Day 1. Mexico 2022. Arrival in Mérida

 

OK, let’s try this again, as a new summer trip going through Mexico. I am going to start with Mérida because it is a city I have not visited in many years and I remember liking it very much. I have always recommended to folks visiting Cancún and the Riviera Maya a side visit to Mérida, as a “true Mexican city” rather than a tourist trap, with the side benefits of being beautiful, having tons of culture, and being a gastronomic paradise with rather unique cuisine.

I landed at 3 am, after a three-stage trip from St. Thomas to Miami to Mexico City to Mérida, so the first thing I got to do was slumber at the airport for 3 hours to wait for sunrise. The airport is within the city, so it was an easy walk to the nearest boulevard, where I caught the colectivo to downtown, stopped at an Oxxo to buy a cell phone chip, and walk to the hotel I had booked for the first three nights, right in the heart of downtown. It was a delightful walk that refreshed my memory about a clean and friendly city (Mérida is called the White City because of its cleanliness, the color of its houses, and the garment color favored by many of the inhabitants). By 8 am I was settled in, took a much needed shower, and got ready to go explore my immediate surroundings. I had made a reservation for a rental car, so I went an picked it up from the downtown rental agency and promptly drove it to the garage of the hotel, where it will stay for the next three days.

While at the airport I had seen a display about the Museum of the Yucatán Song, and I thought that would be a very nice place to start my walk down memory lane. My parents had several records of the Yucatán songs that were so famous during the 1930’s to 1970’s, which I heard over an over both using the phonograph and as sing-alongs during the many road trips we took as a family. Many of the songs were romantic, and were sung by tríos or groups of three guitar-playing male musicians, although there were also female groups that sang accompanied by large orchestras. Many other songs, however, were poems sung to the beauty of the land, the plight of the Mayan Indians, or just nature. The museum had many portraits of the main singers/composers, such as Guty Cardenas and Armando Manzanero, and they also had copies of the lyrics, sound tracks of the most famous songs, and even grainy videos of the grandees of the Golden Age of romantic music in Mexico. I sang along in my mind, remembering my Mom and Grandmother singing these same songs as they tidied around the house.

By that time I was getting hungry, so I stopped for breakfast at a small restaurant, where I enjoyed a cup of coffee and an order of panuchos de pollo (a type of overstuffed taco made with small tortilla filled with mashed beans). Yummy!

It was beginning to get hot, so I dove into the Museum of Folk Art to look at the beautiful textiles and ceramic of the region, as well as to a modern exhibition of colorful women dresses based on traditional patterns and colors, but with a definite modern flair. They were very popular in the 1980’s and 1990’s for the parties of the rich and famous across the Western world, and I think they would look great at the Oscar’s or the Grammy’s today.

I had forgotten that Mérida favors the white color because it is hot! I was definitely hugging the shade as I walked through downtown, on the way to the open-sided bus that I was going to take to get an introductory tour of the city, which I have always thought is a good way to get a general overview of a new city. I was right! I found out I had been walking just a block or two off from the main plaza, and got many good tips about places to eat, markets to shop, and places to go visit tonight (today is Saturday) to enjoy some of the music and night life of the town.

I am sorry DJ is not here with me, because we could have such fun looking at guayaberas and the other fine garments that we both favor (of course that would cause severe damage to our wallets). Yucatecos are generally short in stature and have large heads, but they are very dapper and wear a wide variety of handsome hats that are in every way comparable to the “Panama” hats that are made in Ecuador of paja toquilla. I of course had to ask at a shop, and I was assured that they are made in Mexico, but respecting the same traditions of headwear making, including weaving the carefully selected fibers by hand while inside a humid cave. I feel there is a new hat coming into my life.

The tour also highlighted the many wide boulevards and beautiful neighborhoods of this most handsome of cities. During the period of 1880 to 1930, the state of Yucatán enjoyed the Green Gold Rush of the henequen, a type of agave from the leaves of which the tough fibers of the henequen are separated to form all sorts of cordage. The henequen plantations are infamous because of the indenture they made of the Indians of Mexico—from the Yaquis of the north to the Mayas of the south, but they brough great richness to the merchant classes, who spent their money in creating a European city that in some measure could have competed with some of the great capitals of the Old World. The Paseo Montejo is dubbed the Champs Elysees of Mérida, and the old mansions that line it are fine exponents of Mudejar, Spanish, and French chateaus. Of course, very few people can afford to maintain those enormous houses, many of which have been taken over by corporations and banks to be their headquarters. The city also abounds on monuments and beautiful parks, so I am thinking that the three days that I am planning on spending here might not be enough. 

By 3 pm it was too hot, so I came back to my hotel, took a dip in the pool, and indulged in a siesta in preparation for my afternoon and evening ramblings.

The siesta did wonders and I was able to take a long afternoon/evening walk through downtown and the Paseo Montejo. As I expected, thousands of families were out, with the kids running around and stopping at the street vendors to buy a marquesita, which is a Mexican version of a crepe or a thin waffle that is filled with cheese, or Nutella, or fruit, and is then rolled into a taco. The street cafes are full of people and normally have live music that the gentle evening breeze carries along the tree-lined promenade. I also went back to the main plaza, where people like to sit along the many benches to chat with neighbors or to see the vendors doing brisk commerce with tourists and locals alike. Tomorrow there will be a tianguis (a Farmers’ Market) in the Main Plaza that I will definitely come back to.