5/14/10 - Exploring the City

Today, after a delicious Caribe breakfast of huevos ala Mexicana y cafe con leche, we spent the morning and afternoon exploring Merida as a group.

We toured many of the important historical buildings, starting with the enormous Catedral de San Ildefonso. I found myself pretty much in awe inside the Cathedral. From what I've gathered, construction of this cathedral began in 1561, smack in the middle of the height of the Spanish conquest. It took thirty years to build, using the labor of the enslaved Maya. It's located on one side of Merida's Zocolo (or Main Square). The construction material consists mostly of stones taken from the Mayan temple which once stood in the exact place. Many of the stones had carvings and hieroglyphs in them, and so had to be turned inward. Some glyphs were still visible in the walls, and for this reason prompted a massive undertaking of stuccoing over the walls of the Cathedral as well as many more of Merida's buildings when the Pope came to visit in 1623. The flood of visiting clergy, government officials, and of course tourists, nicknamed Merida the "White City," because of the fresh white stucco all over everything. Luckily, that stucco has been chipped off over the centuries, and if you look closely some Mayan glyphs can be spotted here and there, especially towards the top. Anyway, I've been developing an interest in cathedrals for the last couple of years, and one of the things I've read about is the sense of awe and authority they are meant to project. I was actually kind of surprised to find myself under that spell as well. . .

The Palacio Gobierno was our next stop. It's located on the Zocolo as well, adjacent to the Cathedral and the Palacio Municipal, and directly across from the Casa de Montejo. It was built in 1861, and is a hacienda style building (like the Caribe), built in a square with open arches facing a central courtyard. It's beautifully decorated, and has these awesome Spanish mosaic tile floors. Everywhere you look there are murals (keep clicking through to see a bunch of them), mostly by Fernando Castro Pacheco, depicting Mayan myth and culture, as well as the disturbing and violent history of the conquest.

Inside the Palacio Municipal:

Our next visit was to the market, or mercado in Spanish ("meerkat-o!" is what helped me remember the pronunciation :D). Anything you can possibly ever want or need can be found at the mercado, from live chickens to jewelry, from produce to bedazzled cockroaches called makechs. No price is set, bartering is the rule. If you can't barter, or aren't good at it, you pay the "gringo price." I definitely payed the gringo price for a little present for my sister. . .

Walking through the butcher section of the market was a little disturbing. Besides the slightly sickening sights and smells and lack of refrigeration, there were flies buzzing around. Some of the group members made comments on how unsanitary it seemed, and pointed out the meat without flies is obviously the most fresh. A minute later, I turned and saw a woman pull out an aerosol can of insect repellent and spray it all over a slab of meat. It was at that point I realized that flies are not necessarily a bad thing. . .

Professor Tromans pointed out that this meat is actually much fresher and probably healthier than the packaged meat we buy at American grocery stores. The head of the animal is displayed to show how recently it was killed, usually just hours before it goes to the market. American meat is full of antibiotics and hormones and doesn't get to us until at least three or four days after the animal is butchered.

For lunch I had cochinita pibil, which was freaking amazing. I've discovered that I really like Yucatecan food. While we were eating, there were two men playing drums and a saxophone, and a woman dancing. I was surprised, though I guess I really should have expected it, when she held her basket out for tips. . .

Walking around town near the Caribe later on, Naylynn, Chelsea and I met a guy named Ricardo. He spoke Spanish as well as Mayan, like most of the Maya who live in the city, and his English was also very good. He struck up a conversation with us and walked us over to his shop, obviously an attempt to get us to buy, but along the way we talked about some Mayan history. He mentioned that it's difficult for him to trace his ancestry since so much time was spent in turmoil during and after the conquest, connections to family members were lost or skewed. Actually, “fractured” was the word he used. He tried to teach us a little bit of Mayan, all of which I've already forgotten. He had a little trouble pronouncing Chelsea's name, though, and we settled on "Yoshi." From this point on, she will be referred to as such. . .

Dinner was at a pizza place, recommended by Professor Tromans, called “Vito Corleone's” (ha ha). It's literally a garage, which opens up into a space with a counter, a gigantic oven covered with tiles painted with Mayan symbols, and some long tables with benches. Above that is an "upstairs," which is pretty much a wooden deck built inside the garage, which creeks and wobbles as you walk up the stairs. There are more tables up there, there's no A/C, and it's always packed. It was amazing. Who knew Mexicans were so good at pizza?

After we ate, we stopped by an Oxxo (seemingly the one and only convenient store brand in Mexico) for our daily ritual of buying gigantic bottles of water. I'd like to take a moment to point out that we were at this time aware, but not really all that concerned, with the fact that prostitution is legal in Mexico. Anyway, we noticed two men go upstairs with beer, shortly followed by some grunts and a LOUD female voice that couldn't be anything else. . . if you catch my drift. We were giggling so much we stepped outside, but soon realized we could still hear it -even louder, actually, through the windows! From now on, this place will be dubbed, "The Oxxo With the Questionable Business Upstairs."

On a slightly related note, PDA seems commonplace here, and even encouraged. There are people, at all times of day, making out on street corners and park benches. Even in the courtyard of the Cathedral. I find it quite charming :)