Jaina
The small limestone island of Jaina lies just off the coast, 40 km north of Campeche. Discovered by Morley in 1943, excavations on Jaina have revealed the most extensive Maya burial grounds ever found, over 1,000 interments dating back to AD 652. The bodies of religious and political leaders were carried long distances from all over the Yucatan and Guatemala to be buried beneath the extremely steep Pyramids of Zacpol and Sayasol on Jaina.
The corpses were interred in jars in crouching positions, clutching statues in their folded arms, some with jade stones in their mouths; food, weapons, tools and jewellery accompanied the owner into the afterlife. Terracotta burial offerings (including figurines with movable arms and legs) have provided a revealing picture of Maya customs, dress and living habits. Many of these are now on display in Campeche or in the museum at Hecelchakan (see below). The island is Federal property, well guarded and currently closed to visitors. Major restoration and excavation is in progress and the island will reopen in a few years as an accessible tourist attraction.
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
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,
Francisco Escarcega
Escarcega, as it is commonly known, is a major hub for travellers on their way south to the states of Tabasco and Chiapas, north to Merida in the state of Yucatan, east to Maya sites in Campeche and Quintana Roo states, and further east to the city of Chetumal. The town itself is not particularly enticing, set on a busy highway with a dusty wild-west atmosphere. If stuck here overnight, all you need to know is that there is a clean budget hotel around the corner from the bus terminal {Escarcega, see below), one bank nearby and several cheap
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
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
Spain to build Latin America's largest tourism resort in Mexico
The Spanish tourism firm, Mall, will invest 450 million U.S. dollars in Mexico to build the largest resort in all of Latin America, the firm's President Julio Fernando Noval said in a statement on Friday.
Land has been reserved for the resort's construction along the coastline of the Mexican state of Campeche, and it is expected to begin operating at the start of 2008, Noval said.
This center will give Campeche an "important economic boost" and generate around 5,000 jobs in the construction phase and 2,500 jobs when it opens, Noval
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
Champoton
Back near the west coast of Campeche State, Route 261 runs 86 km due north from Escarcega through dense forest to the Gulf of Mexico, where it joins the coastal route at Champoton, a relaxed but run-down fishing and shrimping port spread along the banks of Rio Champoton. In pre-Hispanic times it was an important trading link between Guatemala and Central Mexico; Toltec and Maya mingled here, followed by the Spaniards; in fact blood was shed here when Francisco Hernandez de Corboba was fatally wounded in a skirmish with the inhabitants in 1517. On the
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
