The only thing worse than being the Abominable 7 am Tourist is to be the Abominable 7 am on a Monday or Tuesday, which is when the main tourist attractions are closed. I was reminded about this after walking half an hour to the Parque Centenario, where the Mérida Zoo is located. I had to satisfy myself by looking at the distance at the giraffe and the ostriches, imagining that on any regular day, at 7:30 pm, the park would have been bustling with happy families enjoying the cool of the evening.
The walk gave me an excuse to see Mérida wake up, with lots of folks getting ready to go to work or school (school must still be in session), and afforded me the ponder the question I always have “Could I live in this city?” The answer is an unequivocal yes, although I wish the climate here were a bit cooler.
In my perambulations I found, behind the Parque Centenario, a modern “Mayan palace”, which had been abandoned a few years ago as suggested by the vegetation that had started getting hold of the fake porticoes, inside yards, and facades. I have no idea what this was supposed to be (maybe a museum or a Las Vegas-style casino) but whoever had built it had gone to considerable pains to recreate the Mayan-style ornamentation. They should at least use it as a Mayan haunted palace. I also visited the Government House, which has some beautiful murals that, as is common in public buildings, remind the visitor that the Mexican people arose from the painful encounter between indigenous peoples and the Spanish invaders.
I believe I have already mentioned that there are many parks in the city, and in all of them there are small eateries where it is easy to grab a bite to eat. I had a French roll or torta of slow roasted pork, with all sorts of delicious trimmings at one such eatery, an oreja at a bakery shop, and a cup of coffee at the Main Plaza. Despite being fragmented, it was a very satisfying breakfast that allowed me to ease slowly into the main activities of the day. I have booked an excursion to the archaeologic site of Mayapán, that will also visit some cenotes (sinkholes occupied by crystalline lakes—the water table, actually, but it looks like a lake inside a cave).
Mayapán is about 25 km from Mérida and it is a real jewel. It is a small site of maybe a square kilometer in area, but it is well reconstructed, has plenty of pyramids, platforms and collonades, and even has its own astronomical observatory, all just like those in Chichen Itzá but at a smaller scale. But the best things is that it had no tourists, so we had the opportunity of walking everywhere at our ease, trying to imagine it as a busy Postclassic (1200 to 1450 AD) commercial and religious center.
From there we drove about an hour to the town of Homún, which sits at the center of a circular area, maybe 40 km in diameter, that has been designated as a hydrologic preserve because of the abundance of cenotes within it. Cenotes are a wonderful source of groundwater, but unless the area is protected against pollution (e.g., from industry, feedlots, or landfills) the quality could degrade in a hurry. Homún is a very pretty town that would make a perfect base from which to study the hydrology of the area. This thought came to my mind as I was floating and dreaming on the placid water of the first cenote we visited. There would be certainly worst places for a student to do her master’s research in, with easy access to sampling hundreds of windows into the unconfined Yucatán aquifer. I may ask my friend Raúl, who is an experienced Mexican hydrogeologist what is known about this aquifer, and then dig a little about the stratigraphy of the Cenozoic units (maybe from Pemex) and see what the potential is for doing a geochemical study of the aquifer.
By the time we went and visited the third cenote it was getting to be dinner time, and fortunately our tour included a late lunch of salbutes de pollo (a kind of boat made out of corn meal, fried and then filled with shredded chicken, salad, beet, and a very spicy sauce), which I devoured with gust while chatting with a couple of Germans who were part of the tour.
By the time we got back to Mérida it was getting late, but we were invited to gather in the Main Plaza to see a demonstration of traditional dancing that I didn’t want to miss. It started at 9 pm, which is way past my bedtime, but the evening breeze was refreshing, the cultural value was high, and I was beginning to think that one of those Mexican crepes would be just perfect to round the evening. By the way, Normita tells me that the correct name for them is marquesitas and that they were a favorite of my Dad, so to honor him I had a cheese one that was indeed very tasty.
The dance exhibition was delightful. There was a full band to support the dancers, who included eight couples. The women wore beautiful colorful dresses and the men wore white linen outfits, and together they showed us some of the most beautiful folk dances of the land. It was a great way to finish a perfect day
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