Merida

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Trip Start Sep 24, 2008 Previous
Entry Trip End Jun 20, 2009 Next
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  Merida, Mexico
Saturday, September 27, 2008

Visited another Cenote (Zaci) in Valladolid this morning, as well as a convent (San Bernardo) before taking the bus to Merida. The bus journey is around 3h. It´s hard to stay insensitive about the poverty in the countryside as you pass by. There are small huts, or one room concrete houses where everybody sleeps and eats. I can only imagine how things will be in Bolivia. There are the most rotten dogs as well (maybe Clodagh will think they are nice, somehow!)

We walked around town a bit, it looks like a bigger version of Valladolid with its main square, fountain and cathedral. We went to "Trapiche" restaurant, where the host was so friendly and helpful and had the best mole and a huge pizza. We took a doggy bag! There was a festival "Corazon de Merida", with traditional music, food and handcraft stands, where all the locals gathered and socialised. Two Coronas (1.5 euro, eat your heart out Porterhouse!) and bed time as there is loads to do tomorrow

Irish stew!

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The next day (28/09) we woke up at 6 again for some new adventures. The excursion we were going to take was canceled so we did the trip by ourselves. You can take the normal buses (ADO 1st class, Oriente 2nd , Mayab 3rd)  and then collectivos (like minibuses for 10 people). We nicknamed them dolmuchs, because they are the same as the ones in Turkey. Sean is improving his Spanish and is starting to get over the confusion with French and Italian. I guess we are gonna have to start over again with French when we move back home.

We visited Loltun Caves. They are located within the Puuc hills of Yucatán and have given archaeologists some of the earliest evidence of humans in the New World. We walked 1km of underground caves where the Mayans used to live, get their water, etc... very impressive. We jumped in the back of a pick up truck to bring us back to town (NB je m'inscris pour Pekin Express, je vais être trop prête a la fin du voyage)!! In the country, everybody gives you lifts.

Then we traveled to Uxmal, another pre Columbian ruined city of the Mayan Civilization. This one was smaller and in the forest. The stones of the main temple looked like a big Newgrange (No I don't work for Failte!)

Ana and Anne-So

. We saw loads of  iguanas!

We met a German couple, Stephan and Katarina , on the way back to Uxmal and got caught in the end of afternoon rain (usually lasts for about 30mn) and did the trip back to Merida together . Everybody seems to be doing the same itinerary, we saw a guy in the street in Merida who was in the same bus as us going to Chichen Itza.
 
The festival continued in Merida so we danced in the streets a bit, or at least pretended we could do salsa. The day had been really tiring with the heat and all the walking + traveling. Being tired stops me worrying about how we can get from one place to another and I leave it all to Sean. He said that when it is less hot, he will make me go for a run in the morning in order to tire me out. :)

The next day (29/09) we relaxed in Merida, catching up on some e-mails and the blog. Tomorrow we will leave for Campeche, staying for one night before heading to Palenque. Love you all !

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Casa Ana

Casa Ana

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