MAKING THE MOST OF MAGNIFICENT MÉRIDA—THE JEWEL IN YUCATÁN'S CROWN

Palacio Municipal Mérida (By Lilla Green)

As far as colonial cities go, it's hard to beat Mérida. Although many tourists gravitate to Cancun and the Riviera Maya, Mérida has been gaining in popularity. 

It's a massive city, over a million population and three hours from Cancun by paid highway. This city truly has it all: an impressive main plaza, a large promenade with stately mansions (Paseo de Montejo), horse-drawn carriages, museums, roving mariachi bands, Mexico's oldest cathedral dating to 1561, towering trees, lovely gardens, an impressive block-long municipal market with everything from vegetables, meat and spices, food stalls, live birds, hardware, clothing, machinery, and hammocks.

MÉRIDA EN DOMINGO

Lucas Galves Municipal Market

Sundays are special, known as Mérida en Domingo. All streets around the zocalo are blocked off for artisans and food vendors. A block from the main plaza at Parque Hidalgo near the historic Gran Hotel, chairs are set up for acts by singers, comics, clowns, and mimes to entertain locals and tourists. At this plaza, vendors sell jewelry, hammocks, embroidered purses, gauze clothing, wood and stone carvings, Mexican toys, and balloons.

Gran Hotel

Mérida's streets are narrow and crowded, teaming with life, at times making walking difficult. The city makes you feel alive because you are so often surrounded by others. The historic district is worth a walk (four blocks around the main plaza) as the architecture is in the Spanish colonial style, austere on the  outside but often painted in bright colors. If there is only one thing you will remember about the city, it's the architecture. It parallels much of the city's history.

HISTORIC HACIENDAS 

Hacienda Yaxcopoil, Yucatán Hacienda

The Spanish villas are a reminder of the Spanish era Paseo Montejo's mansions. The boulevard was set in motion at the turn of the 20th century when Parisians came to Mérida to manufacture Panama hats from henequen, the Yucatán's main crop. The area exploded with commerce and along with the mansions on the main promenade, three hundred haciendas were built in the outlying areas.  

Historic Mansion on Paseo de Montejo

YUCATÁN FOOD SPECIALTIES

Cochinita Pibil 

Food is plentiful and cheap and prices are a welcome rest from the high prices on the coast. The flavors are unique. The Yucatán prides itself on its food, so don't fail to try out local fare—from salbutes, tortes, and panuchos to pibil chicken and mole. Fresh fruit ice cream—mango, coconut, banana, mamey, guanabana—is a must at the hundred plus year old cream parlor on the main square, Dulceria y Sorbeteria Colon.

LODGING

Lodging runs the gamut from inexpensive hotels like the Trinidad Santiago (Calle 62 at 55) to high-end, like El Palacito Secreto, with everything in between. This city hosts a number of small, smart and charming hotels that can be had for reasonable prices, often in the historic district. This makes for easy walking to shops and restaurants. 

Hotel Trinidad Santiago

            

Hotel El Palacito Secreto

THE MAYA

Topmost in Merida is the presence of the modern day Maya. Merida has the highest indigenous population of any city in Mexico where descendants of the ancient Maya live and thrive in this massive metropolis that teams with life, history, and a combination of old and new.

Maya Children (By Naatil.org)

If you enjoyed this post, check out  Where the Sky is Born: Living in the Land of the Maya, on Amazon. My website is www.jeaninekitchel.com. Books one and two in my Mexico cartel trilogy, Wheels Up—A Novel of Drugs, Cartels and Survival, and Tulum Takedown, are also on Amazon. And my journalistic overview of the Maya 2012 calendar phenomenon, Maya 2012 Revealed: Demystifying the Prophecy, is on Amazon.