Back Home

After two uneventful bus rides, and two short flights, we are now back home in Raleigh - trip over. Once again our house survived months without us (thanks Karen and Yates!), and our friends and neighbors have been most helpful getting us back in the swing of Carolina living.
-john and sun-ling

Valladolid

Our last night in Mexico was spent in Valladolid strategically for us located about halfway between Merida and Cancun, and just a 3 hour bus ride to the Cancun airport. By having a beautiful colonial city center, and being less than an hour from the most famous Mayan ruin, Chichen-Itza, Valladolid gets many overnight and tour-grouping-day-tripping tourists - more than we expected to see.

And another tasty noon-time breakfast.


One other attraction of Valladolid is the many cenotes (sinkholes).


The Cathedral.


Late afternoon tour groups.


Murals in a city government building.


Iglesia de la Candelaria


Convent de San Bernardino de Siena.

The Pyramids of Izamal

Izamal is located on the Yucatan Peninsula, about 45 kms east of Merida and uniquely has Mayan pyramids right in the town center, two of which are very large. Also, the Franciscan church and monastery are built on top of a the ruins of a pyramid. Izamal is definitely worth a day-trip from Merida, or an overnight stay (which we did), and it is being considered for UNESCO World Heritage status. The write up for that is here.

Nothing like a tasty breakfast at noon to get one going for the day.


The streets of Izamal.


Convento de San Antonio de Padua was built on top of the destroyed Mayan Acropolis called Ppap Hol Chak.




The view from the top of Pyramid Itzamatul, looking northwest to Pyramid KinichKakMo, the largest of the pyramids.


The view from the top of the great pyramid KinichKakMo. The grassy area below is part of the pyramid which extends to the yellow buildings in the distance. The building with the yellow tower and large courtyard is the Convento of San Antonio de Padua.


And more views of and from KinichKakMo.


The lower grassy area is part of the pyramid.




Our hotel was built on top of and in pyramid Hun Pik Tok.


Pyramid Chaltun Ha is a few blocks outside town.


Sunset view from the Monastery walls.


And the rising moon.


Convento de San Antonio de Padua plus roosting birds.

Outing from Merida: Acanceh

In 2003 we went to a few of the Mayan sites near Merida (Uxmal, Kabah, Labnah, Sayil). Given the 100 degree heat, we decided to limit our outing to a nearby small town of Acanceh where a ruined pyramid stands on the same square as the church. The town turned out to be only mildly interesting, but we were fascinated with the local rickshaw taxis (see video below). We had thought we would have seen all possible permutations of the 3-wheeled rickshaw. Here it was, a new variation: rear wheel, drive train and steering from a motorcycle; front 2 wheels of a 3-wheeled, front-loading bicycle. And the popularity of it; it seems that one either owns one, or works one, or rides in one. They are as ubiquitous as the car in Raleigh.

The plaza in Acanceh with main church center and small chapel at left.


The plaza with pyramid ruins at left, the market at near right with the church behind.


The plaza with the market to the right and the pyramid ruins to the center back. The main church is out-of-view right.




View from ruins back to the plaza.


Inside the church.


Here's the video of the rickshaw taxis.


A couple more taxi photos.

Merida - Architecture

I had too many 20th-Century modern architecture photos from Merida to put in the previous post, so here they are.

Several Art Deco and Modernist buildings in Centro.


Cine Teatro Merida - Art Deco - 1949.




Edifico La Nacional - Carlos Castillo Montes de Oca - 1936.


Edifio Las Monjas - 1948.


The former Cine Alcázar is now a parking garage.


Tropicalista!.


And another cluster to the west near Parque de la Paz.

Facultad de Medicina.






The old 1880's train station has recently been renovated and houses the Escuela Superior de Artes de Yucatán


The Mayan Revivalist Monumento a la Patria - Manuel Amábilis - 1950's


The Bellas Artes Primary School in Barrio Santiago - circa 1909.


And the Cine Rex across the square.

Hot Merida

For some strange reason, I have virtually no recollection of our 2003 visit to Merida, John very little either. This time, our initial march into the city center looking for hotels left us rather unimpressed. After trampling around the city for a few days, we decided that we like it rather well, in spite of the 100 degree weather which even made the headline in the local paper. We can catch heatwaves well, if not festivals.

Merida has all the elements that we love about Mexican cities. Its squares are particularly spacious and graceful, and it has a good number of Art Deco buildings. While "Domingo(Sunday) en Merida" is over touted by guidebooks, we had fun watching people cycling on streets closed especially for the weekly occasion. Most important of all, the local people in Merida are very friendly, considering Merida seems to have the most number of international tourists per capita of all the cities we visited. One day John and I were in the middle of navigating with our map, a young woman stopped in her track and said to us "you are on 68th street and the city center is that way." I need to work on my geniality.

Getting things going in Merida with a fine meal at Savia Vegetariano.


And more good eating at 2012 Mayan.


Not to mention that we ordered takeout pizza 4 night in a row. The guy with glasses is a pizza genius.




"Transportable murals" by Fernando Pacheco in the governor's palace.


The zocalo.


Dancers on the zocalo.


Parque Santa Lucia.


The Cathedral completed in 1598 out of stones from Mayan temples has gigantic stone columns. Here are two views.




Downtown with Cathdral as seen from the rooftop of Las Monjas Convent.


The Contemporary Art Museum MAYAC had 11 artists in exhibition. We liked the works of Esmeralda Torres...


...and Fernando Pacheco.


Two views of Iglesia Santiago.




Cathedral with streetlights.


Domingo en Merida.