Colonial Perfection
Trip Start
Dec 12, 2010
1
121
156
Trip End
Ongoing
Where I stayed
Campeche, Campeche, Mexico
Sunday, August 7, 2011
After another ridiculously hot nights sleep (I thought the places in Asia were hot – they have nothing on the dorms in Mexico – you can hardly sleep here) we hung around a bit in the morning, then had one final walk around the city before heading to the bus station.
However just before we set off we witnessed some sort of parade outside of our hostel – Drums were being played and everyone was wearing traditional dress, however, right at the front was some madman throwing lit fireworks into the air that no-one could predict where they were going to land. He would break the rockets stick off, place it on the ground and then light it. “Take cover” we all thought but apparently this is a very common part of most celebrations in Mexico.. ..Madness!!
3 hours on the bus and then we arrived at the city of Campeche. Which has been declared a world heritage sight. The centre is enclosed by an old wall and has tiny cobbled streets. For this reason, the bus station is quite a bit out of town. We tried to find out about local buses taking us to the centre, but everyone kept saying take a taxi. So in the end, that's what we had to do – luckily it wasn't expensive.
The hostel we chose was in the most incredible location – overlooking the main square with another stunning cathedral on it. This place really is beautiful. The houses are all multicoloured and the streets are narrowed and cobbled. A real old colonial feel about it.
Although we weren't going to be doing much celebrating today, we did think we would get a bottle of wine (or something like that) to drink on the roof top that evening. As today Simon and I have been together for 7 years. Wow... Its gone so quickly! So we walked around trying to find a shop. Every place we've been to has hundreds of convenience stores – but do you think we could find one. An hour and a half we walked – which was nice as we were taking in the sights – but couldn't find anywhere to buy a drink. Eventually we came across an OXXO shop (kinda like a small Tescos) which we've been in before, and Si has bought his beer from. YAY! We found one, about bloody time. So walked in and... wait... where's the booze??? They didn't sell any?!? What the hell?!? We couldn't believe it. After walking around for ages, we finally found the place, then to realise that they actually didn't sell any drink... Oh well. It wasn't meant to be. We'll have to have a celebratory drink another night!
Monday 8th August:
Woke up after a slightly better nights sleep. Still hot, but not as bad as Merida. Spent the morning doing boring things like laundry and then set off to wonder around the city. We were getting an over night bus tonight, but it wasn't leaving until midnight – so left our stuff at the hostel.
Its such a gorgeous city, Campeche, you can't stop being taken back by all the colourful houses and quaint streets. We walked around for ages, taking in all the sights and then headed back to the hostel to cool off, and out of the heat. Its clear that a lot of effort has gone into restoring the old town within the walls. Its almost in perfect condition and lacks the rawness that we've seen from other colonial towns we've seen on our travels.
In the evening we found a great little restaurant just off the main square to grab a tasty bite to eat and then had a taxi booked to the bus station. Our bus wasn't leaving till after midnight, so we did have to hang around a for a bit, but eventually it arrived and we climbed on board and practically fell asleep straight away.
