee Mayan towns as we drove through them, and got to see traditional Mayan houses that are still lived in.

We got a boat out to the flamingoes, which you could see from ages away as a pink line against the green trees and blue water. There were loads of them squaking away and eating the mosquito lavae (though they must have missed some cos me and Lorna are both being bitten). The driver took the boat up really close to the flamingoes and shut of the motor so all you could hear was the birds. They get noiser when the boat is closer but don´t fly off. While we were sitting there flocks of them were flying over to join other groups in the water. We also saw some pelicuns cruising around.

After that we got taken through the mangroves and got to swim in a yellowish pond, which was from the sulphur not people using it as a toilet! When we got back to the dock bit there were 2 iguanas sitting there sunning themselves. Lunch was at a restaurant right on the beach of the Mexican Gulf, which we got to go swimming in before eating. Was really hot even with the breeze. Lunch was yummy fish, not sure what kind but good. I was piling the hot green sauce onto my bread with no problems and one of the Mexican guys tried it and couldn´t speak for about 10 minutes! Was kinda funny once he was able to breathe again.

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Photos

Temple of the Sweet Name of Jesus
16th Century