Ciudad del Carmen
This is the hot, bursting-at-fhe-seams principal oil port of the region and is being “‘ developed into one of the biggest and most modern on the Gulf. Its important 0 shrimping and prawning fleets are also expanding and much ship building is undertaken. The site was originally established in 1588 by a pirate named McGregor as a lair from which to raid Spanish shipping; it was infamous until the pirates were wiped out by Alfonso Felipe de Andrade in 1717, who then named the town after its patroness, the Virgen del Carmen.
Carmen is situated on a narrow, largely forested (coconut palm) island, iittle more than a sandpit, 38 km long and 51 sq km in all. It is joined to the mainland at either end by bridges which are among the longest in the Americas. The town is principally concentrated at the west end of the island and shows few signs of the ugliness often associated with oil-boom centres (the rigs are mainly way off-shore). It is not, as yet, visited by many tourists, but is well worth a detour en route to, or from, the Yucatan, and is a good place for those curious to see something of the development of the Mexican fishing and oil industries.
The coast road
Although Highway 180 via Ciudad del carmen is narrow, crumbling into the sea in places and usually ignored by tourists intent on visiting Palenque, this journev is a beautiful one and more interesting than the fast toll road inland to Campeche. The road threads its way from Villahermosa 78 km north through marshland and rich cacao, banana and coconut plantations, passing turn-offs to several tiny coastal villages with palm-lined but otherwise mediocre beaches. It eventually leads to the river port of Frontera (Population; 28,650), where Graham Greene began the research journey in 1938 that led to the publication
Isla Aguada
Eleven kilometres beyond Carmen is the Rancho EIFfriix, with an interesting iguana (lagarto) hatchery. Highway 180 runs northeast along the Isla del Carmen and crosses the bridge to Isia Aguada (C Hotel Tarpon Tropical. D Motel La Cabana and Trailer Park at former boat landing just after the toll bridge. Full hook-up, hot showers, laundry facilities, quiet, US$12 for vehicle and two people), actually a narrow peninsula with more deserted shell-littered beaches on the Gulf shore. The road then undulates its way northeast through tiny fishing villages towards Campeche; there are many offshore oil rigs to be seen. At
Attractions in Ciudad del Carmen
The attractive, cream-coloured Cathedral (Parroquia de la Virgen del Carmen), begun 1856, is notable for its stained glass. The Palacio Municipal and Library, stands on the Plaza Principal, or Plaza Zaragoza, a lush square laid out in 1854, near the waterfront, with wooden gazebo (free band concerts Thursday and Sunday evenings), Spanish lanterns, brick walkways and elegant wrought-iron railings from Belgium. There is a modest Archaeological Museum in the Liceo Carmelita showing locally excavated items. La Iglesia de Jesus (1820) opposite Parque Juarez is surrounded by elegant older houses. Nearby is the Barrio del Guanal, the
Campeche
81 Highway 180 enters the city as the divided Avenida Resurgimiento, which passes either side of the huge Monumento al Resurgimiento, a stone torso holding aloft the torch of Democracy_ Originally the trading village of Ah Kim Pech, it was here that the Spaniards, under Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba, first disembarked on Mexican soil (22 March 1517) to replenish their water supply. .For fear of being attacked by the native population, they quickly left, only to be attacked later by the locals further south in Champotdn, where they were forced to land by appalling weather conditions at sea.
It
Museums in Campeche
Museo Regional de Campeche, in the Casa Teniente del Rey, Calle 59 between Calle 14 y Calle 16, charts a history of the state of Campeche since Maya times with interesting displays. MTue-Sat 0800-1400, 1700-2000, Sun 0900-1300, US$3.
Museo de la Cultura Maya, in the Fuerte de San Miguel, contains the results of continual excavations at the ruins of Calakmul, including jade masks and a mummified body, fl Tue-Fri 0800-2000, US$1. Museo de la Escultura Maya, Baluarte de la Soledad, has three well-laid out rooms of Maya stelae and sculpture. Museo Grafico de la Ciudad, Baluarte de
Campeche is a city of Mexico located at 19°85′ N 90°53′ W, on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico. The city's population estimate for 2002 was 230,910 people.
The city was founded in 1540 by Spanish conquistadores as San Francisco de Campeche atop the preexisting Maya city of Canpech or Kimpech. The Pre-Columbian city was described as having 3,000 houses and various monuments, of which little trace remains.
The city retains many of the old colonial Spanish city walls and fortifications which protected the city (not always successfully) from pirates and buccaneers. The state of preservation and quality of its architecture
Paamul, just south of Playa del Carmen and about 92 km south of Cancun, is a fine beach on a bay, planned for development, with chalets (C with bath, fan, terrace for hammocks, comfortable, pretty, clean, recommended) and campsites (recom¬mended). There is snorkelling and diving and a reef a few metres offshore. Sec¬ond-class buses from Cancun and Playa del Carmen pass.
Museo de la Ciudad: Guadalajara
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Sihoplaya & Seybaplaya
Highways 180 and 261 are combined for 17 km until the latter darts off east on its way to Edzna and Hopclchen (bypassing Campeche, should this be desired). A 66-km toll autopista, paralleling Highway 180, just inland from the southern outskirts of Champotdn to Campeche, is much quicker than the old highway. Champoton and Seybaplaya are bypassed. But from the old Highwav 180, narrow and slow with speed bumps you can reach the resort of Sihoplaya. Here is the widely known C Hotel Siho Playa, T62989. A former sugar hacienda with a beautiful setting and beach facilities,
Calakmul
Three hundred kilometres southeast from Campeche town, and a further 60 km off the main Escarcega-Chetumal road, the ruins of Calakmul are only accessible by car The site has been the subject of much attention in recent years, due to the previously concealed scale of the place. It is now believed to be one of the largest archaeological sites in Mesoamerica, and certainly the biggest of all the Maya cities, with somewhere in the region often thousand buildings in total, many of them as yet unexplored.
There is evidence that Calakmul was begun in 300 BC, and continually added
