We are now in the beautiful town of Campeche. We spent a couple of days relaxing, thinking, and shopping (for v.practical things like beads and a tiny mini skirt) in Merida, which is a really nice but quite busy town. In contrast the hostel was sooo quiet and relaxing, it was really well-run and welcoming, could have quite easily lived there. On our last night there we went for a couple of Corona's with a group of about 10 from the hostel in a really strange bar; you sat on either coffee bags or tree stumps, it was dark with skulls on the walls and unknown things draping down, you rang a little bell to get service and with your drinks you got cold spaghetti, sausages, and spicy crisp things as appetisers - very very odd! The next day we came to Campeche, its a really pretty, laid-back town by the sea, surrounded by tall city walls, lots of beautifully painted colonial buildings of every pastel colour, spotlessly clean streets, and a lovely central plaza where the locals sit and chat, or get their shoes shined, overlooked by an impressive cathedral. The hostel we're staying in (especially our dorm) has the most amazing view of it all - directly opposite the cathedral over looking the plaza! An there is a rooftop with an amazing panoramic view. Looking down on it, it looks like a little toy town. There is one little draw back to the location - the cathedral decides to ring its bells extremely loudly constantly for about 5 mins every morning at about 6am, Im not sure what this signifies but its very irritating! We have just been walking the pretty little streets and admiring the colours, yesterday we went to a cute little botanical garden that is based in one of the corners of the old walls, and visited a fort in the afternoon. Today we've just been trying to organise the next part of our trip, and sitting in the plaza eating yummy ice-cream. Its way too hot and humid to do anything else. Tonight (at 12.30am) we're catching a bus to Palenque, which is next to some ruins in the jungle, then the following day we head to the mountains for San Cristobal, a bohemian style village high in the mountains. Then Mexico City here we come!