Rosie and The Operator are leaving Valladolid today and heading towards the cultural capital of the Yucatan, Merida. En route we are going to be stopping and visiting The Yellow City , Izamal.
We rise a little later than normal and stroll down to the garden where they are serving breakfast today.
Just like everyday we have immpecable table service and are offered a Mexican Coffee to start the day with, this is brewed in a wee colourful clay pot and kept warm on a burner. Your portion is ladled out into a clay cup for you to drink out of.
The coffee tastes like Christmas, or more exactly, mulled wine. It is Mexican coffee stewed with anaise, honey, dark sugar and cinnamon plus other spices which give it its distinctive taste. The taste is a little full on for the morning…it is drunk straight with no milk or sugar and Rosie wouldn’t mind this on a cool crisp evening…that in itself would be a stretch here in Mexico.
We are then offered a traditional rice drink called Horchata, in the glass with the handle, which is then drunk after the coffee. It is rice, soaked in sweetened milk with cinnamon on the top. It tasted exactly like ice cold, liquid, rice pudding….that is yummo! So delicious and perfect for breakfast.
A fruit plate with yogurt and granola is made for each of us and then we opt for the Mexican cooked breakfast of the day which today was ranchero huevra, Tortillas with refried beans and avocado on it, two fried eggs are added and then a tomato salsa and cheese sprinkles on top.
Followed by, yes there is more, the Mexican desert of the day, which was a beautiful bread, rolled in egg and fried, then it is dipped in sugar and cinnamon. Totally delicious and awesome to experience a Mexican breakfast. Every day the Mexican component changed so we tried heaps of different things…most people just wanted the standard American option….so sad.
It was hard to say goodbye and leave the cool garden to hit the road, but we had a two and a half hour drive with a stop in front of us so off we went. But wait, as we are driving out of town we flash past a…can it be…yes! It is, a cemetery!
The Operator dutifully does a u turn and parks, Rosie is gleeful. She loves cemeteries, there is is just something about them, she loves to read the gravestones and wander through the rows of silence, she loves to see how other countries inter their loved ones who have passed to the other side.
Well, hello Mexico, the riot of colour in this graveyard automatically puts a smile on Rosies face. Gravestones are painted in beautiful pastel hues and bright neon coloured plastic flowers sit in small vases. Framed pictures of the dearly departed are placed in niches and rosary beads and trinkets are placed with reverent care. Statues are painted bright colours and everyone is as close together in the afterlife as they live in real life.
These smaller sized memorials look quite unique and this seems the most neglected spot in the whole cemetery. A lot had no information of the dearly departed at all and appeared to be empty. Then we realised that these small plots had the bones/urns interred underneath and on top, the empty ‘boxes’ were like memorial boxes where you could put a picture, a candle a statue. Fill up your little box with your dedication to the deceased. Not so much neglected as just an old area.
Driving on up the road, we took the main toll highway, a nice new smooth tarmac affair that cost us $175pesos $13 NZD before we turned off to Izamal. The toll road stretches direct from Cancun to Merida at a cost of $350 pesos $29NZD for the whole duration (303km) and would save you about 45 mins drive time if you were to take the wriggly free road.
Driving into Izamel, you wouldn’t believe it, it is yellow! La Ciudad Amarillo, The Yellow City, a golden yellow that burns bright on a sunny day and complements the bright blue sky and scudding white clouds.
Izamal was once an ancient city of devout Mayans who had built many pyramids to worship their gods.
When the Spanish came and took over the city in 1553 they demolished all of the Mayan pyramids and made the enslaved Mayans build the showcase of the town today, the Convento de San Antonio de Padua…….from the rubble of their pyramids.
The convent is enormous, with huge wrap around porticos that were so nice and shady, a small breeze was blowing through it making it so nice to stop and pause.. The walk from the portico to the door of the convent was a little over 50 metres of open ground….it was a scorcher of a day out there and was blistering hot in the direct sun.
The church inside was roasting too…attending mass here would have been torture! They did have heaps of portable fans lined up in the isle to blow over the congregation. You would have to arrive early to get a good seat in front of a fan.
It was mid day, a small market was open and displaying its wears in front of the church, a larger everyday shoppping arcade had wares spilling out onto the pavement. These tiny shops had seats to try on the shoes on the footpath as the shops themselves were just cubby holes filled with shoe boxes and a chair for the owner to sit on.
Tired hot horses ‘dressed’ in their Sunday best lined up out side the Monastery all ready to give you a tour of the town, Rosie really felt sorry for them in the blistering heat, they sure looked like Rosie felt.
We were on the hunt for a small cantina somewhere on the main square where we could sit in the shade and have a beer and take in the scene before us. We found the perfect arcade but all the old timers sitting here were drinking Coke! We asked for a cerveza (beer) no beer, sorry, was the answer. It is quite amazing how hard it is to get a beer here in Mexico. A lot of the small eateries don’t have, or cannot afford to buy a license to sell booze.
So we headed out of town, down the avenue of yellow streets we came to this wee square, Parque de los Canones. So named for the trio of mounted cannons in the foreground. We passed this square on the way in and decided to have lunch here at Restaurante Zamna as we still had an hours drive from Merida….and we were thirsting for that beer.
The fans were blowing, the windows were wide open and it was a nice cool, dim cave inside. We had a great lunch and a beautiful cold cerveza which goes down sooooo easy in this country.
Heading out the side door of the restaurant to the carpark we hear a lot of laughter and talking at the back of the building. We peep around the building and see a wee old lady sitting on a stool making tortillas for the restaurant. She was laughing with the waiters and filling up the serving bowls with fresh tortillas she had just made on the charcoal fire at her side.
Rosie went around for a look and watched her quickly and deftly flatten out by hand, nice and evenly a thin tortilla. All were perfect, made to the same size and thickness. Then she put them on her griddle and cooked the front and back till the edges lifted and they had a bit of colour. She heaped the ones that were cooked into a pile on the ashes to keep warm and waited for the next waiter to come out the door. Rosie expressed how delicious her tortillas were for lunch and she beamed from ear to ear and let Rosie take a picture of her.
Rosie and the Operator arrived in Merida at 2.30pm and drove through one of the main city gates that opens up before us. We head straight for the hotel so we can park and offload our bags.
We are staying at the Luz en Yucatan a boutique hotel across the road from the Parque de Santa Lucia 100 metres from the Plaza Grande. It is a great location to explore this small old town and see all the tourist sights by foot.
The hotel is lovely, an old town house that has been converted to a hotel. There are cool dark rooms off the main hallway and rooms with small patios built on the back overlooking the pool and garden which ours was. The rooms are basic and built to stay cool in the heat. Minimal windows, tiled floors and high ceilings, set back under deep verandas. This will make a great comfy base for us.
Tomorrow let me show you around Merida, the Capital City of the Yucatan and the biggest place we have visited to date ….and did we get played on the streets? Rosie will tell you the tale and you decide.
