Catching Up

 We drove to the city of Campeche which is located in the State of Campeche bordering the State of Yucatan and sits right on the Gulf.  We were presently surprised with the charm of the city and spent three days  there.

Every City and Pueblo in Mexico comes alive at night with live music and people out socializing.  Campeche was no exception.

  Javier Marin is a Mexican sculptor and had some of his work publicly displayed in the City.  We liked his work.a lot - -  ALMOST as much as Ed's (Hvlaka).

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Not sure if these planters were part of his work or not but they too were pretty cool even tho they were lacking plants....

The port city was frequently attacked by pirates and destroyed a couple times.  300 years ago they built a wall encasing the city and much of the wall still stands, houses museums and is open to tourist.

I've been meaning to include the following photo in our blob for some time now.  It is of a sculpture that is actually on display in a park in Merida.  The sculptor, Javier Marin, is the brother of Jorge Marin.  His work is interesting too and I think when we get back to Merida that I will check his work out again and take some photos of his other pieces.

We left Campeche and headed toward the town of Palenque and to check out the ruins there.  Photos to follow (hopefully tomorrow).

The architecture in Merida is so diverse.  Ranging from the mansions that the Conquistadors built that have been turned into museums and businesses (some remain as private homes), to the many Gringo Renovated attached homes all over town, and the old mansions in great need of renovation.

 

This isn't a historical home, but like many for sale, is in great need of repair.

There are so many worthy of renovation and most of them are For Sale

Many have tall walls enclosing the huge estate 

Tall Walls and amazing plant life

This is one of the more incredible ones that we saw on our walk this morning.

 

This one is now a Museum and those are Mayan Artifacts standing in the back yard

This is inside the "house"

Another inside shot.  The columns and moldings are all made of cement as is all the trim on the outside of the houses.

Directly across the street or next door, the neighborhood can look like this.

Many times the front facade has been rennovated but the sides and backs remain original

And now, our all-time favorite Starbucks - In Merida amongst the mansions

View looking across the street from Starbucks' Outside Patio

Building right  next to Starbucks....

Someone bought me a house but I had to turn it down as they spelled my name wrong!

And as is typical, the houses next door could use some work!

Tulum and Coba

After we left Laguna Bacalar, we drove to Tulum - a small town on the Caribbean that has many tourists.  We shared our lunch table with a young couple from Austria - they recommended Croatia as a beautiful place to travel and visit.  We wouldn't have thought of that country as a destination but they spoke highly of its beauty and the friendliness of the people.  Anyway, below are some photos of Tulum.  We found a nice hotel only to realize around 9 p.m. that Tulum was celebrating Carnival....  The very noisy parade circled around our area several times and a stage was set up just one block away.... they have bands that play until dawn.  Needless to say, we didn't get any sleep that night.  The Ganglun style song (from Korea) is quite popular here - as is one called "Sexy Lady!"  Heavy bass all night.

Lynne and Tulum Friends - can you tell I didn't get any sleep the night before?

  We arrived at the ruins exactly at opening time  (8 a.m.) but of course if wasn't open yet.... so we went back at 8:20 - still not open.  So we ended up driving to the trendy beach front where we had a $4 (u.s. dollars) cup of coffee!  Then we drove to a grocery store and bought yogurt and bananas that we ate in the car for breakfast.  By the time we got to the ruins it was 10:30 and the tour buses had begun to arrive.  With its proximity to Cancun and the fact that it is the only ruin overlooking the Caribbean, Tulum is one of the most visited Mayan sites.

 As I said, it is on the Caribbean and has access to the beach.

We didn't go down.  It was a very hot day and we wanted to get to a smaller ruin.

Yes, that is the Caribbean that you see to the left of this castle perched on a cliff.

Iguanas pretty much have the run of the place and seemed to love to pose for photos!