Day 6

The drive out of Campeche was easy and our first stop was the town of Pomuch. Everybody here rides in 3 wheeled bicycle carts – vendors and whole families. Most are pedaled but some are motorized. This is a Mayan town but the town bakery was touted in guide books, and it was the reason why we wanted to stop here again. Definitely not the beauty of the town, which is pretty ugly and chaotic, still with many palm-thatched houses and nothing interesting to see. When we got to the bakery, their specialty was not out of the oven yet so we walked around for 20 minutes. Their specialty is flaky dough filled with either white soft cheese (philly?), which we had last time or with ham and cheese. Both versions are sprinkled with sugar on top. Ham with sugar seems like a strange idea, but they must like it this way. On or walk we saw an unusual scene --- a crowd of people by the school fence feeding childens throught the fence like animals in a Zoo. It must have been parents feeding lunch to their kids at school. We also saw some old Mayan women dresses in tradirional clothes that Bo really wanted to photograph, but when she asked their permission, they said no. Maybe they didn’t understand Spanish? Many of them speak their Mayan language only. The drive from there to Merida was easy. Checked into our hotel, and started walking. Downtown has changed considerably since our last visit in 2012. Significant increase in crowds. It didn’t feel as nice as the first time – too hectic after the laid back Campeche. The wife of the hotel owner is from Yucatan and her father makes hammocks so we bought one from her. She says it takes her father up to 15 days to make one hammock. She also said she has slept in a hammock since she was born and can’t sleep in a bed. Went to Trotters restaurant for dinner. Beautiful setting and the steak was the same quality as Ruth Chris.

Day 5

Today was Campeche exploration day. We started in the morning by getting up on the city walls near Puerta de La Tierra and our hotel. Walked the wall in both directions, which gave us a nice overview of that part of the city. Then we went to the pirate museum below in Baluarte San Francisco.. The descriptions of the myriads of pirates who attacked Campeche was surprising. From there we walked to a large attractive-looking colonial building that we spotted while walking the wall. It was a private mansion in the 18th century, then a school, then prison but now it’s a city archive. We should add that they keep government buildings, especially the historical ones, open to the public even on Sundays. On the way to the main plaza, we stopped at another public building where we met an American couple and talked to them for a while. Tom is a retired doctor from Connecticut and Carla – an art dealer. They live in Merida’s centro historico in an old colonial house they’ve renovated. They told us funny renovation stories, and we were amazed at how inexpensive the renovations costs are still here. They seemed to really like Campeche to the point of considering buying a place here. After that, we continued to the plaza and went into a museum in the former governor’s house. It’s the same colonial house onto which they were projecting the digital show last night. This small museum in a beautifully restored building was amazingly well done. It included a brief overview of Campeche’s history and its maritime significance. One of the rooms included models and descriptions of all types of vessels that the Spanish and the pirates used. All descriptions were also in flawless English, and the museum was free. We continued our walk to another historical house – Mansion Carvajal, but unfortunately it was closed. Bo read in some article about an old movie theater in Campeche, which is somewhat of a cult building. It was the first modern movie theater in the area built in 1951 in art deco style and equipped with the latest technology. It can be seen in Steven Soderbergh film Che-part 1 and Che-part 2 from 2007. At some point this theater was converted to a parking garage, but you still could go inside and see it. We walked all around it trying to get in, but it was impossible, and it looked like it was in really bad shape. After a short break we embarked for dinner and sunset. We went to Tio Fito and had a table on the patio overlooking the beach. The sunset was not better than at home but the food was great. Bo ordered an octopus (pulpo) and was a bit apprehensive about it, but it turned out to be delicious.

Day 4

After breakfast we started driving. The goal was Edzna, a place of Mayan ruins. The state of Campeche has a very strong Mayan heritage and Mayan presence. Because of that, in many ways it is very different from the rest of Mexico Here much of the rural population is Mayan, and they still live in palm-thatched houses, speak various Mayan-based languages and maintain their pre-Hispanic traditions. There are dozens of Mayan archeological sites throughout the state – from different periods, some very small and remote. If somebody is serious about Mayan archaeology, there are several routes one can follow, which would take many days. Edzna is not very remote, it took us 40 minutes on a mostly empty and very rural road. The site is amazing. The city was established in 600 BC and abandoned in 1450. The 2000 year old Mayan structures are very large, impressive and well preserved. The area covers 25 square km, and there were very few visitors there, 10 at the most, so the site felt empty. There are 13 preserved structures, the biggest being the Five-Storey Building, which is enormous and featured in all Edzna publications. From Edzna we drove to the coast in search of nice beaches. Some people told us about Soybaplaya between Champoton and Campeche so we drove there. However, when we got there it was a fishing village – no swimming area. After asking several people we were directed a couple of miles down the road to a place called Payucan. After driving through an industrial site and a very narrow road we found a picturesque swimming beach. It could be gorgeous if not for the garbage and a general lack of upkeep. We started our drive toward Campeche and saw sign for La Playa Bonita (beautiful beach). We entered and found a large, nice and well maintained beach. There was an entrance fee of 10 pesos per car and 2 per person, which amounted to about 80 cents for us. At least they are using the fees to keep the place spotlessly clean. After coffee and a nice walk, we drove along the coast to Campeche, first passing through fishing villages/neighborhood with lots of little houses, each of which had a fish store, and then through a neighborhood with magnificent waterfront houses of the wealthy Campechinos. When we got out of the hotel to go to dinner, we heard a lot of noise/music from the bar across the street called Rincon Colonial so we decided to go in and check it out. The place was hopping – two guys were playing guitars, many were singing, and lots more were drinking… They invited us in, but we didn’t stay long because we were hungry. We decided to come back after dinner. The dinner at Marganzo (another recommended place) was good, but not great. When we got out, we walked towards the central plaza and were surprised to see a great light show going on. Moving images were displayed on the side of a large colonial building with accompanying music. Lots of people, families with children were enjoying this really cool show and so did we. Then we walked back to the bar, but it was very subdues because it was closing in about 20 minutes. We had shots of a very good tequila and called it a night.

Day 3

After a quick breakfast we started our trek of the city. We went to several museums, bookstores and a preserved colonial house. We also walked to a neighborhood called San Roman to see the famous statue of the black Christ, the patron of Campeche for the past 500 years. The church and the statue are quite beautiful, but totally out of the tourist track. We were the only people there. From there, we walked to the malecon (waterfront board walk – actually paved with a bike path). They were setting up for this evening festival of the 3 kings (Jan. 6), which is a big deal in all of Latin America. There were 2 rows of tables already set up stretching several miles (thousands of tables) and they were putting table clothes on each one. Bo asked one of the people working on the set-up about the fiesta, and we found out that the start time is 6 pm, and that it’s called “Super Rosca de Reyes”. We didn’t know what it means, but later found out that it’s about a special bread served only on this day. We walked to a guidebook recommended place for lunch (La Pagoda)but the food was only fair (we should add that taste-wise it was no worse than our expensive dinner last night). Then we went to Maya archaeological museum in one of the fortifications (baluartes) and saw many artifacts from 1st century AD. We tried to walk the city wall but could not complete the circle because the wall abruptly ended. After a rest we set out to find a store that sold wine. After 30 minutes and following many suggested places we gave up and bough beer. After short rest, we set out looking for the mariscos restaurant recommended by our hotel staff (Las Palapas del Tio Fito). When we got to the waterfront, all the tables had loaves of special bread. Miles of bread. We were told that at &;30 the gobernador of the state will have a speech and after that, at about 8 pm they would start distributing the bread. We embarked on a walk to the restaurant which turned out to be 30 minutes. The seafood at Tio Fito was very fresh and good. It was difficult to get a taxi back because of the road closures. We had to wait about 30 min for a cab, which couldn’t even drop us off close to the Malecon. And when we got close we saw people with handfuls of bread. Some had whole loaves. When we got to the tables there was no bread in sight. But a girl took Bo’s hand and led her to a distribution point and she got a slice. The slices are big, 2” x 2” x 5” and filled with soft cheese. When Bo bit into her slice, she found a plastic baby Jesus. We started walking to the hotel but stopped for a brandy. Our pedometer showed we walked 12.2 miles today.

Day 2 Jan 4

Breakfast in the hotel and a rental car delivered. We set out for Campeche on a nice 4 lane highway (RT 180). The first stop was at an exclusive spa resort called Chable that recently opened in a rebuilt old hacienda outside of the village of Chochola in the middle of nowhere. A room is $800 a night and spa treatment is $550. Bo read some articles about it in travel magazines and wanted to see it, but they would not let us in because they want to respect the privacy of their guests. On the way back we stopped in the village to visit a cenote, which is a natural pit or sinkhole resulting from a collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes ground water underneath. There are thousands of cenotes in Yucatan. They even say that Yucatan is like Swiss cheese – full of holes. Mayas considered them sacred places. Some cenotes are above ground and some underground. This particular cenote called Cenote San Ignacio is in a cave and it’s spectacularly beautiful – turquoise waters surrounded by limestone with picturesque stalactites and stalagmites. The water temperature is constant 81 degrees year round. We had to pay 90 pesos each to get in, leave all our stuff in a locker, and then climb down steep stairs to the cave. There were some people there swimming. One of them was a Chinese student studying in Syracuse. The next stop was Becal, a small Mayan village where 80% of families make panama hats. They call them Jipi Japa. They’ve been making them for hundreds of years. Children start learning this craft when they are 9-10, both boys and girls. We had a demonstration of the process, starting with separation of the leaves into fibers for different quality hats, then bleaching the fibers in the sun, dying them, then weaving the hats. The weaving takes place in the cave to make the fibers more flexible and can take a few hours for a low quality hat to 20 days for the highest quality. The finished hat is placed in a special mold and pressed for 10 seconds with a metal form heated to 220F so it can retain its shape. Bo bought a nice hat. The next stop was another small Mayan town called Pomuch. It’s mainly known for its Day of the Dead ritual of exhuming and washing the bones, but it’s also known for the best bread on Yucatan, maybe even in the whole of Mexico. Their special bread is called el pan de Pomuch. We wanted to try it! After a walk through the town center, we found the most famous bakery in town, which was mobbed. We stood in line, but by the time it was our turn, one kind of bread with cheese and sausage was already gone, and there were only two pieces left of the cream cheese bread, the only other bread left. We took them and ate them on a bench right outside the bakery. The pan de Pomuch is really delicious. Then we attempted to visit another little town – Tenabo, where supposedly them make hammocks and do embroidery, but we didn’t see any craft workshops there so we drove on to Campeche. The last part of the road was really bad – lots of construction and traffic. We had a hard time driving to our hotel because it’s located on a pedestrian street. We kept driving around and finally we just parked and walked there. The hotel guys helped us bring it and park it. The hotel (Hacienda Puerta Campeche) is lovely as is the city itself. More about it tomorrow….

Day 1

The flights from Orange county to Merida was OK. Our hotel Santiago-Merida is on a quiet deserted street (Calle 74A) with a non descript front door. But inside it is beautiful. The Dutch owner did wonders refurbishing the old colonial house. After checking in, we walked to the historical center around 9 pm and the closer we got to the central plaza, the livelier it became. All the streets were full of people and colorful festivities. We walked around until about 10 pm and then finally had dinner in a recommended restaurant, but it was only fair. Got back to the hotel after 11 and collapsed.

Preamble

This is our 66th trip together. Campeche Mexico is in the Yucatan. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site - the only one with a beach. It was founded by the Spaniards in 1540.