Merida

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After realising that Mexico was more expensive than the research I did before arriving had me believe I've decided to be quick and see the sites I came for and get to, hopefully, much cheaper Guatemala ASAP.



My stop in Merida was just one day, so this is a short blog. The city itself I didn't see a great deal of, however it's a properly Mexican city. The feeling of really being in Mexico began here. There's a colonial church overlooking the main park which is a social hub for the locals. All day and all night the park is full of friends and families all socialising together and something that I thought was really nice. Something society at home seems to have lost is our togetherness and community feel.



The main purpose of my stop in Merida was to visit nearby Uxmal (pronounced ushmal) a former Mayan City. The ride was around an hour away. The Mayan sites I've been visiting have been getting less and less touristy, which is perfect. This site was very quiet and the tourists that were there were mostly Mexican.



The site is quite impressive and I climbed to the top of another pyramid, again with the view of jungle in every direction. Excavations are taking place at the site which was interesting to watch for a while, and has increased my appetite for archaeology, something I’m seriously considering studying.



My next stop was Calakmul, another Mayan site which is extremely remote, the closest town being over 100km away and surrounded by jungle.

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