Campeche - photos 1

Campeche:

Ahh what a surprise, Campeche...We decided to stop in this town to avoid a long 11hrs bus journey from Merida to palenque {to visit the Mayan ruins}. As we do not have the guide book for Mexico, we had a look on internet and the pictures of Campeche looked nice. Well it is a very nice colonial town on the Mexico Gulf with lots of forts and walls surrounding the historical centre. We spent finally here 3days walking in the typical colonial streets with colorful one storey houses, enjoying ice-cream on the charming plaza in front of the superb cathedral and biking to visit some forts.

Campeche was founded in 1540 by the Spaniard San Francisco de Campeche on the pre-existing Mayan city of Canpech {few traces remained today}. The city retains many of the old colonial Spanish city walls and fortifications {built from 1686} which protected the city (not always successfully} from pirates. Campeche owns the status of UNESCO world Heritage site since 1999.

- 'La puerta de la Tierra' or 'land gate' built in 1732. It is a tourist attraction with sound and light demonstrations. This picture was taken at the sunset,
- The San Carlos Bastion, one of the numerous bastions which can be seen around the historical centre. Some have been transformed into museums and one into the botanical gardens,
- Sea front,
- 'La puerta del Mar' or the 'sea gate' just one block from the main plaza. With the land gate, it was the main entrance to the main quarters,
- The San Juan church, view by night. The picture is taken from the main plaza,
- I was here at the desk of the bus terminal. We arrived 20min before the departure of the bus and not lucky the printer of the ticket crashed just for me. That was the first time that had ever happened...finally we obtained our tickets after 15min and the bus was late...good for us...