Tourists explore ancient Maya ruins of Edzna (Photo by Bob Schulman) |
Special for The Restless Voyager
By Bob Schulman
In 1540, when Spanish troops
captured the Maya port of Kin Pech on the Gulf of Mexico, they found an
unexpected treasure: a scrawny tree that grew all over the nearby forests – and
from which a gorgeous, red-orange dye could be made.
That was a big deal back in
Europe, where only the rich could foot the hefty bills for purple capes, red
waistcoats and other bright clothes dyed with the juices of rare bugs, exotic
plants and the like. Commoners could only afford clothes dyed with cheap, drab
materials. Like soot.
Soon, galleon loads of the Kin
Pech trees began showing up in Spain, and news that a cheap source of colorful
dye had been found blasted across the continent like a cannonball. The sooty
set could now dress like the silky set.
The deep red heart of the tree
has some medicinal uses, too, such as helping to stop diarrhea.
All this from an
unremarkable-looking tree simply called logwood (scientifically, haematoxylum campechianum).
Back in Campeche, as the
Spanish renamed the city, fortunes were made by everyone from the logwood
forests' new owners to the slave brokers who imported laborers to cut the
trees. And the town showed it. Campeche's streets, it's said, “were lined with
fabulous mansions and churches full of gold and silver and the finest Chinese
porcelain.”
The only problem was, all this
was a red flag to the pirate fleets prowling the Gulf waters from their hangout
a few hundred miles down the coast at Ciudad del Carmen. Over the next century,
they raided Campeche so often that it became one of the most frequently sacked
spots in the New World.
Fort was finished in 1704 (Campeche Tourist Board photo) |
The solution – although late in coming – was to build a huge, eight-sided wall around the city with a fortress on each corner bristling with cannons. When it was finished in 1704, the wall ran over a mile and a half long. It was six and a half feet thick and almost as high as a three-story building.
The pirates never came back.
Campeche thrived as the second
richest city (after Veracruz) in eastern Mexico for another century and a half
until the mid-1800s, when European inventors figured out a way to make
artificial dyes.
Colonial Elegance
So what's the town like today?
As you might expect, it's grown a lot – close to a quarter-million people live
there – but the downtown area is much like it was hundreds of years ago. More
than a thousand mansions, churches, government offices and other buildings have
been restored to their colonial elegance along the city's cobbled lanes. What's
more, a large section of the city is still framed by the old wall and its
gun-studded bastions.
Ancient cannon (Bob Schulman) |
Besides its historical
attractions, Campeche offers some of the best bargains in the country. For
example, summer rates at the city's tourist-class hotels typically run from $30
to $300 a night, the latter for super-high-end properties. And you'll find
stunningly low prices in the handicraft shops around town, especially for woven
goods and ceramics.
Beyond that, Campeche
is packed with great restaurants (featuring fresh seafood, also at low prices),
it's safe to walk around in (even late at night) and it's close (roughly a half-hour
drive) to Edzna and other spectacular Maya ruins out in the jungle.
Getting, Staying There
Jet hops from Mexico City to
the Campeche airport take a little over an hour and a half. From there, it's
about a 20-minute cab ride to the city. Visitors have a choice of 20 or so
tourist-class hotels ranging from cozy inns to luxurious five-star properties.
At some, modest colonial exteriors give way to luxury interiors, such as in Starwood
Hotels' Hacienda Puerta Campeche www.puertacampeche.com/
just across the street from the city's historic wall.
More info: Visit Campeche in the Heritage Cities section of the
Mexico Tourism Board website at https://www.visitmexico.com/en
Tourists explore the Maya
ruins at Edzna. (Bob Schulman)
|
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