Pirates of the Caribbean

Onward! We left Izamal aboard yet another bus, though this time one of the ADO comfy buses with blessed air conditioning, and settled in for the voyage to the coastal city of Campeche. We weren’t entirely sure what to expect from this historic city other than it was warm, sunny, full of colorful old buildings, and once had a lot of trouble with pirates.

The trip seemed short, aided by a few dubbed American movies. It was interesting to hear Liam Neeson, for example, do his rage bit in Spanish with a touch of brogue in the background. Oddly, Antonio Banderas’s voice was dubbed too. Probably speaks lousy Spanish. Quien sabe? Another Mexican mystery.

Our hosts, the irrepressible Lali and patient Manuel

Helado in the hood

We arrived at our Airbnb via taxi and met our hosts Manuel and Lali who conducted us to a great little garden apartment behind their very modern home. They spoke no English and we tried our best to acquaint them, Lali especially, with our very basic language skills. Manuel took notice and spoke slowly and minimally. Lali, as her son Ernesto warned us, did not have a pause button. She employed what might be called the “cannon blast” approach to conversation. Her strategy was to pepper us with a 500-word monologue. Then, based on our replies, she would take a deep breath and start over again, somewhere near the “gaps” in our understanding. As it turned out, after about five or six such repetitions, we could pretty much piece together what she was trying to tell us. Fortunately, she was as charming and patient as she was undeterred – an elegant and completely lovable person who treated us like family.

Another visit to our favorite seafood restaurant 

We had shown up without having had a meal so we struck out to find a restaurant down by the sea wall. It was only 7:30 pm so, being used to the Merida mealtime routine, we figured we would have an early dinner. Little did we know that Campeche rolls up its sidewalks by 8:00 pm or so. We turned out to be the last couple in the restaurant, so we had the chance to talk at length to our mesero who was a very friendly fellow who also turned out to be a new recruit for the local police department. We liked him so much that we came back to the restaurant a few days later, where we continued our chat between his table waiting duties. We were both touched that he waved goodbye to us a few nights later as we took a final beachfront stroll before heading to points south.

Fisherman returning at the end of the day

Based on what Lali told us, we quickly got the lay of Campeche. It is a big place, made wealthy in modern times as a result of the oil business. It boasts a beautiful, walled historic center, designated a World Heritage site, and a traditional central mercado ringed by a city that has a very modern feel to it. The Malecon, a long walkway that runs along the sea, could have been lifted out of a San Diego brochure – except for the fishermen and their abandoned, pelican-covered ghost fleet of fishing boats anchored just offshore 

City wall separates the new from old city

Eric as Henry the Mulatto

The heart and soul of Campeche is the fortified historic center. Even though Campeche is named for its Mayan founders, its prominence in history relates more to the era of Spanish Conquest, circa early 1500s and the not always successful struggles to keep the city’s treasury (and its citizens) out of the hands of murderous pirates. These troubles went on for more than three centuries (shows how well walls work, by the way, but that’s another story). Because Campeche was situated at the end of a Spanish trade route, many famous pirates and privateers e.g. Henry Morgan, Jean Lafitte, Francis Drake, Henry the Mulatto, took their shot at the “Big ChaChing”. In one notorious attack in 1685, for example, nearly one third of the population was slaughtered by one such pirate attack. The city tended to take the attacks poorly and over the years devised all sorts of deterrents, including hanging, beheading, immolating and, literally, peeling the hide off of the brigands they managed to apprehend.

Traditional Campeche dress modified for added discomfort by the Spanish

Fine metalsmithing on a pirate gun

All this we learned at several excellent museums in the historic section, during our “hot day” excursions. The restored walls of the fort house some particularly fascinating displays of weapons and clothing and day-to-day life activities in the old city. At the Baluarte San Francisco museum you enter the hold of a ship that is a replica of a typical Spanish trade ship. The doors are closed and suddenly you are bounding along on a ride across the Atlantic from the coast of Spain to Campeche. The walls of the space are moving pictures of different phases of the voyage, complete with all the sound and fury. You pitch about and are slammed around and feeling seasick in a very realistic way. The climax of the voyage is a pirate attack with the sound of cannon balls striking the deck and the shouts of sailors barking commands as they returned fire. When it’s over, it takes a minute to get your bearings and your land legs under you again.

We finished a day of museum hopping by taking a tram tour of the historic section. Like the Wah Wah bus in Merida, the recorrida of the city was a fantastic way to see centuries of development under the Spaniards in about an hour. The guide spoke excellent English, so we felt like we were in a moving classroom – but with no final exam to study for.  We were especially intrigued by the black Jesus, beautifully hewn out of mahogany that occupied the altar in a small chapel just inside the old fort walls. On several occasions, the oldest crucifix in Mexico had served as a refuge for the townsfolk seeking protection from marauding sea dogs.  

A romantic dinner complete with power outage

After all that, we were pretty hungry so we sought out the restaurant recommended by Lord Harrumph (the Antigua) and found a great table on the balcony that let us watch the early evening goings on in the center of town. Our timing was perfect. Just as our meal was brought to the table, the rain gods struck. The square was curtained by gouts of water backlit by lightning. At one point, the restaurant lost power. The meseros brought out candles and pulled the tables back from the edge of the balcony. We sat, sipping our margaritas, and watched the street turn into a fast flowing river within minutes. In the windows of the Catedral de Nuestra Senora de la Purisima Concepcion just across the square from us, there were candles and a few emergency lights framing the structure in a soft glow, giving it a sorrowful yet grand aspect. Muy romantico!

Sculpture showing path of the sun blends art and astronomy

Other days, other city sights and museums, including one of the best Mayan museums we’ve ever been to, the Museo de la Arquitectura Maya. Other great museums, the Museo de la Ciudad and the Museo and Galeria de Arte Popular dealt with more recent periods, including various styles of clothing and artifacts from daily life throughout the city’s history - so there was plenty to do on the days that were just too hot to handle.

Fishermen & families clean fish and celebrate at Freedom Shores

Eventually, Lali seemed to take notice of our reluctance to be outside in the middle of the day. She decided that what we needed was a quick trip out of the city and down the coast to cool Isla Aguada. They were going that way to a baptism in Ciudad del Carmen, so they piled us in the car and took us to a truly unique resort that had been built by a disabled American vet and his Mexican wife, Thelma. The place, Freedom Shores, is in the small fishing village of Isla Aguadas and is totally accessible. Lali arranged a room for us there and then turned us loose for an overnight stay. It was a joy to watch people of all abilities dining alfresco, swimming, and collecting memories of Mexico. Eric was especially happy with the room as it had a huge walk-in shower and handicap accessible furnishing designed to accommodate wheelchairs. Because these were a tad larger, wider, and higher, Eric said he finally understood what it was like to be a normal-sized person.

Lali and proud young Mexican officer

Rather than having us catch a bus back to Campeche, Lali and Manuel insisted upon picking us up and driving us back to the city the following day. Lali is truly a people person so, on the return trip, she managed through charm and guile to get us a personal tour of a naval training base that is also a fully restored hacienda. The young officer who was detailed to us was clearly very proud, and deservedly so, of the careful work that had been done to return the hacienda/naval training base to its full glory. He was equally proud of the fact that he had trained with American officers in an exchange program. His unit had served in Syria alongside our own troops. We wondered if he was one of those “bad hombres” that seem to be so upsetting to some. Anyway…

Marine training entrance says "welcome to hell" in Mayan

The time flew away in Campeche and before we knew it, we were saying goodbye to Lali over a home-cooked chicken mole lunch. She let us know that she could not abide us taking a long bus ride without proper nourishment.