Hotel Residencial Merida

... any food. The 'poblano' variety is made from chocolate. Yes, chocolate sauce over a plate of cheese enchiladas. In case you're wondering, it doesn't really work. The waiters in the restaurant all wore masks to protect them from our nasty germs and swine flu, so it felt like we were eating in an operating theatre.

Since our hotel was so awful we had to get drunk before we could contemplate going back to bed there. Unfortunately it was a public holiday so all the bars had shut ...

... escapes me. Ended up in a different location to where we were initially headed on the cabies recommendation and it turned out to be a bit upmarket for our tastes. That said they let us in in our grubby backpacker garb, at least me anyway, and all other patrons were dressed to the nines. Once we were in though they tried extorting 10 quid out of all of us, before before we´d even had one of their expensive drinks, it was for the band apparently. We left and found a club ...

... water below. WOW!!! The Mayas near Chichen Itza used a cenote to deliver there offerings and sacrifices, archaeologist found more than 50 skeletons in there as well as loads of Jade. One of the many theories as to how the Mayas all died or vanished was due to water contamination. They obviously didn't drink from this very sink hole as the water would have been quite soup like but they used a neighboring one and all ...

First Time Reader? ......here is the background to this series of blogs:
http://www.travelpod.com/trav el-blog-entries/lobo/9/1233502800/tpod. html

Mexico: 23 Destinations to Spend the Winter Months

Merida
no. 21 of 23 destinations (this is not a ranking)
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Merida – High Expectations and First Impressions
Part 1 of 3

Merida was another destination that was highly anticipated ...

... was in the hostel we met in in Mexico City Sarah is from Wales and was traveling with her friend Martijn from Holland. We all decided we'd go somewhere to sit and chat. We went to a restaurant near the zocalo and had coffee (or a diet coke if you're me) and chatted about our trips. While we were chatting, it started to rain so we decided to wait out the rain, and then go to dinner when it was done. We made our way around the city a bit, just looking for somewhere to ...

... houses, then more houses, followed by slums and finally, I was in a big dirty grey city, where sky was no longer blue, but a haze of brown and grey. Mexico city is enormous, and the bus station that I pulled into was a long way from where i needed to be. I was headed to a suburb called zocola, and when I asked, they told me it was a long way from where I was. The mexico city subway is fast and efficient, although insanely crowded. I am traveling ...

... rather a disappointment...being just a big hole filled with greenish water. We had planned to swim in it at first, but it was not accessible and the water didn't look very inviting. After the ruins, we had lunch at Valladolid, which was about 1 1/2 hours' drive away. Unfortunately, we arrived too late to have a proper lunch. Most of the restaurants were not serving after 3 pm. Thanks to the advice of our volunteer supervisor, we found a food centre ...

... resources. Emma and I made a card game for them so we can now play snap. I played it with one boy 5 times in one morning and he did not get bored, surprisingly! The center are welcome to have new ideas and they are keen for volunteers to get involved so that they can improve things. A great challenge for me! I am not sure how often I can go there though as this week I am working at Pro Ninos. I have been working at Pro ...

... mayans! It´s dam hot here, probably 30-40 all day and night!!!! Felt a bit under the weather yesterday morn but when you´va a lunch for three on $11 in a market that´s what you get!!! better now though. Today we´re gona head o the beach and chill.

We were terrified as we approached Mexico City, having read about three pages of warnings about the place in the Lonely Planet. Once again though Mexico proved to surpas expectations and we had a great few days here. Our arrival coincided with the start of the World Cup, so we spent a fair bit of time watcing football (I am a nice wife). Having watched the England v Paraguay game in our room we put on our newly bought ...