Exploring Merida

---

My first full day in Merida was a busy one! We started the morning by eating at Chaya Maya, a cute restaurant with a nice courtyard. I had some tacos with turkey, avocado, cucumber, tomato and pickled onions. Also some orange juice that wasn’t really fresh squeezed but still refreshing. And the meal was very filling!

The tourist office offers a free walking tour of the historic square and we were able to take the first one at 9:30. Our guide talked about the history of Merida and how it was built on Mayan ruins. He explained all the buildings on the square (mostly I forgot already what they all were) and the style of architecture. We walked a little off the square to two very nice smaller parks. Each park had lots of trees and shade from the sun.

Our next stop was the Mayan Museum, a short Uber ride away from the square. This museum was very interesting and well done. It shows the history of the Mayan people and explains their culture. My aunt had suggested we do this before visiting any ruins and I think it was a good starting point. The videos are not in English but many of the signs do have English translations.

My aunt said we had to go see the cenote in the Costco parking lot so we took a short walk down the road to view this attraction. This cenote is not open for swimming but it was kind of cool to see the parking lot built around it.

We took another short Uber right to the beginning of the Paseo de Montejo, which is modeled after the Champs-Elysees. I didn’t think it bore much resemblance aside from being wide! However, there are trees and a wide sidewalk. We came upon the Quinta Montes Molina house and took the house tour. This home has been well preserved and the family still stays here when they are in town. The crown molding in each room was very decorative and some of the chandeliers were just ridiculous. Each room had wide windows flung open to let the breeze blow through. It wasn’t an overly warm day but catching any breeze is a plus!

At the end of the Paseo was our lunch destination, Manjar Blanco. This restaurant was featured on an episode of the taco show on Netflix. We sat outside and ordered our food. I had a very refreshing horchata and ordered more tacos. Unfortunately, it started to rain shortly after they brought our food so we had to dash inside. But the meal was good and the atmosphere was also nice. We continued walking back to one of the parks from earlier and then picked up the rental car for the next few days.

Once back at the room we put our feet in the pool to cool off and then headed to bed. I walked a little over 15,000 steps and saw a lot of the city.

---