Under the Fan in the Yucatan: In closing . . .

Well, seeing as how we’ve been back in “the true north strong and free” for ten days already I guess it’s time to wrap up this harangue.

Merida.  How do I sum up such a rich experience in a few words?  We both highly recommend it as a destination for as little as a week (although you will be hard pressed to see even the basics in seven days) to as long as a retirement home especially for singles and people who want lots to do in a safe peaceful environment.  My first impression was correct – Merida is like “Cuba with stuff”.  It boasts the best of both Mexico and Cuba.  The people are proud but friendly, music and the arts are everywhere and supported by everyone including the government.  The culture is distinct as the architecture which provides hours of fascination and/or photo taking.  The health care and education are excellent.  And there is very little crime.

Must sees/dos:

1.      El Centro – the historic centre of the city

2.      Plaza Grande and the buildings that are adjacent – the centre of the centre

3.      Paseo de Montejo  and the museums and shops sprinkled amongst the many banks that line the avenue

4.      Monumento à la Patria at the north end of the downtown section of Montejo

5.      Haceinda Sotuta de Peon

6.      Hacienda Yaxcopoil

7.      Uxmal, Mayan ruins

8.      Chaya Maya, best place for Yucatecan food

9.      Manglares de Dzinitún ecotour at Celestun when the flamingos are around

10.   The Cuzama  three cenote tour if you like to swim

11.   The free concerts offered in various outdoor locales downtown

12.   The myriad art galleries, museums, shops

Shopping requires its own paragraph.  Souvenir shopping can be very good in Merida.  While the talavera pottery, blankets, leather, etc. many of us know and love from the northwestern Mexico is in short supply here, the Yucatan has its own appealing goods especially clothing.  The guayaberra shirts and the huipil dresses and blouses are beautiful and very affordable as are embroidered households goods.  As well anything that can be made from henequen fibre is, like baskets, coasters, placemats, etc. and at very reasonable cost.  Surprisingly, the best place to buy high quality Yucatan arts and crafts at reasonable prices is at the shops in the museums and boutique hotels like Casa San Angel.  Pottery (as opposed to talavera ceramics) and high quality crafts from all parts of Mexico are also available in Merida.

As far as everyday shopping, trips to Walmart were required for only a few items – gin for Neil’s daily G&T (rum and vodka are available everywhere), butter (from Denmark or New Zealand.  We don’t like Mexican butter.  Must be what they feed the cattle.  Corn maybe.), some baked goods (we northerners take our wonderful high-quality wheat so for granted.)  Electronics are not readily available or inexpensive Mexico.

If you are pressed for time, less than adventurous or just plain lazy like us, the best way to cover a lot of ground painlessly is to hire a driver and guide.  We highly recommend Lawson’s Original Yucatan Excursions.  No worries about renting a car, insurance, getting lost, parking, etc. and a bilingual ex-pat Canadian guide in addition to the bilingual driver if you choose.  Not cheap but worth every penny.

The best way to find out what is happening in Merida is to check out the” Yucatan Today” and “Yucatan Living” websites.  The former also publishes a monthly magazine that is available free of charge and is a MUST for every English-speaking household in the city.

While Merida is a wonderful vacation destination it is not without its drawbacks.  Mostly little things but it’s the little things that drive us nuts in daily living.  This is Mexico and sadly littering is a Mexican way of life.  Remember back forty, fifty years ago when the government first started educating us to not be  “litter bugs”?  Mexico skipped all that.  They had bigger problems then but now litter is one of the bigger problems, especially with regard to tourism, but they are completely oblivious to it.  They have absolutely no idea that this keeps people from coming back to their otherwise beautiful country.

The heat!  Okay, a week or two of plus 35 temperatures with high humidity can be a novelty.  Two months was too long for this well-upholstered northerner.  One gets tired of constantly being soaking wet with perspiration from the slightest exertion.  This February was quite a bit warmer than usual for the time of year there but I sure wouldn’t want to experience Merida in May which is the usual hottest month.

Yucatecan cuisine, like Cuban, is not one of the world’s great eating experiences.  They have a few specialties which are okay to try and yummy to Yucatecans but which I tired of very quickly.  If I NEVER see a corn tortilla again it will be too soon.  Fortunately, their cuisine is quite distinct from the western/northern Mexican and Texmex food we all know and love so I may be able to look sideways at a flour tortilla again someday.  The cuisine is quite bland but always served with a tiny dish of habanera pepper sauce which is ungodly hot.  Very tricky.  On the plus side, Neil and I both lost six pounds while we were there which we attribute to all the walking and sweating albeit other than fruit and the occasional sorbet there was not much in the way of desserts.

So in addition to the litter, the heat and the food, what were the worst aspects of the trip to Merida?

1.       Carnaval – preceding Ash Wednesday may be an interesting spectacle in some Caribbean locales but in Merida it is a week of snarled traffic, confusion and mega litter.  The centre of the city is taken over by grandstands to accommodate viewing of parade that is essential the same every single day and dozens of beer, food and trinket tents.  No one I talked to likes Carnaval and it would be best moved outside the city for those who do.
2.       Collectivos are vans that transport up to twelve people very inexpensively to and from the city as well as in outlying areas. They are one way to get around if you do not have a car but I tired of the long waits, the noise and the crowding very quickly.  Plus I sensed some resentment on the part of the locals having to share their only mode of transport with us gringos who have other options.
3.       La Pigua is a highly rated seafood restaurant in both Merida and Campeche.  We dined at the latter and were very disappointed.  The service was poor, the decor/atmosphere was nonexistent and the food was poor, i.e. excessively salty and/or overcooked.  And expensive!
4.       Also in Campeche the Miramar restaurant across the street from our hotel was just plain horrible.  Over priced skimpy portions of poor food and worse service.
5.       Campeche overall was a bit of a disappointment.  It was the first seaport in the Yucatan but had such a bad time with pirates that the powers that were scouted inland and founded Merida.  It is now a World Heritage site which has meant considerable restoration of its beautiful colonial buildings.  (Merida could greatly benefit from that designation as well.)  The vestiges of the huge wall that once fortified the city are also interesting but there is really not much else to see and I found it very disappointing to see how much land between the old wall and the ocean has been “reclaimed” from the sea.  It completely detracts from imagining the old city as it once was despite the fancy new malacon (seawalk).  The best thing about Campeche other than the buildings and wall is a small Gelateria.  Best gelato I have ever had!
6.       The motorboat tours to see the flamingos at Celestun.  The water was too shallow for the boats to get close enough this year but that didn’t prevent them from trying.  Too noisey and inefficient for good bird viewing.  Highly recommend the Manglares de Dzinitún ecotour instead where you are poled in by canoe.
7.       Port city of Progreso about twenty miles north of Merida and the nearby fishing villages boast beautiful white sand beaches on the Gulf of Mexico.  During the winter months they are very quiet and accommodation is very affordable however you really need a vehicle to see the area with any degree of convenience.  We used collectivos but a car would have made the experience more enjoyable.
8.    The noise.  Urban Mexico is noisy and the high ceilings and concrete walled houses with no insulation situated right on the street do nothing to abate the problem.

As you can see the pros far outweigh the cons.  Merida and the whole Yucatan is a wonderful destination for people who want to experience a distinct culture in a safe and affordable environment.