Whiling Away a Sunday in Mérida

It´s 5:15PM, and the traditional dance display has just started on one of the four streets that surround Mérida´s main plaza (de la Revolución). Every Sunday is 'Domingo en Mérida', and about twelve blocks of the downtown core are handed over to the people for singing, dancing, eating, and relaxing. Artisans and vendors set up shop in all corners, selling everything from México's finest amacas to the locally-made Guayacabas - shirts often traditionally hand sewn from a cactus-like plant. At any given point today, there have been over 5,000 people here in the plaza, enjoying the sights, sounds, and tastes of the Yucatán.

Mérida is the capital of the state of Yucatán, and as such is a cultural and historical landmark. The oldest cathedral in North America overlooks the Plaza from the East, and tucked in beside is the open-air Museo MACAY, whose exhibition space is only ever filled with Yucatecan artists. Four blocks to the North is the Paseo de Montejo, a wide street with ten blocks (two per sidewalk per block) of sculptures from contemporary North American artists. I missed the highly-recommended Museo de Antropológico due to its shorted Sunday hours, and hope to catch it open tomorrow.

Most establishments close Sundays, which means greater crowds in the car-free downtown core. When experiencing Mérida, it becomes clear what Cancún lacks, and that is a heart, or corazón. What you see in Mérida is a real Mexican city at its finest, unencumbered by a weekly deluge of pale-skinned tourists looking for a postage stamp of beach and a drink in both hands. Well, at least they weren't burdened so before I showed up.

The plan was to leave for Palenque on the 11:30PM bus tonight, but there is so much to see within an hour of here that I decided to stay another full day. Progreso is a beachfront town only thirty minutes north, and many ruins and cenotes (sinkholes with fresh water for swimming, once used in Mayan ceremonies) are at most thirty minutes more. Plus, sitting around with the staff at The Nest has been great for my Spanish.

Given my discussions with Michèle from Québec, I get the sense that my travel plans may need a-changin', and soon. My current plans may mean missing all the treasures not written up in my guidebook; treasures like a Sunday in Ciudad Mérida.

*** A note on images - those I have posted to date are not my own, as I failed to bring a cord to connect my camera to a PC. There is a Canon shop that will be open tomorrow, so look for updated posts and photos tomorrow evening.