I think Merida has been our favourite place so far on this trip. It’s the first place we’ve visited that isn’t just for tourists with white people making up 80% of the faces you see. It’s a beautiful lived in city, with lots of pretty squares and beautiful buildings.
Our first morning here we headed into town for a free walking tour, our guide was very lively with lots of great recommendations on things to do around the town. He showed us through various beautiful squares, all with free wi-fi and electric sockets to encourage people to use them to work or put on public activities, and told us the history of each square. One was to commemorate the first Mayan leader of the city, one to commemorate Mexican independence, one to give thanks to mothers and some with a darker past, built to house slave camps. The ‘white city’ as it was known was built originally by Spanish conquistadors using slave labour and populated by white people only. It was also known as the city of five hills, believed to be a reference to five Mayan pyramids that were later taken down and rebuilt into houses and various structures about town. The guide pointed out parts of churches and houses where you could still see Mayan carvings in the stones.
After the tour we headed to the local market and had a look around. It was cool to see the different things for sale, fruits we’d never seen before and lots of tacky bejeweled light up Jesus’ that we hope to never see again. We didn’t buy anything from the market as our walking tour guide had advised against consuming anything from there as our non-mayan stomachs may not be able to take it. So instead we headed to a shop nearby selling traditional Mayan chocolate. We decided to go for the less traditional and more intriguing flavor of oregano. It was definitely an odd combination but not the worst thing I’ve eaten here.
Next we headed to the avenue of mansions. Which as the name suggests is a long row of huge mansions built by the first European settlers, very impressive. They are mostly now occupied by museums or other businesses. We had a look in the anthropology museum but as there wasn’t any information plaques in English for us to read it didn’t take us long to finish nosing around.
In the evening we decided to have a look at a concert that was being put on to commemorate 480 years since the city was built. It was a jazz band accompanied by some tap dancers. The songs the band played were all English or American but the lead singer obviously wasn’t an English speaker and tended to just say sounds that sounded similar to the lyrics rather than the lyrics itself. Which led us to an interesting game of working out what the song should be. Our favourite was ABBA’s ‘Dancing Queen’ where the chorus was sang as ‘zee es dat dancing clean’ and had us desperately trying not to laugh.
On our second day we visited the Mayan World Museum of Mérida, a really interesting museum all about the Mayan people, how they lived in the past and how they continue to live today (6 million people still speak the Mayan language). An American guy from our hostel, Nick, tagged along with us. We arrived just in time to catch an English tour with a very passionate and enthusiastic guide. He took us through the museum and gave us a two hour tour that I was honestly sad was over at the end. He told us about pottery, gods and beliefs, the written language, how the Mayan calendar worked. How and why humans and animals were sacrificed and so much more. I won’t bore you with everything we learnt but I will say if you ever find yourself in Mérida definitely visit the museum! On a less educational note me and Grace did have a great time pointing at all the weird cross-eyed looking statues and saying ‘that one looks like you’.
The guide noticed us doing this at one point and enthusiastically told us about the Mayan idea of unusual things being beautiful. Deformed or disabled individuals were seen to be messengers from the gods and were guaranteed a good life. He told us how mother’s would hang jewels or rocks between their babies eyes in the hopes it would make them cross eyed. They would also try to deform their heads to try and flatten out and elongate their foreheads and at age 7/8 would often burn away a ring of hair on their head in the hope of elongating the look of their foreheads. Since then, anyone unfortunate looking we have come across has been labelled ‘A Mayan beauty’. Because we’re nice like that.
On the way back Nick convinced us to try another unusual local food, Marquesitas. A crispy crepe filled with edam cheese, cream, Nutella and any other topping you like. Nick loved them but neither Grace or I were a fan. I could have gotten on board if they were completely sweet or completely savoury but there’s something not quite right about stringy cheese mixed with sweet cream and Nutella.
That evening we headed out to a bar with a group of girls and guys we met at the hostel the previous day. We ended up at Mayan Pub, a bar that did cocktails for $32 Pesos (~£1.20) so of course we ended up drinking waaayyyy too much, but it was a fun night.
The next day we were very hung over, my mood was also not improved by the fact that when we received our laundry back from the hostel they had broken two of my bras. I only brought three with me and would now have to go out and buy another one. Something I struggled with sooo much last time we travelled, it took 3 months to find one in my size that didn’t look like some sort of medical device or straight jacket. After much argument with the hostel they agreed to pay half of the price of the bras. They wouldn’t pay more as I didn’t have a receipt for the cost of the bras. How foolish of me not to bring the receipts for every item of clothing I have along on the trip…
After our fill of arguing with the hostel we headed out to see the Sunday market that had popped up around the main square. I always enjoy how much Latin American families use public spaces. The square was filled with people dancing and children playing with bubbles. We tried once more to branch out from tacos and expand our Mexican repertoire, again with out much luck. We ordered some tortas, the Mexican equivalent of sandwiches, which we knew we liked and then each ordered one experimental dish. We tried a Pancho which was like a deep fried tortilla with bean inside and pork belly on top, a bit too oily for us. We also tried a Pulcan, a kind of corn and kidney bean roti type mix with grilled pork on top, this was okay but a bit bland. We gave up on our experiments and went back into the square to enjoy some tried-and-tested churros before heading back to the hostel.
Our last day in Mérida was unfortunately spent shopping for a new bra, as the largest city in the Yucatan peninsula we stood the best chance of finding one here. Several hours later in our third bra shop, and after much raking around, the staff finally found two black bras in my size, wooo! I also tried to get an evening dress but again my progress was hindered by being well over the height and boob size of the average Mexican woman. Grace on the other hand had a grand time picking up several new items of clothing. Now we’re back at the hostel waiting for our evening bus to Palenque. The first overnight bus of the trip, I haven’t missed these!
Will let you know how it went soon. Lots of love, Alice x
P.s. some of the boys from our hostel were getting the same bus route to Palenque but an hour earlier. I asked them to let us know once they were on the bus if the station was hard to get to, but phrased it as ‘once you get there let us know if it’s a maze’ they took it as let us know if it’s ‘amaze’ i.e. amazing. I’ve never felt the generational gap or my age as much as I did in that moment.
