Campeche

Pirates attacked this city so many times that Spain finally built a wall around it. Between 1540 and 1685, buccaneers raided Campeche over 20 times. Henry Morgan, Francis Drake, and a Dutch pirate named Roche Braziliano all terrorized the port.

Braziliano was so brutal that Spanish mothers used his name to scare their children into behaving.

The Spanish founded Campeche in 1540 on top of a Maya city called Can Pech. The Maya had lived here for over two thousand years, and their ruins at Edzná, about 50 kilometers away, include a five-story pyramid you can still climb today.

The new Spanish port became one of the richest in the Americas, shipping out logwood for red dye that European nobles paid fortunes to wear. That wealth made it a target.

The worst attack came in 1663. A fleet of pirates seized the city in under an hour, occupied it for two weeks, and sailed away with 14 ships full of loot. After that, Spain had enough.

In 1686, engineers started building a massive wall around the entire city. It took 18 years to finish. The wall stretched 2.5 kilometers, stood 8 meters high, and included eight defensive bastions with cannons pointed at the sea.

It worked. Only one pirate, Barbillas, ever found a way inside after the walls went up, in 1708. Today Campeche and Quebec City are the only walled cities in North America with most of their original fortifications intact.

While you're in Campeche, walk the old city walls and peek into the stone bastions where soldiers once watched for pirate ships. The streets inside are painted in bright pastels: pink, yellow, turquoise, orange. Visit the San Miguel Fort museum to see jade masks from the ancient Maya city of Calakmul.

Order pan de cazón, the local specialty: layers of tortilla, refried black beans, and shredded dogfish shark smothered in tomato-habanero sauce. Try cochinita pibil, pork slow-roasted underground in banana leaves until it falls apart. The habanero salsa will set your mouth on fire, but locals will respect you for trying.