Please forgive my title for my latest Trip Report, I wanted to shake it up a little bit. I didn't want to do another 30 Days in Mexico, which of course, that is exactly what I'm going to do. This year we are doing a tour of the Yucatan and I've received some advice from my fellow Fodorites and will also discover things on my own.

First Day - The typical travel day, up at 5:00AM, shuttle to LAX and take Alaska Airlines to Cancun. Last year at this time Alaska had grounded their whole fleet because the doors keep falling off, remember that one. This year they are just running late. About two hours to be exact. In all of this I discovered and interesting thing. Our flight is scheduled for 9:05, arriving in Cancun at 5:00PM. Cancun is 3 hours ahead of us so that makes it a 5 hour flight. We leave two hours late, but arrive around 6:00PM, only 1 hour late? I'm thinking the airlines are baking in some extra time for being late. Any comments has this happened to you?

Either way it's dark when we get to Cancun and Wow we are back in Mexico, I know this because the line going to Customs has to stop to let a line of flyers board! It seems like someone would have figured this out. So we are standing behind a closed glass door, watching people get on a plane, then their door closes and we are let through. Walk down a long walkway, which is pretty typical and there are about 10 custom agents, processing us really quickly, but just past them you run smack into a giant crowd of people trying to squeeze past one guy, no order, no line just a little pushing and shoving and the guy is standing there a little overwhelmed. Some of us get inspected, some of us don't. Totally random.

We make it through. We are taking an ADO bus to Centro Cancun where we will take the bus tomorrow to Merida. This process works really, really well. For anyone doing this in the future, you come out of customs and almost right in front of you is an ADO booth. $280 pesos for two to downtown. Then you walk out past the screaming crowd of taxi vendors, get all the way out and turn right past Puerta 8 and you will find the bus to downtown. Make sure you look in the right part of the ticket for the Asiento, Seat number. We just grabbed two seats and a few minutes later this couple said we were in their seat and then we had to kick the people out of our seat, and course there is no one from ADO monitoring any of this.

We're BA-A-CK



Here is the both, so easy to find and well before you start getting propositioned for taxis, shuttles, buses, donkeys, you name it.

There were actually three buses lined up when we got to the bus stop. Some go to Playa Del Carmen, some to downtown so make sure you are on the right bus.

LOL on your title. Following!

Also following. Don't think we'll ever get to explore the you ca tan so I'll just have to live vicariously thru your (and other's) TR's.

Day 2 - On the Road to Merida
Getting to our hotel after 8:00PM we headed to Sanborn's the Mexican Dennys for enchillada sueza. Always the same, lots of chicken a little bit of lime, a familiar welcome to Mexico. We stayed at the Hotel Plaza Caribe because of it's proximity to the ADO bus station. So-so hotel but we slept OK.


The fabulous Hotel Plaza Caribe. Caribe is Spanish for, "I can see the bus station from here"



Here's the proof, this is actually from the lobby of the Plaza and the ADO right across the street.


We are going to Merida because over the last year we have been seduced by hundreds of You Tube videos from millenials who have ventured there and told us how great it is. You know who I'm talking about, "Hi, we're Chad and Mindy and we quit our jobs at the chinchilla farm and are traveling the world!" They are all so young and pretty. God I hate 'em. Actually I'm just jealous, because when I was 26 and working on the chinchilla farm it never occurred to me that I could quit my job and travel around the world!!! Now I'm old, groan every time I get out of a chair, but I'm still traveling. So we take the ADO bus to Merida, quick 4 hr trip. Pro Tip (I stole the term Pro Tip from Chad and Mindy),
You will be hot and sweaty in the departure gate, but the bus will be Freezing. I would recommend long pants and pack a long shirt or even sweater.

So off to Merida, now we've read really positive things but over the last couple of months, I've read some comments, from people I respect, that Merida was not that great. So it is my goal to explore the redeeming qualities of Merida and post them on this trip report. Our apartment is on Calle 57 and Calle 54, close to downtown and it is brand new and fantastic. We've never stayed in such a new apartment. Great kitchen, bedroom and a pool just outside of our door. Our apartment is called Ticul, that's how you will find it on Booking.com, but I don't know the name of the complex.

There is a little outdoor courtyard for morning coffee.

Small pool but you will get wet!

Unpacked, relaxed then off to Soriana for groceries, about a 8 minute walk. Went to La Chaya Maya for dinner and sampled, panuchos, papadzul, and various tacos, cochinita pipil being the best. Subtle tastes but very interesting, not the traditional on fire Mexican food. We will be here for the Merida Fest which lasts for one week starting yesterday but tonight was the kick off celebration in the Plaza Grande. String orchestra started with some traditional dancers and then 4 guys with guitars called Los Suglares came out and they were Fantastic. The had a guy playing guitar that Hendrix would have said, "How'd you do that". Watched the whole show and the weather is perfect, actually a bit cool which is not what we've read about Merida. So after our first day...I'm kind of leaning toward Chad and Mindy, this place is pretty cool.

Traditional Dancers with String Orchestra.

The boys in the band, damn they were cooking.

Walking down Calle 60

Shot of the Iglesia

Merida Day 2
We are taking a walking tour this morning, but first need coffee. I go out and see a woman with a take away coffee, she says, there is a "stand" right over there, I go over there and it's a Starbucks! I would like to find a little tienda and buy coffee from them but the truth of the matter is...they are not open yet and Starbucks is. As I walk down Calle 57, there are so many cool buildings, but they appear to be empty.

Our whole street has these buildings, the bones look great, who knows whats in there, but the outside is classic

The question is, how do they turn the previous building into this!

Walking tour starts at 10AM, great tour guide, learn a lot about Merida. It's the Capitol of Yucatan, has been independent twice in it's time, both times ended in going back to Mexico. There were Mayan temples here but the Spanish tore them all down and used the bricks to build churches. It's normally hot, hot here, but today is overcast and cool. Our tour guide is saying, "Aren't you guys cold", and the tour is 5 Canadians, 4 US folks and a couple from England. No it's not cold, it's great! See a lot of the downtown area, she takes us into a cool Artisan Galley, stop at Parque Santa Lucia which will have dancers later in the week and end in the Plaza Grande. So far it's a really cool town, except I wish the would restore Calle 57!

Couple of Catrinas in the Artisan Gallery. It was very high quality

Classic couples chairs, so the young lovers couldn't get too close together.

Standard giant name on the square.

Traditional elephant at Christmas time. Wait, elephants? I don't remember them.

Entry to the Gran Hotel, built in 1901. Has a really cool lobby with a lot of the original furniture.

Casa de Montejo. This casa was in the family for about 500 years. Montejo was the original Spanish ruler. Not a nice guy. Now a bank owns it and part of it is a museum. And it's free!

Las Vigas restaurant. Our guide turned us on to this. It was very cheap, 45$ for a margarita. Will come here again


You can tell it is windy today because this is a giant Mexican flag and one of the best shots I've caught of the flag flying. Viva Mexico!

Enjoying your report! I remember enjoying Montejo beer, never found it elsewhere. Please try one and report back!

Cool little restaurant. Good that it is cool.

Assuming this is an almost live report, you are missing all the excitement back at home.
They are asking for all LAFD personnel to call in with availablility. Yikes!!!

We have been reading about Pacific Palisades and Altadena. Thank God we live in boring ol' Van Nuys.

Will look for it Fra Diavolo!

Merida Day 3 -
I realize that I've actually posted 2 Day twos! It's Day 4 of our trip, Day 3 in Merida. Pretty quiet day, we caught a little bit of a bug last night, we are blaming it on an Agua Fresca at a small cafe. So we didn't explore much. Went to the Museo de la Ciudad, which is actually in the old Post Office building. I've commented on this before how Mexico often recycles old buildings into museums. We learned that Merida was once the richest town in South America because of the manufacturing of hennequen which is rope. It seems to have fallen on harder times but that does explain why there are all of these great looking empty buildings, in not great shape, but this used to be a happening place. Now it seems more like a working town then other destinations.

One of the gates to the city. These were used to separate neighborhoods. There used to be 7 of them, three remain standing.

Museo de la Ciudad. Small but interesting, good for maybe an hour

Statue at the foot of Paseo Montejo, more on that tomorrow

Statues, what Mexican park doesn't have a statue. This is Parque de la Mejorada, right down the street from where we are staying

Giant mansion with one of the craziest designs

Montejo 495, big mansion that we will tour tomorrow

Tonight we had dinner at Museo de la Gastronomia Yucatan. A very nice restaurant in an old mansion. So mansion here means a square house with a giant courtyard. They have some of the best Yucatan cuisine here. We had Sopa de limon and Cochinita Pibil. All very good, but we are discovering that many restaurants have the same menu here. Gastronomia has small museum attached to the restaurant with some interesting info about the ingredients used in Mayan cooking, also the way they cooked. We sat in the patio under the giant tress. We enjoyed it and called an early night



Museo de la Gastronomia

The museum

Sitting under the foliage. I don't think would get wet if it rained.

Merida - Big Day 4
The "bug" is gone, feeling great and hit the ground running. First stop breakfast. I found a place called El Barrio, small, pretty local, let's try it out. Plus it's right in back of Casas Gemelas/ Camara our next stop after breakfast.This is a very nice cafe, young staff, friendly with good service.


Don't blink you'll miss it!


Look at that French Toast. It was more of cake than toast, covered in fruit, no syrup. Didn't need it.


Now we are off to the mansion. It was built by a family who inherited their families hennequen haciendas in 1904. The family already had money, but vast amounts of wealth was generated from hennequen because it was very unique, it has now been replaced by synthetic materials. At one time everyone was making cash. So it wasn't just the ranchers, it was the guy who built the railroad, the guy who had the ships etc. The person that made the most money in the 1849 Gold Rush was the guy who sold the shovels. The mansion is on Paseo de Montejo, to this area in context, this is where the Beverly Hillbillies would have loaded up the truck and moved to. The mansion is a little pricey to get in, $250 pesos per person and $50 pesos for photos. I took a lot of photos but will try to constrain myself.



Stairs up to second floor

Entry into the house


Sitting room

Curved Staircase, all marble of course

Picture of the owner withJacqueline Kennedy. She visited the house on numerous occasions

There's Jack! The connection was the JFK went to Harvard with the man standing next to Jackie in the picture above, Fernando Barbachano



I mention Fernando Barbachano because he bought the house in 1964. Our guide said he was in tourism. His family actually owned Chitzen Itza. I'm not lying! Can you believe that. His family didn't sell it to the Mexican government until 2010. This family established all of the tourism in the Yucatan in the beginning of the 21st Century.

There is still more but I'm going to do another post to break it up a little!

After rubbing shoulders with the ghosts of the Barbachanos and the Kennedys we walked on down Paseo de Montejo to the Museo de Archologico which is in the Canton Palacio. This was a grand mansion built by Francisco Canton in 1904 and 1911. It hasn't been a house for a long time so it's more like a government building now. House's a nice but small collection of Mayan artifacts. It had more but the have been moved to the Gran Museo Maya, which is closed right now.


Outside of the Palacio

Look at that detail

Who is this guy?

Statue with a deer

Marble, marble, marble everywherre


After a little downtime, I walked back to the Plaza Grande to check out the Catedral. The Catedral was started in 1561 completed in 1598, it is the second cathedral completed in the Americas. I found it to be fascinating compared to some other cathedrals I have seen because it feels very Gothic. It also has the biggest indoor Jesus in the Americas.


From the outside

The big guy carved out of wood

The dome, this cathedral has lots of these giant pillars so it makes it seem different to most of the churches I have seen in Mexico

Altar with the biggest Crucifix

Most travelers to Mexico have heard how the Spanish used the stones from the Mayan temples to build the Catholic churches. Here is the proof. In the middle of the picture you can an artifact from a Mayan temple


To finish off our day/ night, we headed to Parque de Santa Lucia for the Thursday night entertainment. For the last 40 years there has been a concert in the park with music and dancers. The place was packed. My pictures are from a distance because it was a close as I could get. It was a fairly short performance. Guitar band, Lady singer, two dances and Adios, but it was really fun and the crowd enjoyed it. Nice mixture of locals and turistas.


I thought it was interesting how different these guys were from the first group we saw on Monday. Very smooth not a lot of fire. Think Little Richard vs. Pat Boone.

Graceful singer, singing of the vaquero that got away.


Two pictures of dancers with drinks on the heads! Working their way into becoming waiters and waitresses I guess.

Merida - Day 5

We are slowly wrapping up our stay here, we have three more days and today was a big one. We went to the Palacio de Gobierno, Casa de Montejo , a night walk on Paseo de Montejo and finally JAZZ at Dzalby Jazz Bar. Shout out to Crellston for the heads up on the jazz club. I've read a number of posts here on Fodors that say you don't need to spend a week in Merida and generally now that I am here, I would agree with that. But if you have the time, it is worth it stay a few days longer. That way you can hang around until 11AM like we did this morning. Also you can bake in a "bug" day as we did on Wednesday. Today was catching up on the things you "need" to see. First stop the Government Palace. This is where you will find the Govenor's offices. We had read about the murals by Fernando Castro Pacheco around the ground floor and upper balcony. We weren't prepared, however, for the hall of murals off the second floor which houses many more murals depicting the history of the area and the little museum on the first floor.


Governor's office. (not really) this is a replica in the museum so you can get a shot sitting in the chair and saying, " I will not run for the Presidency and if nominated I will not serve".

From the second floor.

Two Presidents that brought reform to Mexico, one is Lazaro Cardenas and I can't remember the other one.

This mural relates to hennequen and how the people were enslaved to harvest and manufacture it and the rich guys stood around.

This is the Hall of murals and it is very impressive

The Caste War, which no one hear has heard of, but the Mayans rebelled and fought for 50 years against the Spanish, in 1847 - 1901.


Right across the Plaza from the Governor's Palace is the Casa de Montejo. The first Spanish governor of Yucatan. Merida was originally the Mayan city of T'Ho. There were three Montejo's. This Casa was built by his son and he seems to have been the worst of the lot. The nephew was a little better but not much. The facade is the only thing, really, that is left from 1549 and it was occupied by the Montejo family for 400 hundred years. Citibanamex bought it in 1981 and have restored rooms that you can tour. In the first picture you can see a Spaniard standing on the heads of people he's conquered. So subtle! The fourth picture shows a hammock on the wall. Even the rich, inside the most expensive palaces still slept in hammocks in the summer because it was so hot.





After a quiet afternoon, we headed back to the bottom of Paseo de Montejo for our night tour. It really is the place to be in Merida. No one lives here now, it's all restaurants, hotels and shops but this is where the rich hennequen magnets lived. In the early 1900's, 1901 - 19011, the rich wanted a place that was special for the Casta de Vina. The Divine Caste and the created Paseo de Montejo based roughly on the Champs Elysees. These people felt they were European, not Mexican. La Reforma in Mexico City has the same idea. Our guide Luis, was a young student, very engaging and we had a nice two hour walk down the Paseo. A couple of interesting things, the design is Colonial, different than what you might see in Mexico City or say Guanajuato, SMA and Queretaro. However, many of the buildings you see aren't that old. There is a requirement to build in that style. As expected, the newer ones may not be as ornate as the older buildings because it's too expensive today.

I've only added a few pics of the mansions. This is a museum we will visit on Sunday

Yerba Santa Restaurant. If you have dinner here you can walk up to the tower. This was always a restaurant.

Paseo de Montejo ends in the monument which is very interesting and you could spend an hour reading and looking at the detail

Back of the monument. There is the classic eagle eating the snake on a cactus. You may the story of the Mexicas on the move and the myth that when they saw an eagle eating a snake, they were home. Tenochtitlan, which became Mexico City


We finished the night by catching some really good music at Dzalby's Jazz club. I wish I had gone here sooner because I would have hung out here every night. Thanks again, Crellston.

Enjoying your report Tdiddy. $2.17 for a margarita? Wow. Count me in.

Glad you enjoyed the jazz at Dzalby's Tdiddy!

Yes, and it was pretty powerful. The average price around here for a margarita has been about $100 pesos. In Zihua it has been creeping up to $150 to $180, so I will be enjoying these!

We got there around 8;20, just after the first set ended and they sat us up on the roof! Then people started clearing out and we got a great seat as you can see. The music was really good, nice margarita also with some tacos.

Merida - Day 6
Interesting day today, we woke up to rain! If only we could have sent that home to Los Angeles. We went out to the Museo de la Luz which is the University museum and had an weird experience. Their current exhibition is called Dialogue in the Dark. Google it if you wish, it has actually been all around the world. It's not really an exhibition but an experience. You spend an hour in the total dark, with a walking stick like a blind person would use and you walk through a labyrinth with a guide giving you clues, "there's a wall on your right", "hear the birds" etc. Unfortunately, everything was in Spanish so not only were we blind, we were probably deaf also. You put your hand on the person in front of you and you start off, you are in there for an hour! It was one of those experiences that you think, that was stupid, but you will remember it for ever.
Across the street from the museum is the new Parque La Plancha. A beautiful park that I'm betting is used a lot when it isn't raining.

Big kids playground

The long curved thing above is a running path that goes the whole length of the park, more than a couple of blocks

There is also a small lake and this area will have a shuttle connection to Tren Maya.


Every Saturday night in front of the Catedral there is a big show. We had read it was a demonstration of the Mayan ball game, but it actually is a show with Mayan characters. We were on the side and the view was not that great. The show is worth it but if you come here get there early for seats in the front. The dancers come through the crowd at the beginning and the jaguar was quite impressive. After the show we stopped for a marquesita, a crepe with grated Edam cheese and something sweet, chocolate, caramel, fruits and then it is rolled into a long cone.

Start of the show. About dancers in all.

Here comes the jaguar, the guy really had his cat moves down.


End of the show in front of the Catedral

Dueling Marquesitas, based on the gas station on every corner concept.

Beautiful TR Tdiddly12, thank you for posting. Super photos and a fun read. Glad to hear your "bug" only lasted one day. I can think of several other colloquialisms for that ailment. Been there.

> Our whole street has these buildings, the bones look great, who knows whats in there, but the outside is classic

I hope you don't mind a minor diversion, but I can give one answer. On our first tip to Mexico in 1984 we stayed in a hotel on Calle 63 between 52 and 54. Here is the exterior, somewhat similar to the first photo in your post #5. Note one of the city gates you mention on the left.



And this is the interior courtyard, sadly the only photo I have of it. We were impressed by how calm and beautiful it was in there.


I imagine there are some grander ones in the neighborhood. The hotel is still there, modernized and now called the Hotel Doralba Inn.
https://www.doloresalba.com/nueva/merida.php

Sign me up for those strong $2.17 margs!

Nelson - Your photo looks like our street as you mentioned. We are on Calle 57 right on the corner of Calle 54. There are streets filled with facades like you posted and I keep wondering whats behind those doors! I assume many have courtyards like you pictured. I'm going to go look for this hotel and post an updated photo. Yesterday I was walking around and found a great building maybe recently painted. I think Merida has a certain feel because there are so many old buildings in not great repair.