Merida and Tulum

We had an idea to visit Merida at some point and include a visit to the Mayan ruins in Uxmal which is fairly close to Merida. I was inspired by an image of the "Pyramid of the Magician" posted by a Facebook friend Anrab Banerjee, in January of this year. Our tentative plan was to make this visit at the end of this year in the hopes of cooler weather. All of those plans faded when our good friends had the opportunity to use some accommodation in Tulum at a low season rate.  So we all decided, yes, it will probably be hot and humid, but lets go anyway!

We found a good Airbnb in Merida that was available prior to the visit to Tulum. So we were all set and flew to Merida in mid April.

It was an uneventful non-stop flight from Guadalajara to Merida and an easy taxi ride to the Airbnb, and we were correct, it was hot and humid.

It is always great to see the colourful city names wherever we go.

The Airbnb we stayed in was very much like an old hacienda, although the street facade gave no indication of the beautiful interior.

Just very high ceilings, an interior pool, and incredibly stocked kitchen plus two large master suites.

Several places to relax near the pool.

Our lodgings were only a short walk to the Paseo d Montejo, the famous wide boulevard lined with Spanish colonial buildings. Merida was founded in 1542 by the Spaniard Montejo y Leon. The city was built on the site of an ancient Mayan city, Tho, which had been the center of Mayan culture for many centuries.

The above photo was taken of the Paseo de Montejo from the top of the tour bus that we took around the city

The side walks are really nice and wide and are all set with brick, making for a nice place to stroll.

This is one of the colonial buildings which now house's the Museum of Anthropology and our visit there was one of the highlights of the trip.

There is a good collection of Mayan artifacts, very well presented with lots of room for everyone to move about.

 This was such an amazing piece which I believe was carved about 2,000 years ago.

 We are told that the external surfaces of the pyramid temples were originally painted but now little remains. What does remain, like the piece above survive from older temples which had been built over when a new Mayan king came to power. This means that there were temple pyramids within pyramids.

Happy travelers waiting to climb to the upper story of the museum.

We found this restaurant on our wanderings around town which we realized later had been pointed out to us by the taxi driver when we arrived from the airport. It promised Yucatan faire.

 The restaurant was small, maybe 7 or 8 tables, but the food was fantastic. All of the walls had murals painted on them, which added a lot to the ambiance. None of the wait staff spoke any English but we managed very well and nothing was super spicy. However there was a "spice bar" where you could manage the "picante" to meet your needs!

Another of the murals.

One of the mansions on the main boulevard was open to tour. It had been built, I think in the early 1800's, and furnished in European style.

This is the main hallway with multiple rooms on either side. We wondered what industry had contributed to all of the wealth that must have been required to build and run these mansions. The answer was "sisal". Much in demand for ropes and sails etc for the ships of the day.

This is the Paseo de Montejo, a very large and beautiful monument on a roundabout along the boulevard.

Beautiful carving depicting spacial moments in Yucatan history

 We were advised to visit a special restaurant that is called Museo de la Gastronomia Yucateca,where there was a demonstration of the way that the Mayans prepared their food.

One method used was to pit cook their meats, cooked slowly in an enclosed pit. I had pork cooked this way called  "conchinitta pibil" , very tasty and a huge portion!

This was Diane's dish, "pollo pibil", all wrapped up in the banana leaves, also pit cooked.

Next stop, Tulum after our first experience of a first class long distance bus,
Stay tuned!