this morning in Campeche, the weather is warming. the breezes coming over the gulf of mexico are amazingly soft. we had breakfast at a fast foodery modeled on american style but serving sandwiches of 'cochinita pibil' (slow roasted pork in orange-lime) and chilaquiles.
we have learned a fact about ordering main meals in Campeche, which is do not order an appetizer. no matter what you order, (and this takes a while as waiters feel you should be able to linger a long time looking over the menu), in a while when your drinks come, so will come the botanas, the appetizer like snacks. last night at Restaurante Marganza, it was a large plate of little shrimp with delicate slices of fresh tomato and lime juice with probably cilantro, and an avocado mayonaisse spicy something that was really good, not like any guacamole I can remember, with crispy chips. (for our main dishes we had a dark red spicy soup that was a thick rich broth with medium sized shrimp in it, and a fish cooked in a sauce that apparently had squash blossoms, pumpkin seeds and goat cheese in it. it was buttery and delicious). Yesterday for lunch we took a taxi ride to a far off restaurant called Chac-Pel, which is supposedly one of the better ones, and it was ok. same deal, lingering menu ordering, one free appetizer of shredded crab with something else and one fresh white shrimp ceviche, and opur main dishes were a fish cooked in a dark red achiote sauce and peppers stuffed with seafood. this restaurant was not as great as the two truly greats we went to: two days ago, the Palapa de Tito Fito where we nearly went to heaven on lightly breaded local chiles filled with crab, or the evening meal at La Pigua. the very best.
We had quite a day yesterday in that we hooked up with a new friend, Joan Russow aka Joan Stevenson, who is traveling after being at the global warming conference. she is traveling under her stevenson alias as a reporter for some watershed magazine, but actually she was formerly the leader of the Canadian Green Party and has a lot of stories about her life of advocacy. we went out to one of the ruins, Edzna, together and we wandered the ruins talking about a little this, a little that and lots of discussions about art, economic class and what we humans are all about. and what frames academics look through. Shes in her late 70s and had a significant stroke so she is traveling and testing her limits. it was amazing to be sitting in the ruins listening to her talking about challenging Madeleine Allbright on US policy on global warming.
Edzna by the way is another nice ruin. they are all starting to look alike in my memory but Edzna has these amazing staircases that had arched tunnels under them. and lots of interesting squares and the back of the huge temple had interesting curvy swoops. not sure if this is original or if after excavating they had to buttress it this way.
and I feel sympathy for Joan because today she is going all the way to Calakmul, and back, in one day. a trip we spaced out over several stops and several modes of transport.
As we have been wandering, we have noticed, Craig is not the only one to leave footprints in concrete! everywhere in the mexican sidewalks are footprints of cats, dogs and many, many humans. I'm tempted next time I see wet concrete to walk on it barefoot.
I'm not sure if we mentioned the two great archaelogy museums here. one is right here in the town wall and one of its 7 or 8 buttressing forts, it has the best carved stelas, and glyphs. one is 2 miles south of town and it has the jade masks and pots. both are great. today we are going north to a town called Hecelchalkan which is pronounced sel-cha-kAn which is famous for its little museum of mayan pottery figures of people, and more famous to people in Campeche for its delicious pork pibil and another dish made of turkey in a dark sauce of some kind. from there we may also go up to Calkini which seems to have some better hotels. then on to merida the next day. I am hoping since today is the 16th, the start of the christmas posadas, that we will see a little bit of christmas action with little kids in town. Last night, we did see the cutest thing, we went to a combination ballet studio-email place and in the next room on the wooden ballet floor they had set up a huge christmas tree maybe a prop for the nutcracker and a row of little girls in tutus was gazing starry eyed at the lights and train and tree. SOOO cute. all things were moving to little automated christmas carols. priceless.
there are many eating options in Campeche, yesterday afternoon we walked north along the quay (Malecon) past groups of fishermen drinking lots of beers with their families, up past a few kids towing hulks of empty battered santa claus pinatas, up to a row of palapas along the shore. at the top end the shore suddenly, immediately becomes mangroves growing right to the water. north of campeche is a big reserve of swamps with flamingos and fish. as we chatted with the plastered fishermen, one guy had a butterfly net and kept flipping crabs up out of the water. since the water is a little dirty I suddenly realized all this great seafood we have been eating may not be totally wholesome. oh well we feel great. This morning as we drank our coffee-to-go by the water, we saw schools of tiny sharklike fish hovering at the surface watching us watch them. its nice.
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