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Published: August 6th 2007
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Today was an interesting day as i would be joined by two travel companions- Kamila and Damien, and Veronica would be leaving the three of us to hit the road ourselves. I knew Kamila through the salsa circle in Newcastle, as of most of my salsa acquaintances, we never get passed the level of saying Hi and Bye.
Damien is a friend of Kamila and she only knew him for about two months at that time(if i am not mistaken), and it was my first time meeting him. The three of us were going to spend the next week together. I was quite sad in a way as i kind of got so used to Veronica's company and everything has gone quite well for the last couple of days. We had this sort of unspoken agreement on what we are going to do and where to go and etc.
Anyway, it started well, i think! It is amazing how much we did on our first day. We went for half a day of Mexico City tour this morning before flew in to Merida. Arriving in Merida late evening, we had a salsa dance lesson; we witnessed the Virgin of Guadalupe
procession, this is followed by dancing away with the Yucateca beats at the town square. Our night then ended with a hearty traditional meal of Yucatan.
The first thing we noticed when we got to Merida was the warm and humid air. We could have taken a taxi to the hostel, but Damien decided to be a little bit more adventurous. The bus we took was so crowded, but still we managed to get our travel book out to find out where we were to get off the bus. People on the bus were looking at us, as it looked like we were the only foreigner on the bus. Most of them looked friendly, so, i thought, this would be the perfect opportunity to practice my Spanish. I took no time in unleashed my Spanish to the stranger on the bus. As my Spanish was like their English, it proved to be quite an interesting conversation. Most of them are really helpful though. For the next few days, all my spoken Spanish consisted of only a few useful phrases, i.e : Donde esta...? a la derecha, to do recto, esquierda.. not forgetting 'muy carro', which is really useful when
bargaining for good price....
The hostel we stayed is called Nomadas. We booked a 4 bed ensuite room even though there were only 3 of us, and it only cost us 6 pounds per night per person. If you think 6 pounds is the cheapest you can get, then you are wrong. The price comes down everyday when you extend your stay. The receptionist, which was very helpful too, (luckily, he spoke more English than my Spanish) told us there is a free traditional dance performance in the town centre, we all thought it is something that we shouldn’t miss. We were all refreshed and ready to go after a quick shower, as soon as we stepped out the room, we could hear salsa beats coming from the courtyard of the hostel. There was still an hour before the show starts at the town centre. So, we decided to show the Mexican how the Newcastle people dance...😊. I think the instructor was quite impressed.
When we arrived in the town, the show has already started, but we didn’t miss the Yucateca traditional dance. The dance involved quite an impressive footwork that goes with the fast music beats. This
includes the couple dancing in circular motion with lots of kicking and jumping, which they make it looked so easy. We did had a go, I am sure we made a fool of ourselves. The young performers then make the dance more challenging by placing a tray of glasses of water on their hear. As the music beats build up, there were more kicking and spinning, but the water remained un-spilt.
We didn’t watch the show finished as our stomach were growling so loud. We headed to this restaurant, which was painted in bright yellow orangey colour. Wasted no time, we all order 3 separate traditional Yucatan dishes so that we can had a taste of everything. One of them is called Cochinita Pibil. Preparation of this dish includes the use of bitter orange and achiote paste for marinating the pork, this is then followed by roasting the meat slowly while it is wrapped in banana leaves. Halfway through our meal, we were interrupted by Virgin of Guadalupe procession.
As for the Polish, a meal is not complete without a shot of tequila. Kamila and Damien, being polish, drink tequila like water and i couldn't catch up. They
were quite convinced I will be one of them by the end of the trip…😊
When we got back to the hotel, we tried to plan our trip for the next few days. Three persons, three different minds and yet yield no result 😊. With more suggestions and ideas from the receptionist, we were more confused about where we want to go. Too many places but little time, perhaps it is better to leave us with less choice??
We were all too tired to think and decided to sleep on it.
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