Check out Lobo on YOU TUBE:
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
www .youtube.com/user/travelswithlobo
**********************************************************

First Time Reader? ......here is the background to this series of blogs:
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lobo/9/1233502800/tpod.html

Mexico: 23 Destinations to Spend the Winter Months

Campeche 
no. 20 of 23 destinations (this is not a ranking)
--------------------------------------------

Campeche – The “Malecon”
Part 2 of 3

An interesting question upon arriving in Campeche was – what does the coast of the Gulf of Mexico or Caribbean Sea look like?. Is it different from the Pacific Coast?

All the Pacific Coast destinations we visited were characterized by golden beaches and warm waters accessible on foot from downtown. To our surprise there was no golden beach near downtown Campeche but since we are not beach people so we hardly thought about that . Instead we were awed by the beautiful “malecon” or breakwater that keeps the waters of the Gulf of Mexico at bay. Without the “malecon” which acts like a dyke the city could not have been built this close to the Caribbean Sea.

Even so I was underwhelmed by the low elevation from the water level to the top of the malecon. It did not seem to be adequate to hold back a good Caribbean hurricane. I can only imagine that the seasonal hurricanes that strike the Caribbean region do not direct themselves towards the west coast of the Yucatan. If they did the seawall along here would have to be much higher and not so gently slanting into the sea thereby providing a ramp for the water to climb up on the “malecon”.

Suffice it to say it would make for a good show during a storm. On our short stay in Campeche the weather continued to be perfect and the Gulf had all the appearance of a gentle giant.

Other than restraining the waters of the Gulf of Mexico the “malecon” is a great place to walk, jog, people watch, get close to the sea and watch the sunset . It was with awe that we watched the wonderful spectacle of the sun slowly sinking into the waters of the Gulf in a golden blaze of glory. In the process the sky was turned into a giant canvas glorified by the majestic brush strokes of a master painter. Only in this case, the master painter is nature itself pulling out all the stops to produce an unforgettable scene. Since I know no one who enjoys sunsets more than Barbara my own appreciation of the scene was split between the golden setting sun and her beaming face.

So was this the best sunset we saw in Mexico? Unfortunately Barbara is presently (September 26, 2009) in Montreal so I can’t ask her. But come to think of it – she does proof-read every blog before I publish it, so maybe she will have something to say about this when I e-mail this blog to her before publishing.  (Barbara’s note: well it was one of the best sunsets but I’d have tolook at all the photos again to decide if it was truly “the” bestsunset we saw in Mexico. I never get enough of sunsets and we missedout on many because we were on a bus or were not in view of the sunset at the appropriate moment . There were some that might have been better but we could not enjoy them as much as we did the one in Campeche.)

Getting back to the question – “Was this the best sunset we saw in Mexico?- I would have to say “yes” since the sight of the sun sitting on the water like a golden spaceship just before sinking out of view is still burned in my memory.

So what about the beaches? Unfortunately the nearest beach – Playa Bonita – is eight kilometers from downtown. We did not have time to check it out nor several others down the coast towards Ciudad del Carmen.

Now besides the “centro historico” and the malecon is there anything else to be seen in Campeche?

That will be the topic of the next blog.

Coming Soon: Campeche – the Ciudad
---------------------------------------------------
Feedback: travelswithlobo@yahoo .com
------------------------------------------------