Mérida - México

We weren’t too sure what to expect in Mérida, but we wanted to explore a bigger less touristy city and that’s why we chose to include it in our México road trip. We were surprised of how much we actually enjoyed it! It seemed like most of the other tourist we met, for example in the free walking tour we did, were from Spanish speaking countries themselves and blended in perfectly. That’s why we somehow felt like being out of the typical western tourist realm. We really enjoyed the city with its great food, colorful art and great architecture.

Plaza Grande

Our hotel was close to the Plaza Grande, the main square of the city, where most of the sightseeing places are around it.

Museo Casa Montejo south of the square.

Catedral de San Ildefonso by day and illuminated by night can be found east of the square. It holds one or even the biggest wooden christ figures I have ever seen at the altar and apart of that is decorate very simple.

West of the square you can spot the Merida City Hall by day…

… and night. They had celebrations going on but it was so crowded, that we could only hear and not see the stage.

North of the square you’ll find the Palacio de Gobierno del Estado de Yucatán. From the outside you woudn’t expect the art this building holds. I have a ton of more pictures from all the art throughout the building. They simbolize the history of México, especially the Yucatán region.

In the building we also found this altar with these beautifully and traditionally dressed women.

The inside of the Grand Hotel not far if you continue north of the square.

Parque de los Hidalgos in front of the Hotel.

At the square we saw this cute dog painted like a skeleton.

Paseo de Montejo

North from the main square you can find this great street surrounded a so many beautiful villas and huge houses. Some of them are museums nowadays as far as we saw. It was really hot, so we tried to stay in the shades, but still we enjoyed the walk.

There was also art displayed beside the street, each oversized water melon slize painted by a different artist.

I don’t know if this was a mosque at the beginning, but the tower sure looks like a minaret.

Monumento a La Patria, the fatherland monument at the End of the street.

After the walk we had a cooling swim in our hotel and enjoyed the view from our balcony. We stayed at the Gamma Mérida El Castellano.

By the way, we also enjoyed some great food in Mérida. One day we had some great seafood at the restaurant El Marlin Azul. It’s a super simple but very tasty place. The next day it was unfortunately already closed so we went down the street into a more touristy and colorful restaurant, the Casa Maya. To be honest, we didn’t expect much, but it was actually really tasty. The sign on the illuminated picture says “Canta y no llores”, which means, “sing and don’t cry”. The good part about having lived in Spain during my childhood means I still speak Spanish, which helped a lot during our travels, as still, English is not spoken in most of the places. You would need a translator on you phone in a lot of places.