May 31, 2007

The main reason we decided to camp at the Rancho Uxmal parking lot was to take in the evening “Luz y Sonida” (light and sound) show at the Uxmal Mayan ruins.

The crowd sits on the stairs of the Nunnery Quadrangle and the lights are projected onto the surrounding pyramids and other ancient buildings.

However, it was only after we had handed over our money that we found out that the English translation system wasn't working that night and we barely understood a lick of it (the Spanish lessons in Gaunajuato are starting to feel like a long time ago).

Adrienne was searching high and low for the customer comment cards, but they were nowhere to be found.

Compared to the tranquility of Palenque (basically just the jungle, the ruins and a few vendor shacks) where we had felt transported back in time, the Uxmal ruins had an over-run, Disneyland-esque feel, with extensive modern facilities, TV screens hanging from the ceiling and a parking lot full of tour busses.

We had spent the previous two nights at the grand but weathered Hotel Regis on Calle 12 in downtown Campeche. Although we normally look for a hotel with secured parking, we felt comfortable parking on the street directly in front of the watchful eye of the front desk attendant.

The port city of Campeche is famous for its two colonial forts and remnants of an ancient wall, but it was far too hot - a reoccurring theme - to even leave our air-conditioned room during the day.

After dark we ventured out to Marganzo restaurant to sample the local specialty - Pan de Cazon, stacked tortillas filled with gamey tasting shark and refried beans and smothered in a tomato sauce - and a tour of the zocalo.

Given the old-fashioned streetlights that grandly line many of Campeche’s paving stone streets, and the slightly cooler temperatures, night-time is the right time to sightsee in Campeche.

Campeche’s diminutive zocalo is one of the most attractive plaza’s we had seen yet in Mexico. Flanked by two-story colonial buildings on three sides and the glowing cathedral, Templo de Nuestra Senora de la Purisima, with its two baroque landmark towers, on the fourth

Suc-Tuc and the other tidy Mayan villages on Highway 261 from Campeche to the Uxmal ruins were filled with adobe walled/thatched grass roof homes, and the women still wore their traditional garb (white dresses called "huilaches").

We are starting to see a different side of Mexico.

Key Facts & Figures:

-Hotel Regis: $26.50
-Racho Uxmal campsite: $6
-Uxmal light show: $5/person