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Cathedral |
On the road to Merida, Campeche is a lovely stop. (Map this!)
The moment we pulled into Campeche, I felt a strong desire to spend more than the couple of nights here than we had originally planned. A World Heritage site, Campeche is a walled city located on the coast, with a refreshing breeze blowing in from the sea dispelling the tropic heat. The houses along the streets are all painted in pleasing pastels; must be a city rule as all the colors go so well together.
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Campeche – An undiscovered gem. |
An undiscovered gem, it seems devoid of the usual tourist surge. The government seems to have high hopes that tourism will take off, though, as most of the beautifully painted houses are actually façades with just grass, blue sky and old ruins behind the closed doors. With such a beautiful setting, I have to assume that one day it will be as popular as San Cristobal.
Looks quite idyllic!
Why the facades on the buildings? i.e. why aren’t those buildings occupied? Do you attribute this to a slow economy?
Fred,
We were wondering exactly the same thing. Apparently UNESCO gave them a bunch of money to spruce up the place after its inclusion on the WHC list in 1999. Very surprisingly the city officials seemed to have actually used it for public good as opposed to lining their pockets with it.
Campeche used to be the only port on the Yucatan so the city boomed. Later, Yucatan built another port and all the shipping traffic went there, causing Campeche to depopulate. Hence a large portion of the houses were abandoned for almost a hundred years. With the UNESCO funds the city fixed up the ‘look’ but I guess they are still awaiting people to come back and fix up the town.