Now I'm about to leave Campeche

[Greg Malivuk]

Just sent some more Campeche pictures to the usual place (up through the end of the Independence Day celebrations Friday night).

 

I've decided to go straight from here to San Cristóbal de las Casas (in Chaipas), rather than stopping at Villahermosa and/or Palenque beforehand.  I've heard good things about it and its surroundings, plus I want to be there long enough to be comfortable setting off on the trip into Guatemala. 

 

I've ended up liking Campeche quite a bit, despite being somewhat unsure of it when I first got here.  It seemed much quieter than the other places I've been, and at first there was basically no one else at my hostel, either.  But then a couple Dutch girls showed up, and a guy from Switzerland who also spoke English well.  (It generally goes without saying that Dutch people know English, French, and German, in addition to Dutch.)  They'd all been at the same hostel in Mérida, which is how we found out about the Hostal del Pirata here in Campeche.  Then on my way to the Independence Day stuff with Joke and Marloes (the two Hollanders), we ran into this English guy they'd met in Merica (also at the same hostel) and a pair of brothers, also English, who were staying at another hostel (from which I'm writing this email, as a matter of fact).  So I did end up enjoying myself quite a bit Friday night.  (Perhaps a bit too much, as it took until this morning for me to feel completely rehydrated.  I hate not being able to just drink tap water throughout my time at a bar here.)

 

I've read that there's a good bookstore in San Cristóbal that has stuff in English, which will be nice since nowhere here seems to.  I bought an anthology of philosophical essays on abortion (in Spanish), because I actually find it easier to read than the book of short stories I bought the previous day.  I think it's because so many philosophical terms come from Latin in the first place, so they're all roughly the same in English as in Spanish.  At first I thought it would be strange if I ended up being able to write a good philosophy essay in Spanish but still couldn't hold a reasonably fluent conversation, but then I thought about some of the Professors I had who were in the same boat with their native language (English), and figured it really wouldn't be too much of a problem.

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