Camp Who?

Greetings from Campeche!
Campeche is a bit sad. It strikes me as the kind of place designed for tourists but there aren´t any tourists! or at least very few. It would be kind of like going into the old town square of Disneyland and finding yourself there with only a dozen other people. Lots of store fronts, vendors standing there looking at their hands, etc.
Campeche is just a couple of hours down the coast from Progreso. The highway there looks out onto dense green/brown jungle on both sides the whole way there, not unlike the road south from Cancun in Quintana Roo.
In the 17th to 19th centuries, Campeche was a port city. Because a good deal of trade came in there, pirates did too, at times taking over the entire city. As a result, the city fathers built a large heavily constructed fort at the waterfont in the 19th century. Some of the walls are still there. There´s an inner and an outer wall about ten meters thick! The old historic city center, about 10 blocks square, has been preserved, and is now one of the many UN World Heritage spots. The buildings are painted nice bright colors; there´s a central plaza with lots of benches, a bandstand, and room for lots of people; and a very high gothic church on the square that is lit up beautifully at night.
I sat down in an outdoor cafe to write this. As I did, I could see dark thunderheads coming up from off the gulf. Pretty soon the wind picked up and the people in the plaza began scurrying. By the time I hustled my espresso and raspberry cheesecake (yum, yum!)indoors (and I didn´t even mention your name, Don!), the downpour had started.
This afternoon I visited the Mayan archeological museum, which is fascinating in its depiction and explanation of Mayan architecture and the stone carvings. One carving that I particularly enjoyed was a temple piece going back to the dynasty between the 6th and 9th centuries C.E. It shows the ruler digging into a plate of tamales! And he even looks like Bruce!
There´s also a museum which is a refurbished 19th century upper class house. There´s the "salon" which was never used except to entertain important guests. This room is complete with crystal chandeliers, a large mirror, sofas, statues, portraits, etc. They used rocking chairs in those days with cane seats. It seems like most of the chairs were made of cane, so the hot air could circulate a bit better. Why is it we have "progressed" to plastic chairs, which I always seem to stick to?
The ceilings were about 20 feet high with wooden shuttered windows equally as high. When opened, they let in the cooling ocean air.
The bedrooms, like most bedrooms in Mexico, don´t have windows. In this house, they came with a big four poster bed. And, just like the house I´m staying in in Chixculub, there are big hooks embedded in the walls, for attaching hammocks. Hammocks were the best way to catch the breeze on both sides. Until I figure out how to enter a hammock gracefully and not leave it unplanned, I think that I prefer a bed that doesn´t move and a ceiling fan.
The dining room was open air, but in a small courtyard surrounded by high walls to block out the direct sun, but let in the breeze. There´s also a well in this courtyard which just might have cooled things down a tad.
Well, as I´m sitting here writing this, the deluge has hit and slowly tempered off to a gentle rain. The temperature has dropped from the 90´s to a wonderful 75 to 80 and it feels very refreshing!
This is Sunday evening, and the time when Campeche is supposed to come alive with live music in the plaza, dancing, etc. Poor Campeche, not only is the tourist scene dead here (the town is just too far off the beaten tourist track), but the rain has even sent the locals home. The entire downtown is brightly lit with an excessive number of street lights, but no one to appreciate them.
Well, if only mad dogs and Englishmen go walk in the noonday sun, perhaps only mad Americans go walk in the rain! So here I am walking around the dead, empty historic town in the rain under my umbrella. The shops that had been open have closed. After all, it´s Sunday evening.
Near the main plaza is a local effort at "Dancing Waters." There are three small fountains in a row which can shoot water about 6 feet up. Prompted no doubt by computer, they began coming to life to the sound of Mexican music blasting out of hidden speakers. There were different colored lights on the fountains. The fountains just kind of went on and off and didn´t particularly "dance." The music was ear-shattering loud, very out of proportion to the small size of the fountains. It was a truly eerie sight: me, the only living thing for blocks around, under an umbrella, under an awning, across the street in the falling rain, watching the fountains spritz, and listening to music that must have carried at least five blocks. It would have made a good oil painting.
Hasta luego!