Today we took the scooter into Campeche to get a better look at this historic “pirate city.” Campeche used to be the principal town of the Mayan province of Ah Kin Pech, which means "serpent tick" and which was founded around the 3rd century A.D. In 1541 Francisco Montejo founded the Villa de San Francisco de Campeche. For years after his triumph, this town was pummeled by pirate attacks. At the height of the pirate attacks (and probably the reason for them), Campeche became one of the main ports of New Spain.
Campeche was a walled city with eight bastions built to defend it. Today, six of the bastions are open to the public, most housing museums. As a result of the pirate attacks, local residents endured the constant tension of wars, conflicts, and alliances between England, France, Holland, Spain and Portugal. The unfortunate result was that they were prevented from taking advantage of any economic boom due to their port location and spending all their energy constantly refortifying their city. Today, with a population of about 250,000, Campeche is the capital of the state of Campeche.
Located on the southern edge of Campeche is one of the outer forts, the Reducto (Fort) de San Miguel. It houses a very nicely done Maya cultural museum. $42 pesos per person($3US).
In the historic district, we stopped at the tourist office located along the malecon (boardwalk) to pick up a map of the city and park the scooter. Map in hand, we took off walking. There are several churches in Campeche, most of them seemed to be not as ornate as the ones we saw in the states of Guanajuato and Hidalgo. 
The historic center of Campeche is full of beautiful colors and lovely architecture. 
The Plaza de Independence is the main square of the the historic district. 
As we headed out of town, we had to chuckle at the pirate pelicans who seemed to have commandeered this ship!
We decided to pack up and take off for the Grutas de X’tacumbilxuna’an Caves. We left our spot at Club Nautico and were on the road by 3pm.
We asked three different people how long the drive time was and got three different answers (1, 2, and 3 hours). When we got here after close to 3 hours, it was already closed for the night. One of the night guards (we think) was just arriving and he told us we could camp just outside the gate and tour it in the morning. (Nothing like being first in line!) Of course, being in the middle of nowhere, we have no cell service, so our internet “banda” stick doesn’t work so we will have to wait to post.
GPS 19.99041°N, 89.76385°W
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