DAY 24
Week 4
PALENQUE (Chiapas, MEX) to MÉRIDA (Yucatán, MEX)
via CAMPECHE (Campeche, MEX)
Sunday April 7th, 2019
TODAYS MILEAGE – 337 miles / 542 kilometres
TRIP MILEAGE – 15,537 miles / 25,004 kilometres
With today being Sunday, which marks the beginning of the daylight savings season here in Mexico, we lost an hour of sleep to begin the day.
Around 7AM, all sixteen of us piled into the Mercedes Sprinter van, filling all available seats and spaces and headed northeast to our first stop of the day, the Restaurant el Crucero in Campeche state, nearly 2½ hours from Palenque.
From there it was the long haul portion of the drive – 3½ hours and 174 kilometres (108 miles) into Campeche city, where we had 90 minutes to grab some lunch at Menta Deli Rest, stretch our legs and hit the road again for Mérida.
We arrived at our accommodations at the Hotel Santa Maria just on 5PM and had an hour to freshen up, before heading out on an orientation walk. I used this time to simply fall into the hotels' pool and then managed to go arse-up on the slick tiles surrounding the pool, smashing a decorative planter in the process. Talk about being a toro in a taco shop!
The walk lasted nearly two hours as the town was full of locals and family’s, which added to a vibrant and fun atmosphere. Dinner was held at the locally renowned Restaurante Trovo Amaro, in which I was impressed with the pulled pork dish - Cochinita Pibil, consisting of Pork loin marinated in achiote, wrapped in banana leaf and accompanied with purple onion and sour orange sauce.
From there it was down to the Pipiripau Bar where I found their signature drink of the same name was very “more-ish” and totally dangerous, as it was so smooth and refreshing.
Comment of the day came at dinner when paying the bill. One of the tour members, a Hungarian female teacher, who’s been living & working just outside of London for the past twenty years. She was scratching around for some change to pay the tip and as I had a heap of coins on me, I offer them up to her saying “I’ve got a pocket full of shrapnel if you want it”.
She looks at me and goes “You what?” I tell her that I have a heap of coins in my pocket she can use if she wants. She says “I’m glad you cleared that up – I thought you said you had a strap-on in your pocket.”
Ahhh, the English language – a lot of people speak it, not a lot understand it. 
• CARMEN ~ Restaurante El Crucero (Campeche, MEX)
• CAMPECHE ~ Exploring The City (Campeche, MEX)
• MÉRIDA ~ Exploring The City (Yucatán, MEX)