We took a short but much awaited trip to Mérida. It has been on my places to visit for a while.
Getting there:
We flew from Atlanta to Mexico City on Delta then took Aeromexico to Mérida. We were supposed to arrive there at 6:30 pm. The flight to Mexico City was uneventful. There was a lot of construction inside our terminal so finding our departure gate was a bit challenging but we made it.
Our second flight was on time boarding, but after sitting for a while an announcement came on that the mechanical team had found a problem with the brakes and everything should be fixed in 15 to 20 minutes.
That time and more went by and then we get the, “Airplane Movie” announcement, “Is there a doctor on board?” At this point we are not sure what’s happening, but evidently there was not a doctor because a group of paramedics boarded the plane and escorted a group of three off the plane.
Over an hour and half after our departure time the paramedics came back on to ‘check and be sure everything was okay with the seats the passengers left. More than two hours after departure time we left and made it to Mérida at around 9:00.
We shared a taxi with a lady who was going close to the same area we were staying. She had been to Mérida a few times and gave us some tips on places to eat and see.
We stayed at a VRBO in the Santiago neighborhood. It was perfect for two and had a great outside area with a small pool.

Our outside area.


We settled in for the night because we had a morning tour arranged to
Celestún biosphere reserve.

Friday:
We didn’t have a chance to explore the area when we arrived since it was so late so we took an Uber to Plaza Grande to meet our tour group to Celestún Biosphere Reserve. It was a large group that day but that didn’t pose a problem, except for lunch at the beach.
The reserve was very cool. We didn’t see 1000 of flamingos but we did see some and I have never seen flamingos in the wild. Our guide was a biologist and had lots of information for us about the ecosystem.

Flamingos

Roseate Spoonbill

Mangroves

It is hard to see but there is a crocodile there.
After the reserve we went to a restaurant on the beach. This is where the large group was a disadvantage. They took our food orders on the bus that morning and sent them to the restaurant so I think the food had been sitting for a while. It was okay, just not fresh from the oven.

My lunch

DH’s lunch

A You and Me chair and the beach.
It was a very nice excursion and a long day. We went back to our VRBO and made plans for the weekend in Merida.

Saturday and Sunday:
We wanted to spend the weekend exploring Mérida. We walked to Cafe Montejo, a place where our taxi partner recommended for breakfast and we were not disappointed.
We toured markets, churches, parks and DH even got a haircut.






So much to see and do and so little time.
On Monday we went to the Cenotes in Homún. I’ll post that tomorrow.

When we returned to our VRBO Sunday evening and looked at our phones we had texts from friends and family wanting to know if we were okay. We had no idea what they were referring to. This was when all the unrest was in Jalisco over the cartel leader’s death. We were blissfully naive.
We booked a driver to Homún to explore the Santa Barbara Cenotes. He picked us up at our rental and stopped at some interesting places on the way for photo ops.
We arrived at the Cenotes around 10:00 and there were only a few people there. We pretty much had the pools to ourselves for most of the time.
We explored the four different Cenotes and then met our driver to go back to Mérida for our last night.

A Mayan ruin on the way to Homún

DH and Me in a You and Me chair on the road to Homún.

Looking at the sky from a cenote.

Beautiful blue green water

Cenote

Sun shining through

Tree roots

Cenote
On our way back from Homún there was a road block, our driver said it was because of unrest in Cancun and Cozumel. We were not stopped, I think because our car was labeled tourism.
Our last evening we spent walking around and visiting churches.
We had our last meal at a Cantina down the street from our rental. There was live music and it was a festive ending to our short vacation.

I thought this was the Black Jesus, but it was not.

I named this painting Rainbow Jesus.

The Cantina where we had our last dinner.

We flew back to Atlanta the next day with no problems. It was a great trip and my only regret was that we didn’t have more time there. We only skimmed the surface.