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Towards the end of trip to Mérida in January we visited another Mayan ruin quite near Mérida: Dzibilchaltun. This one has not had as much restoration as some of the others and didn't have many visitors. There was an accompanying museum but we finished walking around the site too late to go to it. There as a cenote (swiming hole) there and some people were in it - no crocodiles were present! The water was very clear and there were lots of water lillies growing in it.

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Pan around a portion of the site:

The Museo Regional de Antropología “Palacio Canton” is in an magnificent old mansion on Paseo de Montejo in Mérida. Paseo de Montejo is a tree lined boulevard in a fashionable district (near the center and thus a short walk from our hotel).

It is full of fascinating Mayan artifacts.

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On the way back from Uxmal and Kabah we stopped at a place for snacks. There were some interesting things there including some fancy folk sculptures and a face embedded in a wall. The first 5 pictures in the set below the first two pics are from there. The rest are various spots in Mérida.

Many of the sidewalks in Mérida were quite narrow and sometimes there would be a street vendor blocking half thge sidewalk. The corners were sometimes rounded or truncated so they were even narrower. At one corner justy a coupke of blocks from the Main Square that we passed by many times there was a booth installed so you could barely get by, especially when it was open.



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Plaza Grande is in the center of Mérida. It is surrounded by the Cathedral, the old bishop's palace - converted into a museum, City Hall, arcaded buildings with shops and eating places (nice ice-cream store). The center had benches, some of the ubiquitous tu y yo chairs seen below, some greenery and lots of people. On Sundays some of the streets are closed off. We were there duting the Merida Fest so some of the streets were closed off every night. There was always lots of activity - Panama hat salesmen approached us several times (we didn't buy any, but they were some exceptionally nice ones), other vendors and just lots of people.

Our hotel was a few blocks away so we were there many times.

Because of the fest there was a small stage set up every night and sometimes in the afternoon with a variety of performances. I particularly liked the clown one afternoon who got a bunch of kids dancing and joked around a lot (of course, I don't know what he was saying); video below. He also got some adults up to do the same; they weren't as entertaining. There were dancing troupes in colorful costumes with very loud music - extreme bass that at times your whole body. One night there were probably several thousand people crowded together dancing. There were tents with little resaurants setup. This city knows how to let lots of people have a good time.

Maybe they should close off Harvard Square every Sunday - and branch off into Harvard Yard while they are at it...

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We returned late Sunday night from a delightful trip to Mérida, a large city in the Yucatan.

The motivation for the trip was that a friend of ours from the Contra Dance world, Brooks Hart, who had moved there a few years decided to start a Contra Dance series a bunch of months ago. In January there is the annual Mérida Fest that commemorates the establishment of the city (this is the 474th anniversary). It goes on for several weeks with lots of events (free). Brooks decide to have some contra dances during the week and one of them was an official event. He got Linda Leslie (a local caller that I've danced to many times), and Amy Larkin and Linda Henry - musicians that we've danced to many times to come down. There were 3 dances planned during the week and that was the motivation for us to come down. The dances were lots of fun (called in Spanish) with many beginners and people that have been coming to his regular dances.



Mérida is a very lively city. The main square with the Cathedral on one side, town hall on another, was always full of people and sometimes sections of the surrounding street were blocked off to host dance or other performance events, and temporarily set-up eating establishments. It was always fun to walk around there - our hotel: Dolores Alba was a few blocks away.

It was always fun walking around town - we ate meals in many different restaurants - usually Yucatan style food (I did have a nice pasta dish in the Irish Pub.) There were always lots of people of all ages milling about, lots of sidewalk vendors, occasional musicians, and huge numbers of eating estblishments.

We took several side trips to Mayan ruins: one to Uxmal and Kabah, and an other to Dlzibilchaltun which were quite interesting and each one was quite different. We also took a trip to Celestun - a nature conserve with lots of flamingos and other birds. And we went to several museums with lots of emphasis on Mayan history.

The main temple at Uxmal: