One, two, cha cha cha

 

I’m going to say three little words that I never thought would come out of my mouth - “it’s too hot”!!!!! Yip that’s right you heard it here first….. 

We keep thinking it can't get any hotter and then the next day proves us wrong. We’re sitting at 39° during the day now and dropping to about 36° overnight!!! It’s a largely dry heat and there’s a bit of wind which basically feels like someone has turned a hairdryer on hot and pointed it at you. 🥵

Despite that we continue to fall in love with Mexico. Over the last week we’ve travelled to Campeche and Merida. If you thought our roads were in a bit of disrepair, they’re nothing compared with over here. Lots of potholes, gravel, wash away and a love affair with speed humps - every 50m in EVERY little village you drive through. So this basically makes a 3 hour trip into about 4-5hrs!!

Campeche is a character-filled colonial fishing town on the Gulf of Mexico (We haven’t seen any signs saying Gulf of America so we’ll stick with it’s actual name!). It still has remnants of the fortified wall that once sat right around the city protecting from ongoing sacking by pirates. They have been doing a lot of work to modernise and create a really nice place to live with the newly developed seaside esplanade boasting wide walking and cycling tracks, statues, art, playgrounds and outdoor gyms - which Trap tried out. 

The historical centre still has cobbled streets and the brightly coloured buildings that are common throughout Mexico. We took the city tram ride - a 50 minute ride around the historical centre, three neighbouring suburbs and right along the waterfront esplanade - great value at nz$10. 

We also had dinner and drinks at Casa Vieja Del Rio on the square - a great spot to people watch and view the sunset. While there, we thought we were going to see the policia in action as a police car raced up with lights flashing coming to a stop at the corner below where we were sitting - the policia jumped out, grabbed their dinner from the street vendor and drove off lights still flashing - obviously dinner is very important business here! 

On our wanders we discovered a pedestrianised street  a block away from the square with lots of bars/restaurants with tables/chairs on the street, stretching two blocks - a great spot to grab cocktails/dinner. And on our last night, we happened upon a free concert - no idea who they were as all the commentary was in Spanish, but I grabbed some videos - really cool and popular with the locals. There’s lots of free events on in every town we go to which is really awesome.

After four nights in Campeche, we jumped on the bus for the 2.5 trip east to Merida. 

Merida is a larger, busier version of campeche but again we picked a hotel not far from the central square in the historical centre and it didn’t disappoint. Our first night here we discovered a fab Italian restaurant about 100m from our hotel and had an amazing cheesesteak stromboli 👌

Then yesterday, celebrating our wedding anniversary, we joined the locals to dance in the streets, listened to free music, bought some jewellery, had a swim and went to a posh place for dinner - whew! The central square was awesome and we happened to be there on the right day. Every sunday there’s a market on all day and on the last Sun of the month they have free music and dancing. Honestly I think most of Merida’s 60+ population was there - and everyone got up dancing to the band - it was AWESOME. And because it was our anniversary, I made Trap get up and dance with me despite it being 38° at 6pm - the only tourists on the dance floor, so we got a lot of smiles.

I have to give a shout out to Nakuh Cocina De La Selva Maya - fabulous decor, fantastic service and superb food - plus my first proper glass of wine since I left home (ok a bottle)!!

Last night we did a dusk city tour - for the record don’t go with Turibus as despite the fact they say on their website that it’s a hop on off tour with 9 languages available - they only go about 4 times a day, about 1.5hrs apart and only Spanish commentary is available. Instead you need to take the ‘Pasea por La Ciudad’ tour bus - a really old open-air bus with wooden bench seats. The driver grinds the gears, the bus looks like it won’t last another day but the commentary is in both Spanish & english!

We’re having a nice relaxing few days here before heading to the beach at Tulum on the Caribbean Sea and the start of the Mexican Riviera. So we’re off to find Trap some thong speedo’s to fit in with the riviera crowd!!

Until then - adios from Trap and me.

J&T xx