Campeche

Date: June 1, 2024

After our visit to Oxkintok we arrived in Campeche mid-afternoon. We had booked a hotel right in the middle of the historic center of town and as soon as the car had been parked and we had checked in to our hotel we went out to have a look at the town.

The street next to our hotel was a pastel-colored delight in the baroque style with Moorish and Spanish reminiscences of the 18th century:

A little further along was a part of the old city wall, most of which is still standing:

Actually, Campeche, is one of the only cities in North America with most of its old city wall still standing.

Campeche was founded in 1540 on top of a pre-existing Maya town called Can Pech. After repeatedly being sacked by English, French and Dutch pirates throughout the 17th century a fortified city wall was constructed 1686-1704. Part of the wall is accessible for visitors and we were able to walk quite a long stretch with great views over the colonial part of town:

Here we are looking down onto a ramp that we imagine might have been used to haul cannons up and down from the wall:

At one end the wall stopped in the middle of the crown of a tree and gave us a short break in the shade (this was another day of almost 40 degrees Celsius):

Here is Félicie just visible in the distance:

We had gained access to the wall through a wooden gate that was locked behind us and then we were told to ring the bell when we wanted to be let out again. Bjarne is ringing the bell:

Then we went to the sea promenade, here looking along it to a sculpture of a seven meter tall Maya angel on top of a 20 m high marble column:

The sculpture is quite new - erected in 2019. Here is a close up of the bottom of the column:

The cathedral of Campeche, Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción, was built between 1540 and 1760.