Final Yucatan City: Merida (the largest of the penninsula)

Merida: home to slightly over a million people, probably as many dogs and at least that many cars, Mayan ruins, cenotes and a good amount of wealth as well as poverty, as with most of the tourist destinations I have seen in Mexico. This particular town is popular with tourists because of the colonial architecture in el centro historico and, on the outskirts, the ancient ruins. I have heard about it for years, and many expats have settled here. Julie and I had an interesting 9 day stay; our days were eventful and certainly enjoyable. 

Part One: A day's visit to the Mayan ruins, known as Dzibilchaltun (don't even THINK of asking me how to pronounce it! As with most Mayan words/names, they are next to impossible for gringos to figure out, self included!) This historic site was a large settlement that was still occupied by the Mayans when the Spanish arrived in the 1500's. Of course they decimated the population of some 200,000 inhabitants. Apparently, there were once as many as 8,000 or so structures; what we got to see was an infinitesimal portion of what was once there. Fortunately, the ruins we DID see were beautiful; admittedly, even the remains of a chapel built by the Spaniards--made from the stones of disassembled Mayan buildings--was still quite lovely. Architects have stated that some of the artifacts found here date back to 700 A.D.  

Named "temple of the dolls", this was the main feature of the ruins. The "dolls" were made of stone and taken out to be placed in the museum on the grounds. Unfortunately, the area was roped off, so I could not get any closer than the position from which I took this photo. 



Sign at the entrance... see if YOU can pronounce this Mayan name! 

Ruins of the Spanish chapel, made from the Mayan stones...undoubtedly using what people remained as their slaves. 

A very impressive stepped wall that served to protect the city from intruders...though clearly not effective enough to keep out the Spaniards. Too bad! 

A shady place to sit and contemplate the nature of the world... at least, we imagined that took place on these steps! And/or maybe this was prime seating for entertainment taking place down below?

Nice that we could climb on some of these structures...that is Julie up at the top! Not quite sure what this was back in the day...

Caught this guy having a bit of lunch... a rare sight! 

The Mayans created some beautiful art...amazing how well some of it has lasted over the centuries. 

Tortuga god?!? Gotta love those "tortugas"... even those with human heads!

A facsimile of Mayan art, this piece depicted the Mayan calendar, which apparently is extremely accurate. Presumably the calculations of Mayan priests were so precise that their calendar correction was a 10,000th of a day more exact than the standard calendar the world uses today.  (I wonder how on earth someone figured this out?!?!)

Another angle of the Spanish chapel

Part two: A day excursion to help Pedro and Ines distribute food and clothes to people in the poor villages surrounding Merida. Nothing could be more touching than the happy, grateful faces and demeanor of the recipients, from the very young to the very old. You simply MUST check out Pedro Tec's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pedro.tec.14. Not only is he a photographer extraordinaire, but a wonderful humanitarian. He is a young man, 30-ish, who has not only made a name for himself as an artist in Merida, but also as a co-founder of the charitable NGO that helps the poor in his area. I had the good fortune to help him one Sunday, along with his lovely expat friend, Ines. It was, by far, the most memorable day for me in Merida. 

This is one sample of his work...amazing, isn't it? You can find more on his Facebook page and also on his website. He has almost 2,000 FB friends... is it any wonder?!

Here is the man himself, taken by me (he is as sweet as he is handsome!)

Above: After finishing the food and clothing distribution, we all went out to lunch at an amazing Thai place. Here, you see Ines with Pedro, a Gringa (but of Latino descent) who hails from San Francisco.  Below: The two of them in a mercado, baskets laden with goodies (purchased from donations to the GNO, mostly given by Gringos, I believe) 





A lovely church in the town where the groceries were purchased

Now, for the people we served: 

The shame of the masks in the pandemic: the inability to see these lovely children's faces...maddening! 

The food distributed were staples that would help sustain these people, including oil, eggs, rice and beans. 

Pedro helps to lay out the food, distributed by him, myself, Ines, one other expat and helpers from the town. The townsfolk filed in in a very orderly fashion; they were given the goods proportionate to how many family members they had. 

This boy absolutely loved his little puppy, refusing to relinquish it when I asked if I could hold it! 

I was posted at the egg station.... 

The people lined up on the sidewalk, protecting themselves against the hot sun but covering their heads with their "bolsas", the sacks they brought to collect the food in. 

The last item to be laid out for distribution was clothing; after a few minutes, not a stitch of anything was left on the table! Obviously a commodity valued as much as the food. 

Best of all: meeting this wonderful, elderly couple inside of their very humble home of plain concrete. The woman lost her leg to diabetes... very sad, but her attitude was really upbeat, despite the difficulty of her circumstances. Like many of these poor villagers, they are of Mayan descent. (Sound familiar? Much like so many Native Americans in the U.S. who are very poor...)

Another part of their house: no matter how poor, I have yet to see an Mexican household without its altar, and this one was no exception. 

The outside of their home: notice the shabby thatch of the roof, which, evidently, often leaked. Same was true of many of the village households, and Pedro is determined to raise enough money to replace all of the roofs! 

Back to the Thai restaurant--what a contrast! Apparently it is also a Zen retreat...who would have thought such a thing existed in Mexico?!

They have their very own cenote, and they made the most of landscaping around it! 

Translation: The Cascade of the Lotuses

And there you have it: one of the beautiful lotuses in the many ponds! 

Part 3: Our amazing Airbnb hosts, Minerva and Dario! 

Not only was their English excellent, but they were GREAT fun, too! living right next door to the Airbnb house we rented for the 9 days, they invited me and Julie over on our last night to sing karaoke with them, with the music blaring loudly and the words projected high on a wall! It was a blast, and made the last night in Merida extremely memorable! (We sang both English and Spanish songs.) 

Their sweet daughter, home from college for the holidays, joined in.

Even though I didn't often know the songs in Spanish, I just faked it 'till I made it! 

We greatly enjoyed each other's company, can you tell!??!

 Part 4: The historical center of Merida: I am not going to worry about many explanations for this part--I am just presenting the different scenes as we traveled around and enjoyed the architecture, the very over-the-top Christmas display in the Zocalo, a lavish meal out, churches lit up at night, and so forth. It is as beautiful as people say... unfortunately, the street vendors drove us crazy, constantly (and aggressively, quite often) wanting to sell their wares to us gringas. Hard way to make a living, I know, but still it got annoying, even as we were sympathetic. Our conclusion? One full day downtown was enough! 

This seafood meal sufficed for two to three additional meals... yes, it was a lot of food! As for my friend there, well...too much coffee that day, perhaps?!?! (Aren't I still a vegetarian, you might be wondering? For the most part, yes... but Mexico DOES boast of some pretty amazing fish and seafood, so I indulge on some rare occasions.) 

A remarkably gorgeous presentation, this feast! 

This was a modern art museum we stumbled upon--the ONLY one we encountered ANYWHERE in our travels that was actually open in the "pandemia". Hardly anyone was in it... not surprising, as most of the "art", we both agreed, was pretty dark and awful! 

The pigeon whisperer in the park: no shortage of feathered friends! I have seen people feeding pigeons plenty of times, but never have I seen such birds actually settle on the body of the person feeding them! This man clearly had a gift...however, do you think he has to go home afterward and wash the pigeon poop off of his clothes!?

Final part! Part 5: A trip to the beach on the Gulf Coast, in the charming little seaside town of Progresso, a thirty minute drive or bus ride from our Airbnb in the north part of Merida. Dario was so kind as to take us the first time, on our first day in Merida. We liked it so much that we went back again another day. Unfortunately, it was not quite suitable for swimming: the water was much colder than the Caribbean, as well as quite a bit murkier and choppier. We amused ourselves with walking along the beach and seeing the various sights there, as well as doing a little shopping and eating. It was a pleasant way to pass a couple days outside of Merida. There was, however, still plenty that was a little too touristic;  many vendors and restaurant hawkers were anxious for our business. (Tough in the pandemic, as tourist numbers are down considerably.) However, they at least were not as aggressive as the vendors in central Merida. 

A mermaid come out of the sea?!

Of the many vendors that came along the beach, few had

 anything of interest to us. However, this man managed to sell Julie a selfie stick.. turns out, it was a bargain and worked really well! see below: 

On a deck of the boardwalk: we found a nook with tables and "chairs" made from all recycled materials. It was really creative, as you can see! Julie nestled comfortably in this brightly painted "tire" chair.

This set of table and chairs was constructed from slats off of old crates. 

Yep, love my fish, and ALL creatures, great and small! 

God only knows what this "artist" was thinking...both Julie and I thought it quite grotesque! 

It was fascinating watching surfers pulled along with sails in these very rough waters, yet they were quite adept at it, and flew along the water at amazing speeds. I wish I had had a telephoto to zoom in with! 

Parting shot: Dario had to show us the most famous Costco in Merida, if not on the entire planet: the ONLY Costco in the world to have its own cenote! Leave it to Costco to come up with this little innovative marketing ploy--it is actually a tourist attraction in the burbs of Merida! 

Next up:  very short blog post (promise!) about our brief return to Cancun before we both head back "home"... (to be explained in that next post!)