In Campeche we stayed at the Monkey Hostel right on the main plaza. We were glad to take Corban to a couple of hostels on our trip so he could see all of the interesting people traveling around. We met a girl from Australia who had been traveling, first visiting family in the U.S., currently in Mexico, and eventually making her way down to Chile, then Indonesia on the way home. At that same breakfast we met a man from Chile who had studied in Canada and just finished his first job as an eco-tourism guide in Tulum.
We rented bikes from the hostel one morning and rode out to the bike path that lines the Gulf coast to some forts. (Chris was upset we could not swim in the Gulf, but we have made up for that with all of our swimming in the Caribbean the last few days.) The city of Campeche was completely walled in after a particularly devastating pirate raid. There are many remains of this wall with museums in each part. There were (are) two forts that looked out over the city and the water. Our goal was to get to both of those on our bikes.
We had a pretty comfortable ride until we got to the bottom of the hill that houses the first fort. We realized quickly that we would have to walk the bikes up. The second fort was up a hill just as high and steep.
The museum was very good. It had all kinds of interesting artifacts and information in Spanish and English. The first fort was an archeology museum and the second a war museum. Chris and Corban appreciated the English, although they impressed me at the second fort’s museum by reading the Spanish without any help.
After the museum, and some much needed Cokes, we got back on our bikes and headed back down the hill. It was the last big hill we tried to ride down. Fortunately, we don’t have any uncontrollable speeds, rushing out in to traffic stories, but our brakes were pretty well shot after that hill.
Our bike trip took us to both forts and back into the city for lunch. We expected to be gone only a few hours, but were out and about for 5 hours.
After Campeche we stared our trip to our final destination, Isla Mujeres. Our big stop along the way was the ruins at Uxmal. We almost didn’t go, but were so glad that we did. Uxmal is impressive for first, the oval shaped main pyramid, but it is known for having well preserved examples of decoration on the sides of its many buildings. We spent hours walking through looking at all the buildings and designs. We even left to get some drinks and came back to see more.
From the ruins we caught a collectivo to the next city were we moved straight on to Merida. In Merida we enjoyed a wonderful dinner with world-famous guacamole, we watched kids play in the park, and we began our waiting in bus stations that would define the next several hours of our lives. Dinner was great. The bus station-waiting was not so bad either. The overnight bus ride was not so great. Chris and Corban slept through all 4 ½ hours, but I woke up half way through and realized that the air conditioning was not working. Completely drenched and beginning to worry about oxygen levels in the bus, we arrived in Cancun at about 3:30 a.m. We then sat in the Cancun bus station, also with a malfunctioning air conditioner, for a few hours before we knew we’d be able to catch at ferry to Isla Mujeres. We watched the sun rise as we ferried over to the island. When we got to our hotel, and woke the night watchman, he told us we could not check in until the afternoon. Exhausted, tired, dirty, we headed to the beach! It was terrible being without a room for the whole morning. We sat on beach chairs. People brought us drinks. The cool breeze coming off of the water… well, I guess it was not so bad.
For our last full day here we decided to do some snorkling. We found a guy offering day trips that included a couple of stops, a lunch buffet, a visit to a sea turtle farm, and a chance to swim with tiger sharks. Other than Chris losing a finger in the shark incident, it was a great trip. We saw tons of fish that you usually only see in aquariums. Like angel fish and parrot fish and some barracudas even swam by.
Tomorrow we have one more morning in paradise before we get on a plane back to good ol’ Indiana. Somehow we still don’t feel we’ve had enough Mexican food. Oh well. Can’t wait to see you all!
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