Day 15 - On the road again to the ocean and UNESCO cultural village of Campeche!
 
An early start, bakery stop (our new found eat of normally stale but cheap fodder!) and not so posh ADO bus saw us back on the road again, this time heading to a small UNESCO cultural heritage town called Campeche on the Gulf of Mexico . The landscape changed pretty dramatically from this point on and we could see why the bus journeys take an eighth of the latter, the roads were flat and straight and no mountains were to be seen, just green rolling flat countryside and cows!!! So reminiscent of home came to mind... Towns on route were pretty scarce, we passed one small village consisting of a few straw huts and that was about it, poverty was quite apparent here. Then on turning a corner, the ocean of the Gulf of Mexico was ahead and it was beautiful, so good to see the coast again! There was a fine line of turquoise colour in the distance with wooden boats and small piers alongside and quaint fishing villages. Weird also to think that America was in the distance!
 
On arriving in Campeche it definitely didn't disappoint, as the Taxi driver headed into the zocalo, the entire town was hidden behind an ancient wall, the many cobbled backstreets were clean and lined with vibrant colonial coloured buildings and beautiful architecture, it was just stunning!! They describe it as having a 'relaxed carribean feel' and even though we hadn't stepped out the taxi yet you could definitely feel that, it was so charming and laid back, I already wanted a week here! We headed to a hostel on the square called 'monkey hostel' and despite from the outside the doorway looking less appealing with a few bikes and scruffy stairs, when we got up to the main floor it was cool, hammocks swinging in the main area overlooking the cathedral which dominated the skyline, bright orange walls and a chill out area where people just sat reading plus a very hot roof terrace, fab . Our room had a balcony and overlooked the cobbled streets, for all of ten pounds, result.
 
Starving we headed out, by this time it was siesta time and we could see why, it must have been 40 degrees plus humidity and very very hot! The square and old trams sat outside were beautiful and we just wandered along the cobbled back streets and old wall then through the 'Puerta del Mar' an ancient arch within the city wall and previous entrance to the sea. After still struggling to find anywhere open that was cheap, we ended up back in the restaurant on the square that we had looked at first and gladly paid the extra for a very large meal with air con, phew!! Later we explored inside the beautiful Franciscan cathedral which had the largest glass chandeliers I have ever seen in a churchl! To the side of it there was a small garden which on entering we realised was a graveyard of sorts with bodies (we think) in what can only be described as 'lockers in the wall' like a mortuary, too weird for me so I left Ads to look around .
 
Heading back to the ocean we wandered along the paved boulevard lined with palm trees, it felt like we were back in America, not what I expected at all. It was a shame there was no beach here to swim from as I could quite easily have done so just to cool down! We then just idly wandered round the back streets, taking in more temples and convents, the lighting at night highlighting the architecture of these places was pretty impressive. After chilling under the trees in the square with an ice cream like many Mexicans, we sat taking it all in, young kids were pretending to be in a talent contest on a small stage which was quite funny, then an old Mexican guy opposite us was listening incessantly to his mobile ring tone, tapping his foot and rocking, he seemed to think he was very cool but we couldn't stop laughing! Then with that, very tired we crashed to bed, ready to unfortunately move on the next day.