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Published: October 24th 2006
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We´re slightly behind with our diaries, but then we have been moving fast in the past week and seen so much!! It´s definitely time to update...
We arrived in Merida during the hot midday and right in the south of town. The hostel we had heard about was in the north so quite a trek through the busy city. There were posters everywhere saying there´s a new hostel $4 per person and it was on our way so we thought we might as well check it out. And Krista was near to fainting so we needed a stop anyway. It was very central but a sweaty old man asked us what we wanted, I caught a glimpse of the bunk beds (and the sweaty old man offered us a matrimonial bed again...) - therefore, we quickly decided to move on. Nomadas hostel was great, hammocks in a nice colourful courtyard, a large female dorm, and it was so clean, AND there was a kitchen, a great way to save some money on food. That evening we just bought some cheap food in town and then had a few Coronas on the closed off street in the centre of town (typical
Krista en Sol in the local eatery in Merida
in ¨El Trapiche¨, so good we came back for another meal on weekends in Merida and now it seems daily due to a festival in town), watching the locals (and some tourists) showing their Salsa moves. Incredible!! A highlight of sitting in the streets watching the dancing was getting pooped on by a bird, which was amazing because we were sitting underneath parasols, but there was a slight opening. Well they say it brings you luck. So I moved my chair, so did Krista...and half an hour later Krista was just as lucky as me and got a poop on her shoulder too. Two lucky ladies.
At Nomadas, we saw two guys we met in Isla Mujeres and later an Australian guy who we´ve met in pretty much all of our stops. This is definitely a popular place! There were others doing a tour of the cenotes (underground caves with really clear water, stalagmites, stalagtites etc) the next day and we decided to go for it too, it was a whole day tour of two of the less popular cenotes (not as touristy) and a yucatecan meal in a small town. We sat in the car with two French girls and our ¨tour guide¨ Raul, who spoke very little English
so I acted as a translator when the others didn´t understand (something I don´t think I´m qualified for, but we managed). Raul told us so much about all the cenotes and how they were formed by the meteorite that hit the Yucatan (a very very long time ago obviously) and we made a stop in Uman, where we explored the bustling fruit market and the extremely smelly meat market where there were a lot of pig´s heads (or maybe not that many but those definitely stood out to us). And lots of chickens on hooks. Yum. On the drive to the first cenote, a bird flew into our car....you´d almost say we got even with the birds for pooping on us the night before...
The first cenote was amazing, such clear water, we climbed down a little stair and jumped into the water, there were lots of bats above us. At first it was a little too dark, later when the sun came through the hole a little more it was amazing to see all the underwater limestone formations. And a few catfish, but they were definitely not the highlight. The second cenote was somewhat bigger and there were
lots more formations, stalagtites and stalagmites and much more light so the water seemed very blue due to the reflections on the white limestone.
After this we were ready for some food, and we got plenty at the restaurant. First we got Sopa de Lima which is very typical food, basically your average chicken soup but with a lime in it 😊 Next we got little tacos with frijoles (Krista was very against the idea of refried beans but seems to have taken a liking to them now!) After these we were already starting to feel pretty full but now it was time for the main dish, lots of chicken, rice, salad...whoa. And then for dessert we got oranges. With our full bellies we headed back to Nomadas and went shopping at the big supermarket 2 blocks away, and had a small snack (the lunch was plenty to cover dinner too).
The next day we were ready for another day relaxing at the beach, so we took the local bus to Progreso, which apparently takes 25 minutes. 25 minutes Mexican time = 45 minutes. We drove through a part of Merida which resembles the USA with Wal-Mart, CostCo
and just about every other American store you can imagine. It also has the 3rd largest shopping centre in Mexico, yay...I think in a few years this part of Mexico will be very different from how it is now, and it surely has already changed a LOT.
Raul (our cenote guide) had said Progreso is not a very nice beach, especially in comparison to Mexico´s Caribbean beaches, but walking through the cute seaside town of Progreso a beautiful beach came into sight, so from this we conclude that the Mexicans are spoilt with beaches 😊 After a few hours baking in the sun we had a beer at Eladios Bar with Konrad (who was also staying at Nomadas) and as others had told us, at this place you order a beer and you get free food, and it doesn´t stop coming!! We really had to tell our waiter to stop bringing us food! (Hard to imagine, I know) Where´s the catch, well the beers (and all other drinks) are just slightly more expensive than usual, 28 pesos for the beers and for my pineapple juice (which was then called a ¨cocktail¨and came in an ¨interestingly-shaped¨ glass) was 56 pesos. But
the food was yummy, even a seafood cocktail and potato salad and all sorts of other goodies.
After Eladios we again sat in the sun a little more and then headed back to Merida. We cooked ourselves a pretty untasteful dinner (the store didn´t have vegetables so everything came out of a can; tuna, peas, corn, carrots) and that became tuna-veggie-pasta. We also took advantage of the free salsa lessons that night at Nomadas, they started with the basics again, and again, and again, because new people kept joining in. Still, good fun, and one of the teachers then taught us the Cuban salsa which was slightly like a game you play in primary school it seemed, but really fun anyway. There were also the token sleazy French guys (short, round, annoying, no offense 😉 which cracked us up, because one was telling Krista she did something wrong (not true) and a few seconds later he was told off by the teacher for doing it all wrong.
The next day another Maya temple visit was planned, Uxmal. Our Australian friend Steve came with us in the bus, and once we walked into the park we were already astonished with
how beautiful it was. Within 5 minutes we concluded this was 10 times more beautiful than Chichen Itza. Everything is still very clear, the carvings and drawings, and it is set in beautiful natural surroundings. Here we climbed pretty much everything that we could and were allowed to climb which gave some beautfil views as well. Since we didn´t make it out to the temples as early as last time (we got there at 12....hmm perfect midday heat..) we were sweating like crazy. We also had a little extra walk when we saw some people coming from a trail and thought there were some more temples there. So we start on the trail, where we were alone apart from a lot of mosquitos, and keep walking. But it didn´t seem to change, and we saw an open space in the distance, and when we got there all we saw was a corn field!! And a bees nest!! Haha. Well our legs were already pretty red from all the bites and we were sweating anyway. But we decided to be the freindly tourists and warn the people who saw us coming out of the trail and tell them there was nothing
At the Yucatecan restaurant
with full bellies at the exit to see.
This was our last day in Merida, so we got all packed up, said goodbyes to the familiar faces and to this great hostel, and headed to the bus station where we caught the nightbus to Palenque.
(phew, quite a long diary this time...)
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Dahyana
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jelaous from London
Floor, this all looks amazing! Hope you continue to have a fab time! Dahyana