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Published: January 29th 2009
We stayed in Merida for five days. We wanted to go to Progresso, a nearby beach, since we hadn't been to the beach yet, but it rained and was miserable. We stuck around, amusing ourselves in other ways, though.
Merida is a charming city, with nice (if not cheap) shops and markets. We especially liked a huge market east of the city centre, in which you can buy just about anything; we found the biggest, most luscious avocados. We meant to take pictures, but ate them too quickly. We also took several day trips, since Merida is near quite a few interesting ruins and wildlife sites. The best thing about Merida, however, was that we met some great people in the hostel. We hung around with Fabian, a German photographer/skateboarder for a couple of days, waiting out the bad weather. However, the saddest part about travelling in hostels and meeting people is that you become close with them, and then you part, perhaps forever. Fabian had to leave town, but we met other kids; English kids this time, with great accents.
At our hostel there were free salsa lessons; we were never there at the right time to take
advantage of this, but the english kids (Alice, Laura and Julius) made friends with the salsa instructor and invited us out to a salsa club with him. It was a cute little place, with locals mostly older than us. At one point, the 'in-house' dancers started some sort of dance competition, and pulled a bunch of foreigners in to compete, Blair included. The competition consisted of a 30second dance-off; the girls competing had to dance with the club's sweaty, Sammy Davis Jr. lookalike male dancer, and the boys with the club's female dancer. This was HILarious, as one at a time in front of the club's seated audience, the foreigners pretended to know how to salsa. Some were laughing so hard their dancing might have been impaired. In any case, after everyone had had their embarassing turn to salsa, the competition took a different turn; musical chairs! It became clear that this competition was just a free comedy show for the rest of the club patrons, as the dancers bobbed their way around the chairs on the dance floor, being eliminated one by one. Blair was in it to win; she blatantly shoved several people off of chairs. This tactic
Group shot
Laura, Blair, Julio and Laura.paid off, as she ended up in the top two with the salsa instructor from the hostel. He was clearly going to let her win, but she was not perhaps aware of this fact. As the music stopped for the final time, she gave an epic leap towards the only chair, landing firmly on its polished surface... and skidding off the other side as if it were the hood of a waxed car. Legs flew everywhere! The crowd was in hysterics as Blair was crowned the winner and took a bow. She won a free drink!
There were other adventures in Merida, but none top that one, so we will leave it there. We are quite taken with the english kids, and will meet them in the next town for more adventures. Next stop Isla Mujeres, an island of many beaches. Will we ever get a tan?
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elba
non-member comment
hola
jajajaja tu corazonzito0 (little heart) you´re little heart ahhaha you´re half wi wii oh it´s go0d to hear abo0ut iu..i really miss iu. iu know?? you´re friends are very nice right?? hahaha see iu so0n.. leo0 is waiting for Blair hahahahaha