Travel Dates: September 2017 for 1 week

Travel Buddies: Adam, Brittney and Ben from Portland

Mérida, the capital of Yucatan, is home to around 1 million people, 60% of which are of Mayan descent. It was founded as “Mérida” in 1542 by Spanish conquistadors, on an existing Mayan city, which had been a center of Mayan culture and activity for centuries. Because of this, some historians consider Mérida the oldest continually-occupied city in the Americas. In the early years, the Spanish conquered established convents throughout the city to replace the indigenous culture with Christianity. The Spanish systematically demolished Mayan structures and used the carved limestone blocks to construct many of of the Spanish colonial buildings found in the center of town. This can be seen today in such buildings as the St. Ildephonsus Cathedral. By the end of the 16th century, much of the Mayan culture was destroyed. Because limestone (the abundant building material) is predominantly white, it gave rise to Mérida’s nickname: the White City.

The Spaniards laid out the street system in a grid with odd numbers running east/west, and even number running north/south. Each corner was also given a unique name with its own story, adding character and helping those not so great with numbers to navigate. To this day, you can see many of the street corner plaque names around the city. Buildings are built right up to street, some taller than others, but mostly follows a consistent datum. Buildings are often built over the property line (the only repercussion being a fine to the City), leaving many sidewalks only wide enough for one person to pass. This, combined with blind corners and many vehicles, makes the pedestrian experience a bit tense at first. But you get used to it pretty quick.

As you can see, most windows and doors have no glass and are very opaque with louvers. This gives very much a sense of privacy for residents. It’s hard to tell there’s a whole other word behind the walls. Once through the threshold, you enter into beautifully detailed, open-air homes with tall ceilings that are a response to the hot climate. There are often second floors that are set back from the facades, so from the street the buildings remain humble. Nearly every building is made of concrete, including the roofs. This lends to many beautiful rooftop patios as well, complete with sweeping views of the city.

Business are randomly intermixed with residences and don’t often have prominent signage so it’s super easy to miss cool things, especially on off hours. For example, you’ll find yourself strolling by apartments, tour offices, markets, retail shops, a random closed gate, and so on. But walk by later in the evening, and that random closed gate is actually a portal back to an amazing open air food court full of people with live music! This is how we found Mercado 60. We even stumbled upon unique restaurants a block from our house after a week of being there, that we had not seen up until then! To us, this greatly added to the allure of Mérida, because we knew upon leaving that there was so much more to be discovered. Every night, you’ll find random live music and dancing all over the town; it is beautiful.

One of our favorite activities to do in any country is take a cooking class. We find it is the quickest way to get a culturally immersive experience, while making some new friends over delicious food. In Mérida, our class first took us through the Mercado Lucas de Galvez, where our local guide, Assur, educated us on typical Yucatan ingredients. We sampled cochinita pibil tacos, a tasty staple in their diet, and we purchased items to cook. We then took the bus to the home of Laura, a wonderful local mother, who taught us how to make several dishes. It was a lovely afternoon and we left very full and happy.

The Yucatan peninsula contains countless historic Mayan sites, many of which are a short drive from Mérida. We took a day trip to visit the sites of Uxmal and Kabah. While in Belize earlier this year, we visited the site of Lamanai where we learned a great deal of Mayan history. It was just as exciting to visit Uxmal and Kabah, both of which were more ornate and better preserved. It’s always fascinating to see how civilizations lived thousands of years ago.

The Yucatan peninsula is also home to countless cenotes. These are natural sinholes that are exposed when the limestone bedrock above it collapses. The vast number of cenotes are attributed to the meteorite impacts on the peninsula during the Mesozoic era, which opened them. It makes you wonder how many other cenotes are underground waiting to be discovered. The cenotes range in size and have various depths of fresh water at the bottom. We went to the Santa Barbara cenotes about an hour outside of Mérida. Here you take a horse powered trolley to a few different cenotes, spending the afternoon swimming in the crystal clear, and surprisingly warm water. It is a spectacular sensation looking up at the limestone stalactites, and tree roots reaching down to the water below. Visiting a few cenotes is a must when in the area!

As most everywhere we have been in Mexico, the people of Mérida greeted us with warmth and open arms. We highly recommend spending at least a week here, slowly discovering the gems of culture, food, and exploring the surrounding natural wonders. Mexico you have our hearts!

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