Campeche is not only rich in the history and anecdotes of conquest, the colonial era and the pirate invasions. Beyond strolling the walled city and watching the sunset along the boardwalk, it invites round-trip day excursions to discover the archaeological richness of Edzná and an imposing period hacienda that shelters a ceiba tree more than a hundred years old.
The archaeological zone of Edzná and Hacienda Uayamón lie along the same route, half an hour apart and an hour from downtown Campeche.
Hacienda Uayamón
Uayamón was a livestock ranch where corn, henequen and dyewood — the plant used to color textiles red — were later grown. The 16th-century hacienda was looted by the dreaded Lorencillo, the Dutchman Laurent de Graaf, who attacked and burned the city of Campeche. Today it has been restored as a hacienda hotel, where the former workers' houses serve as rooms.
Its stone walls emerge among the vegetation. The original watering hole, the chapel and the now roofless rooms lie among beautiful gardens worth wandering. Uayamón also has a pleasant restaurant.
Edzná
The archaeological site of Edzná was the capital of the Mayan world between the years 400 and 1000. Its inhabitants created an elaborate hydraulic system to capture and distribute rainwater, supplying them throughout the year. The city once spread across twenty-five square kilometers; today you can visit its main areas — the Great Acropolis, the Big House and the Small Acropolis — where architectural styles from different periods stand together. The city is believed to have been inexplicably abandoned around 1450.
On weekend nights, Edzná lights up with a sound-and-light show that tells its story.
An excursion feels lighter when home is waiting, inside the walls.
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