More about Campeche

I realize I seem to have skimped a little of my discription of Campeche in my last post. While the pirate ship was a really cool part of my weekend, there is a lot more to Campeche than just being a pirate.  However, the city is famous thanks to the ancient pirates of the gulf and their many raids on the old city.

Campeche was the most frequently attacked city on the gulf coast, for reasons I am unaware of.  As a response to these frequent raids, the city built huge walls that completely surrounded their quaint little town.  Cannons and watchmen lined these walls day in and day out to prevent pirates like Francis Drake and Laurens DeGraaf from attacking again.

Today, a lot of the wall has fallen down, but there are still some important parts standing where you can walk along and see the old cannons that they used.  The centro of the city is beautiful, clean and upkept.  The main zocalo lies only a few blocks from the ocean and serves as the merging point for all the streets lined with their candy-colored houses.  

We stayed at a hostal opposite the church in the main plaza.  Watching the city at night and again in the morning from the rooftop deck made our stay in the city that much more exciting.

My Lesson of the Day: Pirates of the Caribbean were actually a dangerous threat.