Today Rosie and The Operator are out and about exploring Merida, the largest city and the Cultural Capital of the Yucatan Peninsula. Its population is 830,000 yet, as a tourist basing yourself in the old town, the city feels very compact and just busy enough.
Merida is a town steeped in history with narrow streets and broad plazas. It is just big enough to be able to cater for the amount of tourists that visit so you don’t feel like every time you turn around you see another tourist. It has a lovely friendly vibe and whilst we were here we were asked numerous times by random strangers if we needed help to find anything.
Our hotel does not supply breakfast, so first things first, a coffee is on the cards, its not hard to find anything you are looking for in this town, its size fosters competition and we are surrounded by high caliber restaurants, cafes and bars interspersed amongst cantinas and small hole in the wall joints.
Todays temps are supposed to spike at 34c by lunchtime so we want to get the main part of our sightseeing done and dusted before the heat sets in…when it does, siesta plan B kicks in.
We wander down the road to the Grand Plaza, most of the sites we are going to see are gathered around here. Its only about 100metres from our hotel and the footpaths have giant leafy trees growing from them making the roads lush and beautiful looking.
Like all Mexican town squares this is a gathering place for the locals to sit and gossip, in the shade, rest after shopping, in the shade, or just pause, in the shade to take in the awesomeness of the surroundings. The new bright green of the early summer leaves on the trees in the square make it look so beautiful.
Merida is grand, all of the buildings are big, ornate, and tall. The roads are narrow adding to the sense of grandeur and closeness. Rosie was just standing in the middle of the square turning slowly in a circle trying to take it all in.
The star of Plaza Grande is the Cathedral de San Lldefonso it is huge and foreboding looming over everything in the city centre. Rosie cannot get a full screen picture of it as it is so big and I cannot get back far enough to capture it all becasuse I will then be in the bushes of the square. Hard times Rosie…you just have to get a bit creative. Challenge accepted.
The Cathedral was built in 1561 after the Spanish conquistador Francisco de Montejo rode into town with his band of Spanish conquerors defeating and enslaving the native Mayans while forcing them to destroy their temples and build this Christian monument out of their holy rubble.
Inside the cathedral, it is a little cooler, fans are lined up in the isles all ready to blow cooling air over the faithful come mass time. The isle is long and the plaster walls have the loveliest subtle patterns on them which make it look like they are wallpapered, making this rather austere church look quite delicate.
A giant crucifix hangs above the alter at the end of the long aisle, this is the Christ of Unity, a symbol of reconciliation between those of Spanish and Mayan heritage. To the left of the main alter is Meridas most sacred religious artifact, a statue called The Christ of The Blisters. Legend says the statue was carved out of a tree that was hit by lightening and burned for an entire night without charring. It is also said to be the only object to have survived the fiery destruction of a church where it once stood….although it was a little blackened and did have a few blisters on it. The statue came to Merida cathedral in 1645.
Rosie also loved the dedication plaques on the floor of the cathedral, there were heaps of them, all worn smooth, some nearly indecipherable by the feet of the faithful over time.
While we are walking around in the square we come across the obligatory ‘town name’ sign…Rosie would be very disappointed if she didn’t come across one now as every town we have visited so far has one. They are pretty cool…Merida, is nice and short, it fits into a photo well.
Chapter One….While Rosie was framing the perfect pic of the town name, a man had approached The Operator and was chatting to him. He was a nice older guy that spoke perfect English, he was asking where The Operator was from and pointing out the sights to see in the main square, one of the sights he did casually mention was the Mayan Market, he explained it as a co operative of Mayan artisans and craftspeople who sold their wares from one location plus if you buy any thing all the money goes back to their village. He also slipped in that it was only open today and closed for the rest of the week. He wasn’t being pushy, he wasn’t asking for anything and he didn’t offer to ‘take us anywhere’ to show us the shop or something like that…then he shook The Operators hand and wished him a good holiday. Off he went.
Within the space of the hour we were both approached by two more men, asking if we were tourists, where we were from, where have we visited in Mexico…casual conversations. Then they would point out the sights, mention the Mayan market, it is only open today. Then Adios, they were gone. Wow, said Rosie, what a friendly bunch of people are in this city. Here we were being all suspicious when we were approached and they were just friendly locals. Shame on us. We carried on with our sightseeing….Chapter Two coming up.
Palacio de Gobierno was built in 1892 and is one of the grand porticoed buildings that surround the town square. It houses the Yucatan executive government offices and as a tourist entering we had to sign in and get a pass that we had to return on our way out.
Inside the grand building standing in the central courtyard there are two stories of porticoes that have beautiful artworks and murals painted on the wall, they were done by a local artist and they represent a symbolic history of the Maya and their interaction throughout history with the Spanish…it shows the good, the bad and ugly and is very beautiful. Inside on the top floor the hall of murals is beautiful in the early morning light.
The next building on the square is another government office the Palacio Municiple, Rosie could not work out what this was other than a government office block. It truly looks beautiful and is clean and simple from the outside.
The armed guards at the entry just ignored us as we marched straight on in. The main and only attraction to this building is the awesome second story balcony that runs along the front of it. The breeze and the views over the square and the cathedral are amazing. This seems to be a well kept secret as we were the only ones up there enjoying the exclusive view for ages.
From this vantage point, the Plaza Grande was directly across the road. Parked on the roadside bordering the park were about half a dozen semi trailers. They were mobile medical trailers, one was for breast screening, one was for medical consultations and one was for dental….they had little clinics, triage and waiting areas set up under gazebos in front of their trailers. the ques of people waiting for treatment in some form or another was quite incredible.
The next stop on the square was the original house of Franciso de Montejo, the Spanish conquistador that founded/ took over Merida. This house dates from 1549 and the mansion had members of the Montejo family continually living in it up until 1970!
The outside is beautifully carved and looks quite distinctive on the street. On the facade you can see the giant triumphant conquistadors holding their halberds standing on the heads of ‘generic barbarians’ although they are not Mayan….the parallel is there.
A bank bought the building in the 70s and have their offices inside, they have refurbished some of it but have kept the original Montejo living apartments true to the original.
Wow, it is a spectacular undertaking from the bank. You register upon entry, and are led into a beautifully air conditioned Montejo library and salon.
They have guards in every room, reminding Rosie to stay between the lines of the path when she strayed by an inch. You walk around a route seeing the bedroom and fabulous dining area of dark paneled wood. It was sumptuous for the time! The incredible huge doors that opened out onto the shady veranda which overlooked the gardens like all Spanish homes. It was a grand showpiece and then we signed out upon leaving and were ejected back out onto the street.
Chapter Two…..As we headed back to our hotel, we were crossing the road and heard a call, ‘Hey New Zealand!’ It was one of our friendly dudes that had offered us sight seeing tips in the Plaza Grande.
We were chuffed that we ‘knew’ someone in the town, he asked how our sightseeing was going, we said fine, we are finished for the day and are looking for a happy hour.
Have you been to the Mayan Market? He said. No, said Rosie, maybe tomorrow, she was not really interested in shopping…well, its just there, and he pointed 10 meters up the street. Remember its closed tomorrow, if you want to see it, its now or never, it closes in another half an hour….come on I will show you….
That was us snapped wasn’t it? The scam is, dudes are employed by these places to bring tourists to them….they get a percentage if we buy anything. We still cant work out if we were played or not. If we were it was done pretty slickly….our new friend left us at the door and we didn’t see him again…he never introduced us to anyone in there…so not sure.
We did go in and an awesome ‘volunteer’ explained about the co operative, gave us a history of the different pieces from the different villages ….and Rosie bought a ceramic cross…part of a new collection she will be starting as of today….to go with an Italian one she has brought on a previous trip. Rosie bargained with the price…not too hard as the money was going to the local artists in their villages after all. Right?
Converted back to our currency it was still pretty cheap…as the salesman also told me….he had a pretty good grasp on currency conversions saying our dollar was in line with the Canadian. I was pleased with what I brought, that’s the main thing. PS The Mayan Market is open 7 days a week from early in the morning til late at night.
It was getting way to hot to walk any long distances, the sun radiated heat off the footpath and the heat pounds you from above and below. So, we hopped in the car for an air conditioned drive up the main drag the Paseo de Montejo named after said founding father.
This huge, long thoroughfare holds some of the grandest buildings in town which were all built for the rich and famous Spaniards of the day, back in the day. Most have a faded glory about them but all could be easily resurrected to amazingness. A lot are being renovated to house the head offices for some of Mexicos biggest Nationals.
Halfway along the Paseo is the Monumenta a la Patria a huge sculpture sitting on a death defying three laned roundabout that Rosie negotiated with The Operator leading the way to get these pics.
Heading further down the road you are getting more into the modern town, large shopping malls are popping up, Starbucks, McDonalds and car sales yards. Time to turn around and head back to the old town.
It was hot and time for beer o’clock, we parked in the front of The Parque de Santiago.
This beautiful white church was just gleaming in the sunshine framed by the blue, blue sky. This was a local neighborhood with families sitting in the small square in the shade.
Local eateries had brightly coloured chairs outside, a couple of guys with menus came to introduce us to what they had on offer. Cerveza? The Operator asked, might as well get right to the point. No, they all answered…sometimes in some areas as we have found out, it is damn hard to find a beer.
Back into the old town we went, parked the car and went over to the Parque de Santa Lucia, right across the road from our Hotel.
It is a small square full of giant trees and shady spots. Around two sides are porticos housing bars and restaurants which were very convenient for the Happy Hour we were in search of. After taking advantage of a fab 2 for 1 margarita deal we went to a Turkish Restaurant and Rosie has never swooned so much over hummus and the most beautiful meat stuffed Pita ever….nice to have another break from Mexican…plus our pita and salad were right on pointe….yuuuuum.
This has been an awesome town to stop and pause in. It is beautiful as well as compact, the city is flat and easily walkable. Something though is not right….Rosie finally puts her finger on it….the Mexican element seems to be missing from the old town….you wouldnt know you were in Mexico if you were just dropped here. It is so Euro like and a wee bit sanitized of the normal Mexican street life which has been everywhere in every other town we have visited. There are no juice vendors roadside or a wee taco stand selling breakfast. No pop up fruit and vege stands or peeps selling churros. The old town city center is devoid of what makes Mexico Mexico.
Merida has gone through a bit of an economical boom in the 80s with its tourism taking off and the influx of manufacturing and assembly plants being built in the town….over 65 plants like GE, LEG, IKEA, LEVIS, Coke and VW/Audi have plants here and are sadly capitalizing on the low minimum wage of the region. All goods are directly shipped back to the US via the busy port of Progresso just down the road.
Tomorrow we are leaving the Yucatan and heading to the coastal city of Campeche that sits right on the Gulf of Mexico. It is supposed to be a beautiful fortified city on the blue, blue coast.
