Final Days in Mexico: Merida and Campeche

27/09/09-01/10/09

After our visit to the ruins of Chichén Itzá, we took another bus that very afternoon to Merida, the capital of the state of Yucatan, where we spent the next few days leisurely exploring the city. Merida is busy but quite charming with several impressive buildings and leafy plazas, which provide a welcome relief from the intense heat. It was founded in 1542 by Francisco de Montejo and boasts the oldest Cathedral in the whole of Central America. The area had previously been inhabited by a community of Mayas, and when Montejo arrived he discovered the ruins of a pyramid, but instead of conserving them, he dismantled the remaining bricks and used them to construct the Cathedral in its place. Talk about marking one´s territory :) The Cathedral forms one part of the main square with the Town Hall and Montejo Palace being located on the adjacent sides. Montejo Palace now houses a branch of Banamex (the national bank) and inside the Town Hall, there is currently an art exhibition on display, with several huge cavasses depicting the history of the Mayas.

We were lucky to arrive in Merida just in time for the start of a festival and one evening we got to see some typical folklore dances, a few of which involved the dancers dancing on top of a box just big enough to stand on and balancing a tray of half-filled glasses and bottles on their heads. It sounds a bit strange I know, but it was very entertaining. We were expecting at least one of them to drop something or maybe fall off the box, but they literally didn´t put a foot wrong. Merida is famed for its artisanal products, especially its hammocks and panama hats. (For those of you that always thought panama hats originated in Panama, I can assure you they are not. The design is actually of Ecuadorian origin and it just so happens that the indigenous population in Merida and in other parts of the state of Yucatan are very skilled in making them). According to a friendly local who started chatting to us, even Antonio Banderas has been here to buy some hats and a hammock :) The hammocks are made from the plant called Henequen, which is cultivated throughout the state, and the same plant is also used to make a traditional Mexican alcoholic drink, known as licor del henequen, which is similar to tequila. Unfortunately, the indigenous people have to compete with an ever-increasing amount of foreigners who sell poor quality hammocks imported from China for about half the price!

It was here in Merida that we had our first encounter with a community of people known as Mennonites. Originally from Germany and Holland, various groups emmigrated to Mexico and Belize from Canada in the 1950s, fleeing from the increasing modernisation and preferring instead to conserve their traditional way of life. They are very similar to the Amish in that respect, although I do not think they are as strict. They are very easily distinguishable with the men wearing straw hats, checked shirts and trousers held up with braces, and the women in plain dresses and headscarves. From one day to the next, I swear about 50 of them appeared in Merida and we seemed to see them everywhere we went. Vic is extremely keen to visit a community of Mennonites once we arrive in Belize, so maybe we will learn a bit more about them later on.

We made yet another visit to the cinema in Merida, as it was just too hot to walk around the city during the day and we felt like a bit of normality :) We actually ended up seeing two films in the same day: The Ugly Truth, which was ok, but very predictable, as is the case with most rom-coms, followed by The Time Traveller´s Wife, which although quite sad, we both really enjoyed and would thoroughly recommend.

From Merida, we went to Campeche, the capital of the state of the same name. One afternoon here was enough to see the main points of interest including the remains of the city wall which was completed early in the 18th century to help protect the city from pirate attacks. During colonial times, Campeche, along with Veracruz, was one of the principal ports used by the Spanish to transport silver, gold and other raw materials to Spain, making it an obvious target for pirates such as Henry Morgan (English) and Laurens de Graaf (Dutch), who the Spanish referred to as Lorencillo for some unknown reason. It was after the attack by Lorencillo that it was decided a wall was needed around the city for protection. Ironically, the completion of the wall happened to coincide with an agreement between several kingdoms to put an end to piracy and Campeche was never attacked again. What remains left of the wall today are seven of the eight original bulwarks, two of which are still connected by the wall itself. Several of the existing bulwarks have tourist attractions built within them such as museums, one of which we visited (the City Museum), while another of the bulwarks forms the entrance to the Botanical Gardens.

One of the many interesting facts that we discovered in the City Museum was that, apart from the gold and silver, pirates, and especially the English, were also attracted to Campeche and its surroundings for the existence of logwood, a tree native to the area, which is a natural source of dye and which was, at the time, of great economic importance. The Spanish eventually managed to expell these settlers from Campeche, and they ended up in what is present-day Belize. The Spanish allowed them to settle there in exchange for an end to piracy. These English logwood camps, established in the 17th century, were the very basis on which the nation of Belize was built, and the reason as to why it is the only former English colony in Central America. In order to cut enough timber to meet demands, the English brought Africans to the area from Jamaica to work as slaves, whose descendants form the Kriol and Garifuna elements of the current day population, comprising 25% and 6% of the total populace respectively.

Before making our way to Belize on the 2nd September, we spent our final afternoon in Mexico in the border town of Chetumal, which is famous for being a conservation area for manatees, which look similar to sea lions. We weren´t aware of this while we were there, but during an evening stroll along the waterfront, we were surprised to see large animals in the water just below us. Being dark, we couldn´t quite work out what they were, but a local, who was fishing nearby was able to tell us that they were manatees. We felt very fortunate to have been able to see them without intending to and we sat and watched them for a while before returning to the hotel. The next morning we would be leaving for Orange Walk, the second largest city in Belize.