Our first day in Merida, "The White City"

Merida, Mexico…November 29, 2010


We arrived in Cancun yesterday and made our way by bus to our hostel which proved to be a great find. We had a bedroom off the main area with a little walled garden with a clean bed and hot shower, well not really hot! The hostel is run by a woman named Monica and was situated not far from the downtown bus station. We still had to get a taxi though because unlike our European trip we are not travelling as light which means that Don has done more of his share of cursing as we move numerous bags from place to place.I have too many books as well as my rug hooking to keep me busy over the next few months.

The outside wall of Hostel Quezal

The hostel Quezal also has an in house chef named Roseria who cooked us up a great meal that we ate in the little garden in the company of young people from all over the world. We were by far at least 25-30 years older than the rest of the guests. A number of the young people were in Cancun to attend the International Climate Change conference and all of them were very well travelled and knowledgeable.

Isn't she a beautiful cook?

Our first Mexican meal...A chicken dish on freshly made tortillas served with fried plantains and a spicy avocada sauce.

Across the street from the hostel was a small park where people were dancing the salsa and the music would waft over as we ate outside.We were not by the beach at all but were told a short bus ride would bring us to the great beaches that has made Cancun such a popular holiday spot. Cancun is a new city only a few decades old that has grown up around the beach resorts. From what we saw it looks like a very typical Mexican town, still working on dirt and debris.

As you can tell Don is not too happy with that big black suitcase!

The bus station is quite modern...Mexico has a great public bus system.

The bus trip was pleasant, about 4 hrs or so from Cancun to Merida which is the capital city of the Yucatan.The highway was straight through as it was a toll highway with numerous police stops along the way just to keep everyone on their toes.Before we came a lot of people told us to "Be Safe", but we do feel safe here and are not concerned about the major crimes brought about by the drug trade.

Merida is a colonial city built around great squares and because it was so warm in the evening people were out enjoying the beautiful weather. The daytime weather here was 32C and the evening was 25C. The Mexican people are very friendly and as a result we had a number of long conversations with them as we sat around and watched the people go by. A few spoke very good English especially the students we spoke with.

The Plaza de la Independcia is a leafy central plaza in the heart of the town.

Don sitting in one of the white S-shaped chairs that were once used as an intgral part of Meridiano courtship rituals.I wonder what he is thinking??

Our supper was poc chuc, a pork dish marinated in sour orange juice and then charbroiled served with hot tortillas, salsa, rice. We couldn't quite fiqure out what was in the bowl,we knew it was beans but didn't know if it was soup,anyway we put it on top of our food and it all tasted good!

Our word for the day is " La cuenta,por favor...the bill please". Mexican waiters will never bring you the bill as they think it is rude so you have to ask. This meal with beers and tip cost about 18 Canadian dollars.

We didn’t stay out late as we were tired from being on the go, however we look forward to exploring the city tomorrow.

Getting ready for Mexico

Well the time has come to turn our thoughts to Mexico as we are leaving for Cancun in a week.It seems we have just landed from our Europe trip a few days ago and here it is time to leave again. I have my suitcase almost packed and Don as usual has nothing done.

I have been talking with Genya, the lady who is renting her house to us, this past week and she is there now until the end of the month. She sent us some updated pictures of her house and some new work she has done over the past while.Here are a few pics of the rental...



Here is the picture that convinced me that this is the house for us!

Here is the view from the upper terrace off the bedroom.



Here is the entrance from the beach...the house is called Castillo Blanco..."The White Castle".

So as you can see the place looks great and we are hoping it lives up to our expectations. We will let you know.

Many people have asked where we are going so I am enclosing this map. We are staying near a place called Progreso which is on the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. We are flying into Cancun and will take the bus west to a place called Merida, which is a large city of one million. The beach is 20 kms north of there.

The other question we get all the time is Why Mexico?? so we ask Why not Mexico?? This part of the country is known as a great place to visit with small towns, smiling people and wonderful weather. Yes we know there are drug wars and now explosions but if we worried about everything we wouldn't leave home!!

So Hasta luego.  ( this is our Spanish sentence for today )