I'm showing some pictures of our apartment here in Centro Campeche. Normally I don't post a lot of where we are staying because who cares? But as I have walked down the streets in Merida and Campeche, I wondered what is behind those doors and maybe it was something like what we arrived to in Campeche!

This is the door that leads to the street

Walking into the living room. The ceilings are so high.

The dining room with bedroom door across from the table

This is above the door to the bedroom and to outside? La Abarroteria is grocery store. I haven't asked the owners if these were original.

Great patio with pool on the right. I've been in it three times today. It's hot here.

This is really cool. This is a hook for a hammock. You can take the hook out and the silver disc slides down to cover the hole. So lo tech that it is hi tech

Campeche - First Full Day
We had an extremely busy day in Campeche. Walking the streets of Campeche you are taken by how well preserved, or actually how restored it is. Where Merida seems to have random re-done structures, Campeche has upgraded the whole town. When I say the "whole town" I'm of course talking about the Historico area inside the walls. Outside it's a pretty normal big busy Mexican city. Walmart, Sam's Club probably a Costco, you know the traditional Mexican stores! We started at the Bastion San Carlos which holds the Museo de la Ciudad. I believe there are 7 Bastions with various museums. The museums are generally small. Next ,stopped at the Ex-Templo San Jose which is now the Cultural Center Claustro. Again, repurposing a great building for another use. It's an art school and gallery. Checked out the Puerta de Mar. Stopped into the Campeche Catedral with the Black Jesus, no not Quincy Jones, but a crucifix that stood outside of another church here. Then Centro Cultural Casa #6 and Mansion Caraval for the great staircase. Break to rest up. Dinner at Marganzo, then for the luscious whipped cream topping on the cake, went back to the Catedral where there was a small orchestra playing samba, mambo and everyone was in the square dancing. All of this without a car. I found a parking space and I'm not moving it for 4 days!

Museo de la Ciudad at the Bastion San Carlos

I had to add this shot. In the basement of the museo is a dungeon and a pirate chained to the wall...and a repair man fixing the air conditioner. The pirates had it pretty good

Ring the bell!

El Clautro Cultural Center

Very pretty inside with the student's work. Some quite good

Puerta de Mar. I think one of two gates to the city left.

A government building but the integrated some old ideas into a modern building

Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de la Purisma Concepcion. Or as we would say in the midwest, a big church

Black Jesus

Living room of a typical rich person in Spanish Days.

The kitchen

Mansion Caraval. This is mostly government offices now, but you have to see the stair case.

We've noticed some Moroccan influence here.

The boys in the band

We could have danced all night, well at least unti 9 o'clock


Town rolls up pretty early on a weekday.

I couldn't leave if I wanted to, I'm locked in

After looking up the Barbachanos the other day, I did now have to look up Codz Poop.

Enjoyed your latest posts, and photos with the sprinkling of humorous captions, like "at least unti 9 o'clock". I totally get it, but still, that looks like fun.

I love watching the public, open air dancing in Mexico. Because it's so rare in my neck of the woods, It seems almost Felliniesque to me.

Mexico is never more alive than at night when the people are out, dancing, eating and plain enjoying life. The same band we saw last night will be in a different location tonite and we will be there!

Campeche - Second Day
Today we are off to the north side of the wall and paid 106 Pesos to walk the wall. This is almost $60 USD less than we paid to walk the walls of Dubrovnik in September. ( I'm not really comparing the two, but hey a wall is a wall). Breakfast at Cafe Luan on 59th st., excellent. Then we went to the Central Cultural " El Palacio", the former government buildings. The woman at the front desk tried to explain what we were going to see, and she was saying there would be a "mapping" which we've come to realize is moving pictures on the wall and then she was making a wavy sign with her hands? Well, we were ushered into a room, which looks like the deck of a ship and as the "movie" starts the room starts tilting as if we are on the deck of a ship, a la Disney. Oh! Now we entendemos! Upstairs is the Museo of Contemporary Art. We really enjoyed that. I am posting some pictures. It's 1:00PM, we are hungry and head back home of some leftovers. Tonight we are going to Calle 59 for pizza and then the orchestra tonite.

I know this looks just like the bell I posted yesterday, but it is actually from the other end of town. You can almost see the Angel on the Malecon to the right of the bell

Looking down from the city walls

Cafe Luan. I ordered Serranos, which is eggs, cheese, croissant and Serrano Ham. So good!

Here is the boat / shaking platform

Shot of the movie

Lookin' for pirates

Two paintings by Luis Carlos Hurtado

I actually felt like I was standing in a crowded tienda

Various sculptures


Looking at the Catedral from the Palacio

A painting by Olga Donde

Campeche - Last Day
Today turned out to be a little different than we had planned. Late yesterday afternoon I slipped on the tile next to the pool and either broke or seriously sprained two toes. My little toe was pointed so far to the left it looked like it was hitchhiking away from my foot. It was joined by the second to last toe. Quite painful, although the biggest damage was to my Ego. Looked up what to do for a broken toe on YouTube and the answer is...not much. Ice on, ice off, ice on, ice off. Elevate etc. My wife went to the farmacia for supplies and we taped the left three toes on my left foot together. Today they were better, some black and blue but not as bad as I thought and they seem to be straight again. Still I didn't feel like Hoppa-Longing the town so we did a road trip.

We headed south on 180 through Seybaplaya and Champoton ending up at the Bahia de Tortuga which is a restaurant just off the highway but right on a beautiful beach. Sat and watched the ocean, had some coconut shrimp and read for about 3 hours in the lounges provided. We got there right at 12:30, ordered, then two big busses of tour goers came in. Luckily our food order got in, they weren't so lucky and there was a lot of grumbling about the wait for their orders.

We are heading on to Celestun tomorrow to see the flamingos. We loved Campeche. I would maybe go back to Merida, but I will definitely come back to Campeche. Already thinking about a trip to San Cristobal and Palenque. So much to see over here!


We stopped to check out a hotel called Tucon Siho Playa, just south of Seybaplaya. It's huge hotel, had a nice little beach, pool, big restaurant and it was completely empty. Couple of staff and the cast from the Shining.

Every town has to have a sign

Driving through Seybaplaya.

Didn't see any turtles. I think this is a tourist stop from Palenque to Campeche or the other way around depending on your tour. I discovered it at home in Los Angeles on Google maps!

Nice pool. Spend $300 pesos on food and drink and you have the run of the place.

Great beach.One of the tour busses was filled with Englishmen and the all piled into the water.

Celestun -
After saying a sad goodbye to Campeche we head to our next stop, Celestun. You come to Celestun to see the flamingos and really for not other reason. However, it turns out to be a real nice place to chill. We are at Playa 55 right on the beach. We veered off of Hwy 180 and took a bunch of backroads through little towns. Granada showed up as a "place" on our map, but in reality it hardly exisits. Finally we hit a T with a big sign, Celestun to the left! Hotel is great right on the beach, clouds up at night though and we were worried about seeing the "pink ones" tomorrow.

Nicolas, the proprietor, said you have to really watch the tides, you need a low tide to see the flamingos because they need to stand to feed, if the water is too deep, they will go elsewhere. Low tide is 11:30AM so we off we go to the bridge. There are two ways to get to the flamingos, off the beach which ends up being a longer trip because you cruise along the coast and then go into the estuary, or start at the base of the bridge which is right at the start of the estuary. We choose the bridge. It costs $3,000 pesos for the boat, you can divide it between 6 people. So $500 per person. We meet two young couples, one from Italy and one from Hungary. Off we go! We were in luck, we must have seen about 200 flamingos also frigates, pelicans, tons of egrets and pink spoonbills. It was a fantastic trip. Back to the hotel for a sunset

Please show me a sign! Oh...there it is.

Right on the beach. Our room is bottom left, no stairs, yeah!N

Nice pool

La Palapa for dinner, one of the most popular beach front restaurants

Looking back into La Palapa from the beach.

We need to fuel up before searching for flamingos. Everyone recommends El Cafecito

Such a sweet little place. Everything on the menu is $99 pesos. Coffee extra

Good that you saw the "pink ones" .

We were so happy. As you can see we saw a group of 200 or more. Our neighbors went the day before and saw groups of 15 or 20, so we more than satisfied with the trip.

Good info about the tides for reference.

A Wonderful Rare Day in Celestun -
I'm calling it a wonderful rare day, because it is the first day in 16 that we haven't anything to do! No travel, no museums, no ruins. We have to pick up our laundry and the rest of the day is chill. Breakfast at Cocina Economica Dos Hermanas. 3 eggs, rice, beans and torts, $65 Pesos. We are right on the town square and it is buzzing. Celestun is a real town, fishing is the number one business, tourism is a distant second even with the flamingos. We see every type of transport, with the exception of cars. There are cars but there are tuk-tuks, every kind of altered motorcycle with storage in the front or in the rear. The street is full of activity and it is delightful. Motos with kids stacked one on another like a Dr. Suess book. After the clothes run it was back to the hotel, read at the pool and then around four, walk down the beach to Bouquinetes, one of about 6 or 7 beach bar / restaurants. Tomorrow we are on the road to Izamal, but for now, it's a wonderful rare day in Celestun.

Dos hermanas, and I think we met both hermanas! Good inexpensive breakfast

The pink taxi, actually one of the nicer taxis in town.

Espacio Libre Estacionamente Sin Cuotas. Free Parking! ( About 10 spaces)

Someone sold them a lot of pink paint. Maybe a traveling flamingo.

My feet with bandage on broken toe

Great pool at Playa 55

Having a bite on the beach

It don't mean a thing if it ain't got the swing

These a few of my favorite things

Give those toes a rest! I love the photo of the sign with the missing letters, LOL...

Glad you liked Celestun, we may have eaten at one of the coffee shops and I definitely remember lunch on the beach, I had the grilled snook.

We really enjoyed Celestun. It was very unassuming, everyone going about their business and you were a bystander. People were very nice though and it was different than any other place on our trip so far.

Travel Day - Celestun to Izamal
Hit the road by 11AM. I found a place called Ake in our tour book and there are some ruins there. It was a short detour off of 180. Ake is a pre-Columbian site and it had Mayan ruins and a hennequen factory and a hacienda. All are still there, although the factory is in ruins. Didn't spend too much time there but did get some great pictures.

This was a little town called Tahmek, we made a wrong turn but I think it was actually so I could see this church!

The town of Ake. You can see Mayan ruin on the left, part of the hacienda on the right and a church on a hill in the middle. It's not actually a hill, it was a Mayan temple and they built a church on top of it.

Entrance to the hacienda which sometimes is open for tours, not today.

The remains of a hennequen factory.

This was a shredding facility, they shredded the hennequen plant to make rope.

I don't know what this was used for but it's on tracks and runs up to the factory.

One of the three structures we saw. It reminded me of ruins we saw in Guatemala, because the trees are reclaiming their space.

Same palace from the front

The info poster said there would have been a roof on these posts.

On the top of the structure

Rope today in a small factory next to the Mayan ruins, a lot smaller than the big old decaying factory.

Izamal - First thing...Climb Kinich Kak Mo
In a previous post I thanked the Mayans for putting their sites so close to Hwy 261, Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil. In Izamal it's even easier. I had on my khaki's, maps, hat with mosquito net, I'm looking for the Pyramid, some girls said, " Turn right at the dress shop"

Entrance from the street, really well marked.

They say this is one of the largest pyramids. It's largest in total circumference. Even as I took this shot, I was standing on part of the pyramid

Rounded corners, similiar to what we saw at Ake

You can also climb up to the pyramid off a side street

View from the top

Izamal - The Second Thing...Visit the Convento de San Antonio de Padua

You can't miss it, it's that big yellow thing on the corner. Built in 1562 on top of another Mayan temple. Visit the church, small museum (costs a quarter US) and walk around the allegedly , larges open air atrium next to St. Peter's
There it is, right behind the Izamal sign.

Facade of the church

Inside of the church. This altar is not that old. The original burned in 1790 something. This one was done in the 1940's.

Statue of Pope John Paul Ringo who visited in 1993. Many say that his visit is why the city is all yellow. The convent is still in pretty good condition but the yellow of the rest of Izamal has lost a bit of it's luster!

The Pope kneeling in prayer

This is what he leaned on and sat on.

A chapel that's in the museum

Fray Diego de Lando, oversaw the building of the church, oh and destroyed tons of Mayan codexes so we couldn't find out anything about them. What are they going to do next, put ratings on movies?

Izamal - Third Thing to do...Visit the Centro Cultural Y Artisanal
There is a small art center and museum in front of Parque 5 de Mayo. You don't see a lot of 5 de Mayo mentioned generally in Mexico, we use it more as an excuse to get drunk on margaritas at Applebees. The Center is more of a shop, lots of really nice crafts and clothes with a small display of the history of the hacienda in the back. It has pictures of both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush visiting with the Mexican Presidents. The museum is $25 pesos and has some really nice art work. Here are some of my favorites.

This is sponsored by Banamex which I've seen a lot on this trip. Good on Banamex.


Type of ceramics we saw in Patzcuaro

I want this, I want this, I want this...too big! This guy was about three feet long

This lady was about 4 ft tall and made of paper mache

Some of the locals

Beautiful

Izamal - The Rest of the Things to Do
We have met a number of people on this trip who weren't too impressed with Izamal. I can see that. If you only stopped for an afternoon you might not see much to like. It's not so shiny anymore, but we spent a day and a half and I felt it was worth it. You have to eat at Kinich, the best cochinita pibil on our trip. There is some nice architecture, I would have seen more if my toes were working and the people were very nice. Don't know if I'll be back but enjoyed it while we were here.


I liked this one

Could use some new paint


Entering into the town square.

Great restaurant. It is of course visited by every tour bus to town. In the evening though it was really nice.

I swear this woman was smiling right before I took this photo. Making tortillas by hand at Kinich

Need a ride? We saw a lot more Mexican tourists than gringos here, and they liked to take a carriage ride.

Los Arcos, had a really nice breakfast here.I

I don't know if there were ever elephants here, but if there were, they had a nice corner to hang out at.

Back of the Church. Apparently ran out of yellow paint

Take Me Home Country Roads
There are two ways to get to Valladolid from Izamal. Hwy 180 the toll road, or the back roads. We decided to John Denver it and take the back roads. You drive through a number of small towns which is so interesting. Sitilpech, Tunkas, Quintana Roo, Dzitas and Uayma. We saw the most amazing church in Uayma, different than anything I've seen in Mexico in the last 50 years.