Yucatan Peninsula Vacation: Part I

So I took a week off of work and headed to the Yucatan Peninsula (Campeche, Yucatan, Quintana Roo) for 9 days on a little solo adventure........
Day 1: Campeche
After 14.5 hours on the bus I arrived in hot and steamy Campeche, Campeche. Not that 14.5 hours on a bus is fun, but I woke up for the last couple of hours of the trip which are on a road that goes directly along the Gulf of Mexico. The city of Campeche used to be surrounded by a large wall to protect it from pirates, and today pieces of the wall, lookout towers, and gates still remain throughout the city. The streets are filled with pastel-colored buildings (although behind many are actually empty lots). To the north and the south of the city, up on hills, are two forts, and the main plaza is only 3 blocks from the Gulf of Mexico. I got to try 2 specialties of the area, pan de cazón (a layered dish with tortillas, salsa, and dogfish), and pibipollo (kinda like a giant tamal cooked in a banana leaf and filled with chicken and masa).

Day 2: Edzna
Early on Sunday morning I went to one of the lager sets of Mayan ruins in the state of Campeche called Edzna. Because Campeche gets less tourist traffic than the rest of the Yucatan, public transport to sites outside the city is a bit more difficult. Luckily, there is one bus that leaves at 7, passes the ruins at 8 and then again at 9:30 on its return trip, but if you miss this, nothing else passes the site until 4:30. I had the entire ruins to myself, other than the massive clouds of mosquitoes. I think that they might have been worse there than I have ever seen. You can still climb the main pyramid at Ednza, and from the top you have a great view of the ruins and surrounding forests. The site is also filled with iguanas, mot mots, and a couple tarantulas. In the afternoon, I went to a small village called Hecelchakan.
Day 3: Merida and Izamal
Monday I left Campeche early and arrived in Merida, Yucatan. I spent the morning wondering the city and ducking into air conditioned buildings. This is the low season in Yucatan right now for a couple reasons, the heat, the mosquitoes, and the rain. Coming from Puebla where it had been cold and rainy, it was definitely very hot, but at least not so crowded. Merida is basically another colonial city. There was a city-wide art exhibit using recycled materials, hence why some of the following photos may seem a bit odd.

In the afternoon, I went to the small town of Izamal. The town is famous as the home of a large yellow convent and has a couple Mayan pyramids within the city limits. In addition to the convent, the rest of the buildings in town are pretty much all entirely yellow as well.