It was getting late after Calakmul (and our offroad adventure looking for dinner). Rod and I had originally planned on going back to the east side of the Yucatan and heading to Dive Shop Cocos. We decided, instead, to completely change our itinerary and head east. We drove along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, right as the sun was setting. It was beautiful.
When we arrived in Campeche, we couldn't have been happier with our choice. It was the perfect colonial town. Rod joked that it reminded him of the French Quarter in New Orleans, but with less trash, people, and chance of getting mugged. The center is one of the most beautiful ones I have seen in Mexico. The city is right on the Gulf of Mexico and surrounded by a wall, built to protect it from pirates.
We stayed at the Hotel Colonial, which hasn't changed since it was opened more than 50 years ago. It was charming. Frommers description was very accurate:
What, you may ask, in a cheap hotel could possibly qualify for a Frommer's Mexican Moment? Well, first of all is the fact that the hotel hasn't changed in 50 years; it exudes an air of the past long since disappeared with the coming of globalization. The rooms have the original tiles--once made in Mérida, but alas, no longer--beautiful things with lovely colors in swirls and geometrics; each room has a different pattern. And then there's the plumbing, which, in my room was so bodacious in design and execution that to hide it within the walls would have been pure Philistinism. Remarkable, too, are the bathroom fixtures, the four-color paint job, and the '40s-style furniture. Sure, you have to make sacrifices for such character--the rooms and bathrooms are small, and the mattresses aren't the best--but even character aside, this hotel is cleaner and more cheerful than any in its class.
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