Campeche

This weekend, Sara, Erin, Myra, and I went to the city of Campeche. It's a beautiful city on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The town was built during colonial times once the Spanish conquered Mexico, and the architecture is really neat. The downtown has been restored very nicely, so it really felt like I was taking a step back in time.

Campeche used to be a huge trading port, even larger than Mérida. Because of this, it attracted many pirates and was attacked often. There are 2 large forts around the city which give amazing views of the ocean and the city. In the center of the downtown, there are huge walls and forts as well. It's pretty neat to see the city form on top of a fort. I have a ton of great pictues....it was almost hard to take bad photos!

The town isn't really geared towards tourists, but we did find one cool tourist attraction: a ride on the pirate ship "El Lorencillo." We took a ride in the evening, as the sun was setting. Watching the sun set on the ocean is amazing, especially if you're on a pirate ship. Arg!

We spent most of our time there walking around town and wandering in and out of museums and such. When your entrance to the museums is only 40 cents or so, it's nice to head inside and take a look. (Since we've arrived, the pesos has taken a nosedive. It works out well for us, but it's having devasting affects on the Mexican economy. Hopefully it won't fall further...)

We stayed in a hostel, which was a first for me. It ended up being a nice place, and it was clean, so all was good. It was located on the main square and our room had a nice little balcony. We could also go up on the roof and hang out. We didn't even have to share our room with anyone because there were 4 beds and 4 of us. Other than the room being pretty hot, we were happy with our choice of hostel.

We ended up getting tickets on a really nice bus line: air conditioned, huge seats, free beverages, 2 bathrooms on the bus, nice tvs. Definately going to check out that bus line for future trips! On the way back to Mérida, our bus got searched. Mexico is having a really bad drug problem (almost a state of war between the police and the drug lords) and even though the problem isn't happening in or near the Yucatan (I'm safe! Don't worry!), they're still being vigilant. Those who had checked luggage had to get out and do something with it. None of us checked out backpacks, for which we were greatful. Even though getting stopped by the police is freaky (they all carry HUGE guns, even if they're just patrolling the streets!) it makes me feel like something is being done to counteract the drug problem.