Middle Merida

As mentioned in the last post, after happy hour on the patio (it can be hard to distinguish between the many happy hours on the patio, but in this one I had a locally made kombucha!) we went to Catrin on Wednesday night and enjoyed the outdoor patio with animated light show on the back wall. Delightful!

Walking home through the grand plaza that is really the heart of the city, we came upon a very lively charitable event. The big checks being awarded to local hospitals was a tip off!

Another evening we ate at a very nice restaurant in a rooftop overlooking the grand plaza. We also did some strolling around the Centro, where streets were pedestrianized for the night.

Yesterday I took an embroidery class in the afternoon with a local artist. Mayra is a photographer who spent time living with indigenous people and became very interested in the embroidery traditions. She taught us pepenado or borders of stitched patterns. See the pattern below and my samples. The second photo is otori embroidery and I would love to take mayras class on that technique too! It was really fun and I learned a lot. Mayra is also keen on Japanese sashiko stitching and showed me some circular patterns I hadn’t seen before. My takeaway: I need more time for hobbies!

Last night we took a nice long walk north to a restaurant on a patio behind a book store. I had mushroom enchiladas and John had lamb and what looked like chips / steak fries but surprisingly was also some grilled pears! I had a bougainvillea limeade. Huge mocktail list at this place!

This morning, we took a walking tour around the neighborhoods of San Juan, la ermita, San Sebastián, and ended in Santiago (you’ll recognize Santiago from the food tour!) Eduardo was our guide and we really enjoyed the experience. Btw, all three of these experiences were through Airbnb which has a range of local activities that we’ve found to be a great way to get to know a place better!

We started at the fountain in Parque San Juan and then talked about the main church there. Limestone blocks at the corners indicate a colonial building, because the Spanish took apart Mayan stone structures and built with them.

We talked a lot about neo classical vs colonial buildings. Many neo classical buildings have similar high ceilings and thick walls, but they were built later or outside the original city center. We found out that the arch we’ve been walking under a lot was the exit to the old city and the road to Campeche! La ermita was a hermitage outside the city walls on that route. We saw these women in traditional dress (check out the embroidery!) in the park at La ermita. Also here we are with Eduardo (he does look a bit like miles in this photo!) And on the topic of local handcrafted goods, John bought a Panama hat, or as it’s called here jipajapa (with h sound, so ‘hippa hoppa’). He loves it!

We ended the tour in the park at Santiago, by the food market. Eduardo recommended La Lupita inside the market, and also gave us a tip that the best food can be found near red Coca Cola chairs 🤣. Amazing slow roasted pork tacos and limeade, with red chairs everywhere! Don’t tell my doctor but those are little and amazing pork cracklings on top of each taco, mmmmmmm.

We then made a quick stop for some achiote paste and ice cream cones, then walked back to our place, now very aware of colonial vs neo classical styles! It was midday so there were few shadows and it was very hot. At one point we passed a very sweaty and confused looking dog and were reminded of the saying that only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun! but it wasn’t too long a walk and the plunge pool was very refreshing when we arrived!