Hello World! In the last episode, we discussed my time in Quintana Roo, the lovely azul coast of the Yucatán Peninsula. Beach, fitness, learning are how I would summarize my time there. Now, we move on to the state of Yucatán!
After 5 wonderful weeks in Playa del Carmen, I knew it was time to keep it movin. Mexico is a really big country and there are so many beautiful places to see. So on a hot and sunny (literally every day I experienced in Playa) afternoon, I waved farewell to my friend who was kind enough to let me stay with her on my last night there and had an inDrive drop me off at the ADO bus station. The ride to my next destination, Valladolid, was just under 2 hours.
Valladolid
I remember arriving in Valladolid and thinking, “finally, I’ve arrived to Mexico”. The architecture, colorful buildings, and demographics of the people was clearly culturally relevant to the region and not an aesthetic designed to be sold to foreign tourists. Looking out at the town from the bus, I was so happy. Stepping off the bus… now listen I looked at the weather forecast before arriving, so I knew it was gonna be hot, like 100+ degrees fahrenheit every day. But I wasn’t prepared. Ok, I was prepared I’m just being dramatic. What I honestly wasn’t prepared for was the walk to the airbnb I had booked for the next 7 days. It was supposed to be a 400m walk, maybe 10 mins with my luggage. Reasonably close, so of course I opted to walk instead of paying a taxi. (even though it would’ve cost like $2…? idk I don’t understand my decisions either) Unfortunately, google maps was sending me in circles and I was dragging around my heavy suitcase, backpack and the box I was using to throw overflow stuff into. When I say I was dripppping sweat… and so upset. I asked 2 different ladies for directions and neither of them was familiar with the address. I messaged the airbnb host and mercifully they responded quickly. And their response was an entirely different address than the app was showing me that was like 3 blocks away. A mess. I was a mess. I was so happy when a woman walked up to me and asked if I needed help. Her and a little boy that was with her walked me all the way to the place and made sure I could get in. She even lugged my suitcase for me, she looked so sorry for me. That woman was an angel, I’m telling you. Unfortunately, stepping into the airbnb was very anti-climatic. I knew it was budget, but the bathroom sink barely let out any water, the shower was clogged, the fridge looked so nasty I didn’t even want to touch it or really anything else in the kitchen. Needless to say, I immediately found myself another place to stay starting the next day. After getting as settled as I could, chugging water and showering, I ventured out to explore the town and get some food.
Valladolid is an incredibly, painfully charming town. It’s small, so I saw a good chunk of it that first day. The town square is a lovely park with plenty of shade trees, a beautiful fountain and lots of vendors selling snacks and local honey. I saw the typical Yucatecan benches for the first time earlier that day while dragging my luggage through the streets, but had the chance to sit and enjoy them after visiting a lonchería for some delicious mole enchiladas. A chill first evening. The next morning, I alerted my airbnb host I’d be canceling the rest of my reservation and moved to a boutique hotel a couple blocks over. Even though it was a simple room with a bathroom and even though there were some mosquitoes in the room, I was MUCH happier at the hotel. Having seen how small Valladolid was, I decided 3 days was plenty of time. So I spent the next 2 days getting back into focusing on my web dev course at various cafes around town and in my hotel room which had a great little work desk. I’d go out for evening walks when it cooled off a little. The main square (called a Zócalo in Mexico) was about a 10min walk from my hotel and the town felt very safe to walk around alone- honestly, most places I’ve been have felt very safe. One evening, I went to the Zócalo to enjoy the energy and finally try a marquesita, a Yucatecan snack that I had seen carts for in Playa, but refused to pay their inflated prices. Also I was finally in Yucatán, so it only felt appropriate. I was sitting in the park enjoying the evening temps and watching families and couples soaking in the lovely sunset. I sat on a bench, visibly happy to be there. Or I assume that was the case because an older gentleman sitting on the bench near me turned to me and struck up a conversation. If you’ve never had a random conversation with an old man in a park, I highly recommend it. Especially if he speaks the language you’re trying to learn. We chatted for some time. I explained some English quirks to him and he helped me with some Spanish as we reviewed an article together and translated it. So random, but I was loving it and I know it was incredibly helpful for both of us. He used to be a teacher and I used to be a tutor, so the explanations and patience were, in my opinion, 10/10.
I didn’t visit any museums in Valladolid. The town itself honestly felt kind of like a museum. Some buildings and street corners had signs explaining the historical significance of the place. The simple, rectangular architecture was offset by the colorful buildings, never the same 2 colors next to each other. Every time I was out walking around, I wanted to take out my phone to take pictures. Right in town, there was a cenote which I didn’t end up going into, I just walked around outside. Chichén Itzá is close by, but I had already visited for the equinox when I was staying in Playa del Carmen. So I was really not tourist-ing there, I was just walking around, taking pictures, eating and working. I also ended up buying a dress from a woman in an artisan market that I instantly fell in love with.
On my last day, I had a bus to catch at 2pm, so I got up, checked out and went to explore a must-see in the town, Calzada de los Frailes (street of the Friars). It was a lovely, scenic street that I’m sure would be cool to check out in the evening. Historically, the street connected Valladolid to the port town of Sisal. At the end of the street was a school, a cathedral and a plaza with some restaurants. It was HOT outside, so not many people out at all. I stopped in a café and worked on web dev with some refreshing mint iced tea for a while. When it was time to go, I made the last-minute decision to get lunch from a burrito spot by my hotel called Burrito Amor. It was expensive, but I’m telling you that was the best burrito I’ve ever had. The tortilla was made from coconut flour (gluten free, yay!). It was soft, fluffy and complemented the fish and delicious sauces perfectly. So tasty. I grabbed my stuff from the hotel and hustled down the street with my suitcase. Yes, I chose to walk again. Not for the symbolic beauty of a full-circle moment, but because I was short on time and didn’t want to wait for an uber.
Being there for only 3 days and staying in a hotel for the majority of the time, I can’t say at all what it’s like to live in Valladolid. All I know is that it’s beautiful, it’s hot and it feels like Mexico. Not many foreign tourists, especially compared to all of Quintana Roo. I can still, in my head, hear the voice of the man on the street selling pozole con coco, a sweet cool treat that I didn’t try. Oh well, I guess I have to go back.
Mérida
Boarding the ADO bus in Valladolid a sweaty mess, I was relieved to relax in the refreshing AC for the ~2 hour journey. They played the Halle Bailey version of The Little Mermaid and even though watching tv in a moving vehicle gives me motion sickness, I kept looking at the screen which is hilarious because my Mom tells me that even as a baby, my twin and I could not get enough of The Little Mermaid. Arriving to Mérida was interesting. A very similar vibe to Valladolid, but a big-city version that I didn’t really expect. A lot more people and the busy areas sprawled a little further than they did in Valladolid. I got an uber from the bus station and headed to the airbnb I had booked for the next 10 days. I figured if I loved Mérida, I’d extend my stay, but I didn’t want to lock myself in too long in a city that peaked daily temps above 100F.
The airbnb I booked was, like the original concept of the platform, in a woman’s home. She rented out rooms to guests, which was really cool for getting to see how someone who lives in Mérida actually lives in Mérida. The neighborhood was very local, I didn’t see a single foreigner there outside the mirror the whole time. Being 2 miles south of the city center (centro), I quickly discovered my options were a brutal ~30 min walk where I could reach my destination in a puddle, a $0.69 bus ride, or a ~$4 uber. Tragically, the local bus, called the Va y Ven, was nearly impossible to actually use as a foreigner. They didn’t accept cash, only tap-to-pay with your Mexican credit card or bus pass. I went to 8 different stores, cited by the official Va y Ven website as carriers of bus cards, but no one had them. I followed the suggestions of a bus driver and my airbnb host with no luck. So I gave up and relied on a combination of Uber and walking.
My 10 days in Mérida were a lot like Valladolid, honestly. I was locked in on my web development course and, sadly, completely dropped the great exercise regimen I was on in Playa del Carmen. It was just way too hot to do anything and I don’t like paying for gyms. One feature that I appreciate about the city is that it’s very normal to have hooks for a hammock in bedrooms, so I was finally able to use mine. Yes, with my precious limited suitcase space, I made the intentional decision to bring my hammock, one of my favorite possessions. I loved ending most days with a cold shower followed by relaxing in the hammock under the AC while watching my stories, a Mexican Netflix show called La Casa de Las Flores. That show is a mess and I love it 😂.
The city of Mérida itself is really eclectic. South and East of the Zócalo, you have an area that’s so bustling, I would venture to compare it to NYC energetically (without skyscrapers). Lots of people packed onto the sidewalks and hustling about with streets full of cars, buses and motorbikes. There’s an absolutely massive market, Mercado Lucas de Galvez where you could find everything from jewelry to spices to live animals. Nearly everyone in that area of town was noticeably Yucatecan, as I was taller than about 90% of the people, able to see clear over their heads 😂. It’s kind of funny, when people mention it being uncomfortable to stick out like a sore thumb and get stared at, I just have to laugh… look at how radically different we look. I’m darker with a very different hair texture and significantly taller, so yes, some people stare and you know what, in Mérida when you smile at them and say good morning, literally everyone smiles and says good morning back. I think my time in Kigali really shifted the definition of “uncomfortable stare” for me in a big way.
There was a lot I really liked about Mérida. The Plaza Principal was really stunning with a picture-perfect view of Cathedral San Ildefonso, the oldest cathedral in the mainland Americas, with construction lasting 1561-1598 using stones from the old Mayan city of T’Ho (fun fact: the oldest cathedral in the Americas is in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic ). There was a ton of seating in the plaza, including the Yucatecan chairs for two and lots of shade trees. Every time I went, it was busy but not crowded. One evening, I was sitting in the park enjoying a piña con chaya agua fresca when a man walked up to me and asked if I wanted to join the free walking tour starting in a few minutes. I said sure, why not and went on to explore the city center and learn more about the Mérida’s history with him and another lady who joined the tour. It was in Spanish, and dude was talking FAST, so I probably caught about 50% of what he said, but I did get some clarification on why I was seeing the name “Montejo” everywhere. They were the Spanish family that was instrumental in the colonization of the region. They led the destruction of the Mayan city of T’Ho and construction of Mérida as it stands today. Francisco Montejo is, in fact, known as the founder of Mérida. To learn history around the world is to learn the violent conquests of the Europeans for real. One of the highly detailed carvings of the Montejo family’s former mansion right on the main square is of a white man standing on the head of a Mayan to represent the domination of the indigenous people. My tour guide explained it so casually that I had to ask him to repeat because surely I missed something, but no. It seems desensitization to oppression was alive and well in the mid 1500s.
I didn’t go far enough north of centro to see, but they say there are a lot of very old, big, ornate, abandoned homes up there. The north side is also where a lot of the American communities are which is wild because I barely saw/ heard any Americans in Mérida, so they must have really kept to themselves. I only walked as for north as Paseo de Montejo, which is a large boulevard that has a big statue dedicated to Francisco de Montejo and his descendants. On the south end of the paseo, there’s a street known as “corredor gastronomica de Mérida”, which had a lot of food options, but then, the whole city did. Walking east down that street, you eventually reach a massive park, Gran Parque La Plancha, that had a ton of spaces to play, exercise, relax, eat, drink, bike, run, cool off in the fountain, all the things. Mexico knows how to do parks right, my goodness. Programming was also taken very seriously in Mérida. One evening, I was leaving one of my go-to cafes and stumbled upon a big production of youth doing traditional Yucatecan dance off the plaza; lights, a live band, a large audience, the works. I thought I was just lucky to stumble upon it that night but I later learned those big performances happen weekly! Free museums like the Museo de la Ciudad de Mérida were really interesting and a relieving break from the heat and from this web dev project that I’m so proud to have completed. On my last day, I ventured out to a nearby cenote park to enjoy the unique experience one last time before leaving the Yucatán Peninsula. That day-trip did not disappoint. I even made a YouTube short about it!
Overall, I thought Mérida was a cool city. I expected to like it a lot more than I did, but the truth is that the excessive heat and scarcity of natural-feeling spaces made it a place that I would not consider moving to. I was really glad I got to stay in a local neighborhood and get at least a little bit of a feel for what daily life looks like for people who live there. Managing the heat, working, and staying out of the sun seemed to be daily norms.
Wow well done on the Simon game! This whole leg of the trip seemed like it was hot af – I’m glad you didn’t melt!