Category: Mérida

This is the MACAY Museum in downtown Mérida. We were there because the cooking class we booked had a snafu — we booked it using a third-party agency that finds local tours and they had a miscommunication. So, in the end, we have no idea how to make panuchos for you and ended up doing a little more wandering instead.

 

It’s an optical illusion you can walk through!

 

The ceiling in Casa de Montejo

 

It looks like wallpaper, but this wall detail is paint

 

An old glory in need of some TLC

 

These beautiful clouds eventually churned out a lot of lightning

 

Tamal de mole and tamal de pollo — forget over-hyped restaurants; this is the good stuff

 

Tree art

 

 

These three panuchos represent our little traveling family: Chris, Holly and me. They also represent 75 percent of our diet while here in Mérida because we love them so much. We’re taking a cooking class on Saturday where we’ll learn more about how to make a few Yucatecan staples. Only a few more days here!

 

It’s a relatively cool night tonight, so the windows are open and the A/C is off! We set out for some cheap eats and found this bacon-dog cart along Paseo de Montejo.

We also took a free talking tour of the city center which was interesting, and we learned more about Mérida. Another quick tidbit for you: Mérida was called La Ciudad Blanca, or The White City, way back when because the people dressed in white and the buildings were painted white in order to repel the heat. Here are some sights:

 

Casa de Montejo, built for the Spanish conquistadores…named Montejo

 

Archway opening up to the Pasaje de la Revolucion

 

Inside the Pasaje de la Revolucion

 

Door knocker outside the main cathedral

 

Inside the main cathedral

 

Mayan mural in the palacio de gobierno; all placards were in Spanish and Mayan

 

Another mural inside the palacio

And now, for your moment of zen, Holly asleep on Chris’s foot.

 

 

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