Campeche

Campeche

What a beautiful old walled city south of Merida on the Gulf of Mexico.  Most of the wall is intact and the remaining portions are being rebuilt so that at some point, people can walk around the city on the wall.  Our 3 days there were filled with seeing old buildings, doing both impromptu tours(an older man kinda kidnapped us taking us up to walk on the wall without the possiblity of our exit without him. It's complicated!) and organized tours (a trolley car tour of the city at sunset, nice!),  hanging out with clowns and eating some great seafood.

The main plaza in Campeche.  The church was started in the 1500's and was finished in the 1800's. The plaza is always filled with people sitting on shaded benches and kids feeding pigeons!

It truly is sparkling clean and colorful within the walls of the city.  Since it's a Unesco World Heritage site, building owners were provided the funds to paint their buildings.  Even vacant lots are bordered by colorful walls. 

We're talking friendly in Campeche.  This wedding shop owner and Ed became good buds after the owner showed Ed the caguamas (big bottles of beer)in his fridge!

Yes the street  IS as deep and narrow as it looks.  To get up on the sidewalk, there are stairs cut in the concrete at the street corners.  We'd like to see how the drivers get out after they park!

A bonus during our visit to Campeche was a national clown convention.

Our hotel was perfect.  Over 200 years old, with 2 foot thick walls, it is a cool retreat midday.  It was a military barracks in a  previous life.  We don't think that they had the cool pool back then though

The ceilings are probably 12 feet high  with  old beams that will probably last another few centuries! For some reason we didn't get a pic of the common areas but if you're interested, there are some good ones on TripAdvisor for Hotel Castelmar.

One of the gates to the city built in the 1700's.  Pirates were a big problem in Campeche.  All of the big names like Henry Morgan were regulars!