We’re in Merida, capital of the state of Yucatan, rhythm sticks not much in evidence.
We arrived this morning on an overnight bus from Palenque, not the best night’s sleep.
We set out at 9:00 for walk around town to get oriented and, more importantly, breakfast.
The town has a similar feel to San Cristóbal but older, this is the first place on the American continent settled by the Conquistadors. As usual many low rise colonial buildings. The cathedral dominates the central square, it is large but not as cumbersome as some we’ve seen. It’s built on the site of an older temple and uses the stones from that building. The Conquistadors had to prove their god was stronger than the indigenous gods so their cathedrals had to be bigger than the existing temples and have an overwhelming presence. The churches are massive but have no grace in their architecture.
Breakfast was very good, banana, peanut and berry smoothie and molletes – toast with refried bean and cheese and hot sauce (Yucatan has the hottest hot sauces in all of Mexico).
The sun was warming up and it was quite humid as we walked around town. The city is built on a grid pattern, for a while the sun shines directly along the north-south streets, no shade anywhere.
We tried the Contemporary Art museum, in some rooms the best thing is the air-conditioning but one room has a set of pastels by Spanish Artist Javier de Villota which are light and graceful and depict figures in motion – but these figures are Chilean police violently oppressing any opposition to the military regime, a powerful combination.
The palace of government is home to a set of 27 murals by local artist Fernanco Castr Pachero, like those of Rivera in Mexico City they cover epic themes on an epic scale, but there are many small scale elements within them. One depicts the brutal execution of the leader of an indigenous uprising; one pair concentrates on the hands and feet of a single worker as a metaphor for all the local people oppressed by the colonial power. Another shows the Mayan belief that humans are created from corn, their staple crop.
Back to the hotel for a swim to cool down via an ice cream bar, chocolate and chilli and tequila and lemon flavours – yum. One museum is open late, the house of the former governors of the city. It’s a very nice building but decorated with dark wood and heavy colours, stuffed with European furniture and decorations that seem incongruous in this setting.
We started the evening with a couple of local craft beers at a Cuban bar, La Negrita – Cuba is only 80 miles from Cancun. The beer is very good, the bar is full and buzzing, a Cuban band plays in the garden. This bar wouldn’t have fitted in any town we’ve been to so far, Merida is a bit different.