Merida, Day 1
Saturday morning, 9:30 a.m.We just finished a nice breakfast at a cafe across the street, and are waiting on our taxi at 10:00 to take us to the coast today.
Yestday was long, eventful and enjoyable. We flew out at 6:00 a.m. EST yesterday, with a brief stopover in Sarasota, arriving in Merida, Mexico by 10:00 a.m. local time.
We passed through a private immigration and customs easily, but then ended up waiting more than an hour while our pilot sorted out landing details, finally arriving at our hotel around 12:00.
Merida is a city of 800,000 people located on the Yucatan Peninsula, and is itself the capitol of Yucatan state. It is not located right on the coast, but is close, and is full of colonial-style architecture in various states of repair, disrepair and refurbishment. D and I had wanted to take this trip for some time, and so he invited me along when his plane became available. On this trip were D and C, his wife, the pilot P and his wife N. My wife couldn't come because of work obligations.
After arriving, we were all hungry and thirsty. My room wasn't ready so, after checking in, I left my bags in D's, and we all went out to eat. In mid-day sun, Merida was steaming hot--close to 100 degrees--though an unusually strong wind was blowing through.
We sat down at an outdoor restaurant, and ate traditional Yucatecan and Mayan food, which was different than standard "Mexican" fare found at home in restaurants. I had a dish with beans, Mayan pork and chicken, along with some salad. I ate everything but the salad, because I'm not comfortable eating uncooked vegetables in many Latin American countries. The food was good, and afterward we all felt better.
We all decided to walk around some more except for D, who wanted to go back to his room and rest. We walked around some more while the ladies shopped, and before long, sweat came out of every pore of my body, it seemed. We came back to the hotel around 3:00,and rested. I changed out of my jeans and sweaty shirt into a bathing suit, and relaxed at the little plunge pool for an hour or two. Eventually D and C came down and we hung out. We all decided to meet back up for dinner a little after 6.
We went out after 6 and ate, checking out a few restaurants around the numerous plazas, until finding one we liked. The food was good and we each had a marguerita, which was also good. From our restaurant we could people watch, and see the sun going down. Traffic in the city was quite noisy, congested and smelly, but eventually on the weekends certain parts of the old city are shut down for pedestrian traffic. After that, it was just walkers and horse-drawn buggies carrying tourists.
We walked around a few plazas, enjoying the sites, the people watching and the vendors. A few musicians played, and we stopped at one outdoor bar area to listen to a classical guitarist and singer. A few of the group had some more margueritas, and I just had a Coke Light, because I was getting tired. We ended the day around 10:00 local time (11:00 EST).
First impressions are overall good. The architecture is attractive, although there are dozens and hundreds of unrenovated colonial buildings, which helps explain why real estate prices for fixer-uppers are still fairly low here ($60,000). Merida has a well-deserved reputation as being very hot and humid. I don't like the amount of traffic around here either. However, it's obviously a university city too, which is nice, and the people seem very friendly.
Today D, C and I are taking a trip to the coast. P and N are taking a tour to swim in cenotes. More later.
posted by Wesley Deaton @ 10:28 AM
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