Campeche was the most unknown state visited by me in the first trip to Mexico. My great surprise was to know the touristic interest that this beautiful state offered, full of archeological areas, jungles, beautiful coasts and colonial cities.

I arrived at Campeche city (the state capital) on the sunset of a Sunday in May. I was received in the station by an official of the tourism secretariat that took me immediately to the hotel and during the route I was informed on the tight program that we should implement to get to know Campeche: long excursions in the archeological areas, the jungle, the small native population, the coasts and so forth. Campeche city was founded almost 500 years ago when Spanish conquerors landed on the Maya village of Ah Kin Pech, thus beginning to write the story of Campeche, with the aim of protecting the Campeche village, the construction around the city of fortresses and bulkwarks were ordered, linked by themselves by a wall. It is precisely there within the walls where the urban center is found, restorated and beautified until recovering the splendor that characterized it during colonial times. At dawn, we set out for the interior of the state, in search of the majestic Maya cities of Edzná and Calakmul. The trip was long, but it was very amusing because the green color of its landscapes filled everything. Campeche is green, that is the color of its jungle and its sea, the ponds and its rivers. In this geography, full of life, Mayas determined to raise their cities, almost three thousand years ago. The first settlements were located of what today is named the archeological south, near the border of Guatemala, where the Calkmul Biosphere Reserve is located, here we can find animals as wild cats, jaguars, howling monkeys, tapirs in addition to almost 300 species of birds among which are the ocellated turkey, the hocopheasant and the toucan. Until this moment such a majestic city has not been visited as that of Calkmul. This city occupies 70 km2 in the heart of one of the wildest ecological reserves. Jointly with the buildings rescued from strong roots where precious trails lie, whose inscriptions tell stories that occurred during the 1,500 years that the place was inhabited. Then we set out for the north to the cities of Chicanná and Becán. In these archeological sites, we discovered the architectural originality of this region: façades that represent Mayas’ deities and buildings crowned with decorated towers. The beauty of this region should have inspired the Mayas from Campeche since in Balamkú, departing from Calakmul, they painted its sensibility on a decorated frieze with stucco masks where the countenances of jaguars and amphibious proliferate, plus the image of the land monster that with large teeth daringly look at the visitor. When we finished the visits, we set out again for Campeche, a colonial city that seems to be taken from any engraving of that time with cobblestone streets and colorful façades that is a real pleasure just looking at them. The visit to Campeche made us think of its inhabitants, a people whose history began being written 3,000 years ago, when the Mayas were settled in the green jungle and built an amazing civilization. A people whose inhabitants are proud of the name that distinguishes them in the whole world: the Campechanos.

Acknowledgments I would like to thank the aid extended by the executives of the Tourism Secretariat of the Campeche State and especially that of Carmen Chávez and José Inés Queb Balan.