Merry in Merida
Merry in Merida
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| Merida Cathedral, one of the first in Mexico |
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| Callie, our new dog friend |
We left Cartagena fairly early at about 9:00 am and had a connection in Panama City, a country we had intended to visit before changing our itinerary. But the airport is huge there and works as a hub for the various other countries around and a gateway between North and South America. We had a spot of disappointing lunch (all large American food chains), just wasn't very good, before we flew to Cancun. From Cancun airport we took a bus to Merida where we finally arrived at some time. We were a little confused as Merida and Cancun operate on a different time zone, it's an hours difference but we weren't really sure how all of that worked as it is in pretty much the same place, I understood it had something to do with one province used daylight saving time and the other didn't but who knows?
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| Olivia and the colourful, cheerful, dead lady |
After overpaying a taxi driver, a combination of tiredness, ripped offness and general uncertainty on the money (won't happen again) we arrived at our accommodation. We were staying at a place called the yellow house. A 1920s house built in Merida, one of the oldest cities in Mexico, complete with a four poster bed and small pool. It was really nice and we were greeted by the lovely Callie (a dog that we suspect is half Dalmation and half Jack Russell). Our host Gerry was also very kind and amiable and we soon went to bed after a long day of travelling.
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| Montejo Palace Courtyard |
The next day we headed out to explore the city and the markets. We took a brief look around the square but after only having a coffee for our morning meal we went in search of food. Merida is famed for it's street food which we are endeavoring to try as we travel across the Yucatan peninsula. But the first market, the Lucas de Galvez market, we found was a little disappointing. It was a massive market and slightly after conventional lunch time so we could have just missed where all the good food was, but nevertheless we had some nice Empanadas filled with meat. The meal didn't quite touch the spot though so we eventually found a small canteen type place that was packed with locals and ate something called Flautes or flutes. These are crispy tortillas, so crispy I actually cut my mouth on one, which are stuffed full of shredded chicken and then adorned with lettuce and a sauce. I had mine with Mole, a sauce made with chillies and chocolate and all sorts of lovely things. Olivia's was with Salsa Verde which had chillies and coriander in it. They were both delicious albeit deadly to the mouth department and we were satisfied and went off to look around the square.
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| Partially demolished Flautas |
We mooched around for a while before heading to Pola Gelato Parlour. We had read about this place on Atlasobscura which recommended it for its unusual ice cream flavours. We tried a few before settling upon our flavours, I tried a Stilton and Apple gelato which tasted like cheesecake, with a cuban custard flavour. Olivia had Custard and Pumpkin, amazingly good ice cream! So we munched on those before ambling around the town again. Similarly to a lot of our time in Cartagena and Medellin we tried a lot of different food, trying to regain lost weight you see.
We then wandered around and looked in various shops and restaurants at all the colourful decor that they have around the place. We even looked in the Montejo gallery which is a part of the old stately type home that housed Montejo who used to govern the area. Very interesting and complete with some photos from around the area.
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| Ice Cream from Pola |
Our next day consisted of exploring some other places around. We decided that we would have a lunch from the Santa Ana market which had been greatly advised online. This was even more disappointing than the first. We ordered the Rellenos, I had a black Relleno which consisted of turkey in a black peppery sauce, a little like soup. Olivia had a cheese Relleno which was like mincemeat wrapped in Edam. The Santa Ana market was just really overpriced and just bad quality, but more the kind where you knew you didn't dislike the food, just felt you could easily do it better. So we avoided there from the plague from then on.
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| Mayan Monument |
From here we headed up a main avenue called the Avenida Montejo, it had been recommended to us but was really just a wide road with some nice buildings and a few monuments, including the monument to the Mayans at the end which is a massive roundabout with huge figures on it. Really quite impressive to be honest, but a little weird that we viewed it from outside a McDonalds. We then walked back towards the accommodation before we headed out for a spot of dinner at the Chaya Maya. Here I had a Cochinita Pibil which is tacos with pulled pork that had been marinated in bitter orange and spices. Olivia had an amazing Tamales with shredded turkey and all sorts, it gave us happy memories of Bogota. We were really pleased that the food was so much better, and for a famous restaurant was actually comparable to the Santa Ana Market. Here they even had some ladies who cooked all the tacos fresh for you on a little hot plate.
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| Pok Ta Pok Game |
From here we headed down to the square for the greatly anticipated Pok Ta Pok, a game played by the Mesoamericans. The game is a little strange to explain and we didn't really understand it all. But essentialy it works by only hitting the ball with your hip. It is a really bouncy ball made out of rubber and the aim of the game is to get it in a Quidditch like hoop. So essentially Pok Ta Pok is a game of Quidditch without broomsticks. This was really amazing to watch, but it was a little scary to see people with only loincloths rolling on the floor, I wasn't sure whether to be worried about the stray ball or the carpet burn to the undercarriage...
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| The Flaming Ball |
After there had been a few goals, which apparently are infrequent so we were lucky to see so many, we thought the game was over. But after that they came out with another ball largely made of wood, and set it on fire before playing a mad game of hot potato where they threw it amongst each other before throwing it through the hoop. It really makes you think about how you could spice up some other games, I mean imagine the ashes but where you play with the lit ball?
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| More Hot Balls of Fire (If you click on the picture you can see a video) |
So that was our Saturday evening entertainment. A lot of the rest of our time in Merida we looked around a few museums, including a contemporary art museum, a history museum and a city of Merida museum. We then also ate more ice cream from Pola Gelato shop and other food from the area. We finally struck gold on the Sunday after at a market close to where we were staying called the Santiago Market. We had cochinita pibil in torta (torta meaning cake in Spanish, but thankfully in this instant just a pulled pork sandwich) and this was really nice washed down with fresh orange juice. So finally we had found some great food in a real life Yucatecan market.
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| More Pok ta Pok |
After the process is complete the citrus pulp and juice is siphoned off to make a liqueur (which is really tasty) and then seeds are then toasted. We toasted these and the aroma was delicious! After this we left the toasted seeds to cool down a little while we conducted a sensory exercise. This, all with our eyes closed, included smelling the cacao beans and nibs, feeling them and the leaves and hearing it all, as well as corn (another sacred plant to the early Mexicans). I must admit that the whole experience was a little strange and I may have had to suppress a few laughs. But then we got closer to the important bit, as Olivia calls it, the eating. So after shelling the cacao seeds we added them to the grinder with some cinnamon (cinnamon goes in first) and ground them, the more ground they are the smoother the flavour. A part of sugar is added and then made into chocolate which was dark and wholesome and really tasty. We did another part where we thought about where our ancestors were and our time in Merida and how we made chocolate properly.
With the workshop complete we then had a presentation in English about the history of cacao. It was really amazing to see Magdalena's passion for her work shown through the dedication of the presentation. It was also incredibly sad to learn that Mexico, the home of cacao, now only produces less than 1% of the world's chocolate. The highest is the Ivory Coast, where even more sadly, many people have never tried chocolate because it is too expensive there.
On our last day in Merida we celebrated our time by going to a bar and having a few local beers and food. The beer was all really nice and went down a treat. But then they asked if we wanted more so we thought we'd try a different beer, to which the man asked if we wanted a large or a small. Olivia being the avid drinker was straight in there ordering the drinks to be large. What came out cannot really be described as large...
It was really more like a litre jam jar of beer. Olivia's confusion at the lack of handles gave way to me laughing and then stating that I felt like a drunken Winnie the Pooh, which gained a few odd looks from other people in the bar, not sure if that was due to the word poo or the phrase drunken Winnie the Pooh. But nevertheless the beer was good and we had a good evening.
Our next destination is Chichen Itza where we are spending two nights just outside of the ruins. These are our final wonder of the world to see on this trip and we'll tell you all about them in a few days.
See some more of our posts
- Overview
- European Ecstasy
- Adventures in Asia
- Pacific Paradise
- Southern South American Splendour
- Central Celestial Scenes
- Incan Delights
- Heading North
- Mexican Madness
Have a sneak peek of Chichen Itza here and see some more pictures too (including diving into a Cenote)
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