Oops...thought of two things that we missed from the blog yesterday. The first was about a taxi we took....as Lynda climbed into the back seat she had to ask the driver if it was okay for her to sit there as the entire seat...yes...the entire seat was made of duc tape! They had woven new fabric from the duc tape! the driver assured her it was good and he was right...it was.
The other missed item was about the man we met at dinner who gave us the suggestion about where to stay in Merida. When we sat down to look at the menu we noticed that whatever he was eating looked really good and so asked him what it was. He told us the name of it and at the same time said "would you like a taste?" Now that is a first! LOL
Our final full day in Campeche, the city, in the State of Campeche was another wonderful one of wandering the narrow cobblestone streets, admiring the ironworks, enjoying the atmosphere, and appreciating how clean everything is. We spent some time on Calle 59 (the tourist street) where I had a moka frappe and Lynda had a moka cafe. Mine was good but hers was an experience! The server brought her out an empty coffee cup along with a wooden pitcher and the little wooden stick they use to "whip" their hot chocolate. She whipped the coffee and the chocolate all together until it became a mouthwatering frothy treat and poured from the wooden pitcher into Lynda's waiting cup. Thumbs up all around!
This morning after breakfast we managed to hail a cab...well actually another cab hailed a cab for us. The first cab we hailed already had a passenger going in the opposite direction of where we wanted to go so the next empty cab he saw he directed him to where we were standing. I should explain that cabs here keep taking passengers until they are completely full. As long as everyone is going in the same general direction it is all good. Our cab driver took us to the ADO (bus) station where we were able to secure seats on the 12:30 bus to Merida tomorrow. It will be kind of sad to be leaving Campeche...we've been here 3 nights and have settled into it very comfortably.
We've decided that Campeche seems to have more rules than some of the other towns we've visited. For example, there are virtually no food vendors on the streets. Just the ones making those cheese crepes we had the other night and a few young fellows selling bags of things that are kind of like Mexican chips and cheezies. Tonight there was also a balloon vendor in the zocalo but that's about it for street vendors in the Historic District anyway. There is also a strong police presence here. Some of them are regular policemen in cars and others of them are tourist police on 3 wheeled stand up machines. In fact today while one of the tourist police was cuffing Lynda (I'm not sure what she did to get in so much trouble!) I managed to get a bystander to take a photo of me on his 3 wheeled machine! LOL...I hope you know that I'm joking...the policeman offered his machine to us for a photo - Lynda definitely didn't do anything to get into trouble.
Tonight after dinner we made our way back to the main zocalo where church had just gotten out. There is a cathedral in every neighbourhood here. That means that in the historic district alone there are at least 1/2 dozen of them. The main cathedral (which is magnificent!) is right on the main zocalo and it appeared that many of the churchgoers had come right out of church and located a seat in the Bingo game that was underway in the gazebo at the centre of the zocalo. There would only be locals in this bingo game as everyone else (and some locals too I'm sure) were busy watching the fantastic light show that had just begun and that was being projected onto the front of the City building that frames one end of the main zocalo area. The light show was unbelievable and captivating! It was also intriguing to try to figure out just how they had managed to get the pictures to project so perfectly onto the front of a 2 storey building that was made up mainly of arches! After the show was finished...we did a little research and discovered that there are electronic screens that they drop down into all of the archways! What a brilliant idea! And while I'm sure it wasn't inexpensive to do in the first place...I'd say it was worth every penny they spent! The end result is that they have a virtually solid screen that is approximately 200 X 35 feet that they can access at the push of a button! They put on this "light show" every night at 8 pm and every night people gather to experience the wonder of it.
We have yet to bump into any American or Canadian tourists here but there are a fair number of non-Mexicans visiting the city. From what we can hear of their conversations they are from all over Europe. Interesting that none of them are North American.
So...on this final blog from Campeche...we'll just end with a fond farewell and a thank you. We will long remember the man who offered a taste of his dinner, the policeman who offered his vehicle, the welcoming pedestrian streets, the beautiful cobblestone roadways lined with colourful buildings, and the phenomenal ironwork that is everywhere.
...till Merida...
L & L
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