Welcome to Mérida! We’ve been here since Thursday evening. Even after being in Costa Rica and then Tulum for the past couple months, the heat here is really something else.

The best way we can think to describe it is Las Vegas in the middle of summer, when you go out in the middle of the night and it’s still 90 degrees. Then, add humidity. So we’re adopting the siesta lifestyle and going out in the mornings, staying home in the afternoons, and then going out again after dark.

A few facts about Mérida:

• It’s got a very large Mayan population (the Spanish built the city atop a centuries-old Mayan city), lots of universities, and colonial architecture with Mayan details.
• There are just under 1 million people living here. It’s also the capital of the state of Yucatán.
• In its earlier days, the sisal plant (used to make rope, etc.) harvests fueled the economy.

So far, people have been really, really friendly, from our Airbnb hosts to a college professor who saw us staring up at a building and stopped to give us a brief history lesson. Here are a few snapshots to get you acquainted with the city. More soon.

The sidewalk along Paseo de Montejo, a wide boulevard with monuments throughout

An older house that has been revived

More of these older buildings that have wide courtyards inside

A building along Paseo de Montejo

Church of Santa Lucia

Floor tiles in the Church of Santa Lucia

The main cathedral overlooking the plaza; a group of youth were re-enacting Jesus’s crucifixion in the plaza 

More buildings surrounding the plaza

The sunny benches in the plaza go unused

These concrete chairs can be found all over the city — I like them a lot

More buildings while walking through the historical center

A street in the historical center

An evening concert downtown

Horse-drawn carriages that take people around town

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