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Published: November 25th 2008
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Leaving Liz and Neil in New Mexico I flew out to Merida on the peninsula on the east of Mexico. My plan was to head South from here to Belize and see some temples on the way. Arrived late at the airport and jumped in a minivan from the main road near the airport to get into town. I booked at the hostel the night before to be on the safe side and Hostel Nomadas had what seemed to be a good mix of old and young people and was quite chilled out. I ended up in a dorm with Mar´k and Malou (dutchies). The first day I walked around and saw all the sites that the small city had to offer. All the roads are numbers (Calle 60, 61, etc) and the main square is bordered by some old buildings that date back to the Spanish conquestidors who ripped down a Maya pyramid to use the blocks to build the cathedral.
I wanted to buy a second hand guitar and spoke to some mariachis who hang around the square at night. Raphael met me on my first day there with an old guitar that he had but it went
out of tune so quickly so I didn´t go for it. That evening we got some beers and were playing shithead and asshole and 5 of us decided to go to a nearby salsa club. It was only 11pm on a Friday night but the place was dead and they weren´t playing salsa music. Following a recomendation from a barman I spoke to we got taxis (mas o menus 30 pesos turned out to be 60) to a place to the north of the city called Tequila. It was supposed to be a cheap night out and we ended up at a place next to Tequila called "Amarantus" that had a cover charge and a free bar. We started on tequila and must have been there around 3.5 hours before Aline felt unwell and Mike took her in a taxi while Marc, Malou and I followed in another one. Aline ended up unwell in the taxi and we took her to the door of the womens dorm room and pushed her in. As the taxi driver was trying to charge us 20 quid for the soiled door, Mike wiped the door with his sleeve and I came out with a
hand soap dispenser and started foaming up the door. Around 8 police arrived on the scene and we ended up paying 5 quid for the damage that the taxi driver was now claiming to be a bad small in the absence of evidence. Having paid up and gone inside, concerns of Aline's well being meant that we went into the girls dorm and started whispering "Aline" as we had no idea where she was. We did wake some people up but it is a youth hostel and we had a good reason, but having left Malou to sort out Aline we went to the outdoor common area and chatted. A guy complained to the hostel owner, who told us to be quiet and go to our dorm, which we did, but then he came in again to tell us to be quiet. We woke up at midday and Mark, Malou and I (who hadn´t reserved for further nights) were told that a big group was coming and we had to leave. The atmosphere in the common area was also pretty tense so we went to Burger King.
From Saturday night they close off some streets to and there are
numerous salsa bands playing outside bars around the Zocalo (main square) with locals just dancing around until around midnight. We checked into another hostel on the Zocalo but annoyingly got back to my dorm room and a dude was sleeping in my bed and my towel, clothes and sandals were in different parts of the room. After complaining to the manager, but running out of hostel options in Merida I didnt want to force the issue and I found another bed. Every Sunday, the square is closed to traffic and a market covers most of the square apart from one road where a big band is set up opposite bleachers and there are 4 hours of traditional Mayan dancing done. From sunset, there is a big street party with young and old people alike (numbered 500 to 600 people) were dancing salsa until around 10pm. Cant believe that the city goes to this expense week after week.
Sad to leave but very worried about running out of time in S America due to spending too much time in Mexico and Central America. I think that I will aim to be in Colombia for January so I have 4.5 months
for S America.
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