The church bells started to ring early this morning, well, it wasn't too long after daybreak so that's considered early. Still, it was good to wake up and go exploring the city before it got too hot.

We walked to Puerta de Tierra, 'Land Gate to the City', they had a small museum to learn a bit of the history before climbing up the steep path to the top of the walls. Being able to walk around the city with a birds eye view was great - an olden day version of the London Eye, I guess.

One thing we did realise about Campeche was that every street inside 'the wall' was cobbled and every building was painted in a pastel colour of blue, green, red or yellow. Maybe there was a law or just an unwritten rule that no two adjoining properties could be painted the same colour to make sure this city retained it's charm. Despite what Merida thinks about being a splendid colonial city, in terms of picture postcard looks, Campeche beats it hands down.

Next, we visited Centro Cultural Casa 6 - a pre-revolutionary era mansion at the plaza which was decorated in a Cuban style. Having seen the house, furniture and clothing, there is no doubting the wealth that was once in this city.

We had been told about great seafood restaurant, Los Delfines, a 'kilometre or so' up the maritime boulevard. We were getting a bit hungry so decided to take a stroll up the walkway. Turns out that Campeche doesn't have 'to scale' maps, nor are the locals any good at determining distance. We ended up walking 4km, past an American style mall, before eventually finding a small group of restaurants sitting at the waters edge.

It was well worth the walk in hot midday sun, we were given free margaritas while we looked through the menu. We had decided before looking at the menu that we wanted to try the local speciality 'Camarones al Coco'. While we waited for the food to arrive, our waiter came with an array of plates and bowls - tortilla chips, fish, potatoes and the hottest salsa to date. It was like a meal in itself but apparently just a free appetizer from the kitchen. Soon after the waiter placed a half coconut filled with a sweet apple sauce holding a stack of the most enormous prawns, crumbed in coconut & deep fried.

We were so full afterwards, that even with the long walk back, we were not hungry until late in the evening. Round the corner from our hotel was Chocol Ha, a cafe specialising in hot and cold chocolate drinks. The hot chocolate was thick and creamy with a hint of chili and seemed just perfect after spicy tamales verdes.