December 9, 2018
A Day to Explore Campeche
Sans bikes
We wanted to relax for this day and just explore this lovely city, so slept in and enjoyed the breakfast provided at our hotel. Although not included in the room fee, the price was good as were the eggs and toast we ordered. In addition, the young lady who looked after us had excellent English, so she was able to help us with our pronunciation of difficult words like "jugo de naranja". I have a hard time getting my mouth around naranja, so it was nice to have such a patient young helper to guide me.
After breakfast we headed for the malacon, a much anticipated view of the Gulf of Mexico for us. The day had warmed up and was already quite hot by the time we walked the short distance from our hotel to the waterfront, where we enjoyed strolling along with others on this beautiful Sunday.
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Part of the reason for heading to the malecon was to get a picture of the Campeche sign. As you know, if you've been to Mexico, all cities have their own colourful letters that are necesario for any tourist to get their picture in front of. We walked up, then down, then back up again thinking that somehow we missed it, but alas, no letters were found. There is, however, some construction going on in the area where we thought they should be, so we are wondering if they have been moved to another location for the time being. We will check with the tourist information office tomorrow.
We stopped at an Oxxo (Mexican version of 7/11) for a respite from the heat and a couple of cold drinks before heading out once again to explore the streets of old Campeche. The old part of the city is surrounded by the walls of a fort built to protect it from the activities of pirates during the late 1700s. The streets are all cobblestone in the old part (not so great for cycling on!) and most of the buildings are painted in various colours, making it a tourist's dream to wander around and wander we did! Jim enjoyed taking pictures from many angles and I enjoyed soaking up the relaxed and beautiful scenery around us.
Along the way, we stopped in a disused church where there was an artist's market going on. Sure enough, there was a stall selling those wonderful blouses that I have been craving! Jim was happy to stop for a bit while I chose one and even paid for it before I had even finished changing back into my plain t-shirt - its a winner!
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Finished with our wandering, we came back to our room for an afternoon siesta. The hotel is perfectly situated for a stay in old Campeche - 1/2 block from the main square and within walking distance to anything in old town or the malacon. We are very happy with our room and particularly with the ability to stop in the hottest part of the day and have a snooze!
Later, we went back out for a walk before dinner (I with my new top on, of course!). It had clouded over and was quite windy, so we decided to head back to the malacon to see the waves from the water. It was pretty gray and choppy out there but no waves crashing up and over, which is what we were hoping to see. However, as we turned back to return to the city, the skies opened up and within a few seconds we were both soaked to the skin!
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We laughed like little children as we ran through the rain and back towards the hotel, drawing looks from all of the people hiding out under cover from the deluge. We, being from the West Coast (or Wet Coast as some call it) are used to rain and this was not even cold, so it didn't bother us at all. We did need to go back to our room to change into dry clothes. We decided to eat at the little restaurant next to our hotel rather than venturing out farther this time and were very happy with the results. A new favourite Mexican dish called Panucho con Pollo - a small taco shell deep fried and topped with chicken, lettuce, tomato and avocado along with a sauce. It is very much like a taco in North America, but a whole lot yummier! These, of course, were accompanied by Margaritas and we were a couple of very satisfied customers.
While we were eating, we were entertained by watching the goings on at the table next to us. It is very common here for sellers of all sorts of things (clothes and jewelry) to wander in and sell their wares. No one is particularly annoyed by this practice and we just say thank you no when they come by. The woman at this table was doing some shopping though, looking through the many colourful blouses being sold by a young woman with a baby bouncing on her back. The baby, of course, is who we were being entertained by. What a little cutie and so quiet but curious. Jim and I made little faces and waved at her while her mama made her sales. Later in the evening as we strolled around, we saw her again and I was sorry that I hadn't purchased anything from her. Oh well.
We enjoyed a windy evening stroll and ended up back at last night's restaruant for some dessert and a nightcap so that we could enjoy watching the music happening in the park from their lovely balcony. Our waitress this evening was the daughter of the very friendly waiter from the night before and we enjoyed a little visit with him - a very proud papa!
We headed down to the park to listen for a bit to the music of the evening before heading back to our room and a little Sunday Night Football. I have to say, I love watching NFL on Mexican tv! The commentators are so entertaining! Tomorrow we will head off on the bikes to explore a bit further this fascinating city!
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