Happy New Year to my enormous dedicated fanbase of at least 8 people. It is a time to set resolutions that we will have forgotten about come February – pick them wisely! Mine is to reverse my holiday weight gains and then go a step further: look sexy in a suit for the wedding. Will the Merida cuisine prove too tempting? Read on to find out…
With that trite tosh out the way, let’s talk Merida, cultural capital of Yucatan, home to colonial architecture in pastel shades, artisan crafts, scrummy foods, zocalos aplenty and Maya history. A definite change of pace from the islands and backwater towns we’ve visited so far, and quite welcome really! It’s nice to be part of a bustle.
Day 10 – Exploring Merida
We had quite a lovely AirBnB in Merida. For a change, it was in someone’s home, a lovely American woman with 2 young kids and Mexican hubby. She’s a vegan chef and has excellent taste. Her home was artfully decorated and the room had a lovely little balcony overlooking a small pool in the garden. She made us delicious breakfasts and gave excellent recommendations. Her tiny daughter appeared to wear only knickers and had an unerring ability to be behind you whenever you turned around.
It was really exciting to just hit the streets. Today we had no big tourist agenda, but we knew there were shops, museums and galleries we wanted to see. We also just wanted to explore the city, which we definitely did, totting up more than a few foot miles I’d say. Throughout this blog post I’m going to intersperse pics of Merida itself because it’s really lovely and there’s not an awful lot else to show.
The Plaza Grande holds a lot of action and we hit up their main museum ‘Palacio de Gobernio del Estadio de Yucatán’ which sits on it’s edge. It tells the story of Mayas being butchered by Spanish, poor bastards. Also on the square is the amazing Cathedral, which is at least partially built using stones from Maya buildings the Spanish dismantled during said butchering. We also paid a brief visit to the contemporary art museum on the plaza, which was blessedly air-conditioned and… alright otherwise!
After that we went to some trendier modern galleries along Calle 60 which is the arty road, apparently. These were much more to our taste and we enjoyed wandering round these more than the trad museums! We then schlepped a good 20 mins to ‘The Graphic Bakery’ as our AirBnB host had some of his work and it was right up our alley. Terrifyingly, upon arrival at the location, there was no shop front, just a house. Perhaps we’d walked 20 mins in blazing sun for nothing? To our relief, upon knocking, the graphic baker welcomed us into his studio. We loved his work so bought a brand new print he’d just rolled out, which he signed and numbered then and there, along with a few other little bits of his that we’ll frame. He threw in a print on a bit of toilet paper he did during lockdown, which was sweet of him.
Hot, sweaty, a bit fitter and laden down with goodies, we called it a day in the late afternoon and went back to our room to chill for an hour and dip our legs in the pool before heading out for a delicious meal in town. Bravo us!
Day 11 – Birding in Parque Arqueo-ecologico del Poniente
Ah, this was a superb day for me! And Billie too obviously, but it involved birding so mainly me! I had us out the door by 7.30 and in an Uber to Parque Arqueo-ecológico del Poniente, a big park with a lake in it about 15 mins west of our accommodation. I’d read it was a birding hotspot and I wanted some more sexy pictures, so off we went. We met some great birds – most exciting was the Motmot, which has an awesome tail and colouring. Google it because my picture is partial and does it NO justice whatsoever.
After that, it was time for (checks how to spell it) Dzibilchaltún, a Maya ruin a shortish Uber north of Merida. Sadly the attached cenote was closed but we had a blast seeing some really good sized Maya ruins! We climbed around them and everything. It was wild to think that a ‘city’ of over 40,000 people had walked the same steps over a thousand years ago! Billie was so keen on these ruins that she bought a Dzibilchaltún cap in the gift shop before we’d even seen it! A keen bean indeed.
Another dip and dinner later and we were almost done for the day… but not before checking out one of the nightly performances in the Plaza Grande! Tonight it was a projection show on an old building in which some Spanish lived and ended dramatically with some acting; a Maya man confronting Fransisco the Younger about how Merida is really Maya, not Spanish, to which Fransisco scoffed and guffawed. Very exciting and informative indeed. Other evenings consist of classical music and other exciting things (yes, classical music performances are exciting, deal with it); just more examples of Merida’s rich cultural offerings.
Merida was a fabulous change of pace from our beach bumming and felt somehow… more Mexican? I think because it holds an abundance of authentic Mexican city life, which tourists dip in and out of, rather than largely existing to be a tourist destination. Also the pastel coloured buildings.
Next you’ll read about Valladolid – like a smaller Merida and probably our favourite stop so far! It’s cenote heaven and we visit our biggest Maya ruin yet… don’t miss it!
