A Tale of Five Cities: Route Reversal (Part 3)

2/12/2013

Since Barry was able to sleep through the marching-band practice outside our hotel window the night before, he awoke early the next morning with plenty of energy. While I caught up on lost sleep, he walked over to the Campeche waterfront on the Golfo de Mexico and took a long walk, along with some nice morning photos.

Good to know

Finally I managed to get up, and we walked to Luz de Luna for breakfast. Much to our disappointment, the very sweet proprietor told us they weren't serving this morning because they didn't have a cook or server! Maybe they were sick? So, we had to go with Plan B, wandering around until we found a place to eat. We ended up back at the place we'd had lunch on our first time in town, Chef Color. I was hungry after my brush with Montezuma, but figured plain hotcakes would be easiest on my stomach of the breakfast choices. Barry ordered fruit cup, chaya bread, and Huevos Rancheros. Wouldn't want him to go hungry!

Chaya bread -- like zucchini bread

After breakfast, we wandered around and took in the excellent Jorge Marin sculpture exhibit that had arrived in Campeche since our previous visit. The sculptures were SO cool, and the pedestrian streets of charming Campeche a perfect venue. Looks like it's going to be there through March, so if you hurry, you might still be able to check it out in person. But if you can't get there, Barry got some pretty nice photos!

After checking out of the hotel, we made the long walk to the bus station; I was feeling a lot better fortified with my hotcakes.

Passing through the Campeche wall -- the pinata was new since our last time through

The Campeche ADO station is large and modern

And all decked out for Christmas

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we had front-row seats for the remainder of bus rides on our trip. The views were great. No bulls on the road today, though! We were going through a more modern part of Mexico now.

Off we go to Merida

Did not expect these modern streetlights in Mexico!

Fancy inspection station when entering Yucatan state

Entering Merida...notice the dark clouds ahead

Leaving bus station

We had no hotel reservations and could not stay at the bed and breakfast we'd stayed at on the way through Merida before, as Larry has a three-night minimum. In this case, we just wanted to be close to the bus station since we'd only be here one night and had to catch another bus in the morning. We had scoped out a few places on our first time in town, and I'd checked them on Tripadvisor. We decided to try the Hotel Maria del Carmen.

The staff was very nice, the rate reasonable, and the room was well-appointed, but we ended up with another noisy street-side location. After our experience the night before, I should have tried to specify a room off the street, but I'm always just so happy to get a room, any room, when I don't have reservations, that I don't tend to be too picky. The bathroom was not as nice as the room; it was dark, the sink leaked like crazy, and it badly needed updating. But for one night, we could live with it.

Hotel from the road -- our room was one that faced the street

When we left the hotel to walk around downtown, we discovered that it had just rained (remember those dark clouds in the earlier photo?) This was the first rain we had seen since entering Mexico two weeks earlier, and it only lasted five minutes!

That night we ate at a downtown restaurant we hadn't tried before but that had received good reviews on Tripadvisor, El Chile Habanero. The restaurant was clean and neat as a pin, air-conditioned, and had a window into the kitchen, so we could see how clean it was behind the scenes as well. Very impressive!

We had read rave reviews for the chef's special Aphrodite Chicken, so Barry ordered that and loved it. It was packed with fresh fruit, and the colors were amazing! I was sticking to a bland-food diet for one more day since I'd been sick the morning before, so I contented myself with a plate of mostly white food, while eyeing Barry's plate enviously. Someday we'll go back and I will have the Aphrodite Chicken myself!