Tuesday, 7 February 2017: Campeche

A tribute to the working

fishermen of the city

Inside the botanical gardens

Breakfast in our hotel before grabbing a taxi into town.  We left Gemma at the hotel since we were headed to a couple of museums first.  The city of Campeche really has done a great job with "repurposing" their ruins.  Maybe that is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site standing.  The old, once walled city, had eight "baluartes" or bulwarks that once connected the walls that served to protect the city.  Today, seven of these remain.  One is now a botanical garden (top of Justin's list of places to go), one is administrative offices for a hospital and one is home to the Museum of City History (also high on the list of places to go today) showcasing life in the 15th and 16th centuries.  When the Spanish landed they found a thriving Mayan civilization.  Not the ancient civilization but one that prospered with trade, artisans, wood working, ship construction, chocolate, etc.  One of the most interesting displays in the museum was a replica of a Spanish galleon that had been cut into seven pieces.  The cross-section viewing allowed n pieces.  The cross-section viewing allowed you to see each deck and what would have been going on their during a journey. 

The fiancé of the sea -- A tribute

to those who will never return

A tribute to the natives, the

church and the Spaniards

"All aboard!"  The 5pm trolley tour was the only tour in English.  We'd gone back to the hotel to get Gemma and there was no extra charge for her to go too.  We'd seen most of the sites and the neighborhoods even those outside the old city walls but we needed to hear the story from the locals.  One of the facts they shared was that here in Campeche, is a church in the barrio neighborhood of Guadalupe, that, in 1546 hosted the first Catholic mass in the Americas.  Hmm... Maybe a fact to research one day.  I would have thought that somewhere on the Nina, the Pinta, or the Santa Maria, a priest would have been present and surely he would have held a mass somewhere right about 1492.  Hmm... I'll save that for another day.  This town has amazing public art.  Throughout the city and especially along the Malecon visitors as well as locals appreciate tributes to the colorful heritage.  Of course, the insides of churches are adorned in a very Catholic-very colonial manner.  For example, one of the churches proudly houses a Christus Negra.  Made of ebony, this life sized alter piece was made in Italy and brought to the nephew world in 1565
Later, it was time for an alfresco dinner again in the old city.  Great tuna; disappointing beef tenderloin and a nice long walk home.