Our Great Adventure: Merida Day 351 04/09/2015

Breakfast at Mediomundo was a vegan affair. Can't say it was our favourite with no butter, eggs or yogurt and only soya milk but it was interesting and well presented. We'd have enjoyed it more for lunch with the salty bread, guacamole, olives and peppers. Afterwards we walked the short distance to the main square to join our free walking tour. Merida is the cultural capital of the peninsular and is rich is both Mayan and Spanish colonial history with narrow streets and central plazas. Most of the key sights are located around the main square, Plaza Grande, which was originally the site of one of five Mayan temples, dissembled by the Spanish and it's stone was used to construct many of the surrounding buildings. From the Palacio Municipal we walked through the square, learning about Mayan history and the invasion of the conquistadors. We headed to the Casa de Montejo on the south end of the plaza, originally built by the Spaniards to house soldiers; it's now a bank and a small museum. Outside there is a very interesting facade symbolising colonial statuary. Catedral de San Ildefonso with it's 42m high towers dominates the square, dating back to 1598 and was originally flanked by 2 chapels, one of which was destroyed, in 1910 during the Mexican Revolution, along with much of the interior of the cathedral. It's now very plain and a large crucifix has recently been hung behind the altar to symbolise the reconciliation between those of Spanish and Mayan heritage. On the north end of the plaza is the Palacio de Gobierno where there is an impressive exhibit of wall sized murals depicting the history of the Maya and their relationship with the Spaniards. Our tour ended here. It was really interesting and informative, provided by the tourist office free of charge. By now we were both melting in the heat (45ºC with the humidity) and went off in search of refreshments. Afterwards we walked to see one of 3 remaining arches, the Arch of Dragons, 1 of 8 that marked the boundary of the Maya city. From here we decided to visit the Museo Regional de la Antropologia which we thought would be a good introduction to our visits of various Mayan sites over the next few days (and it had air conditioning!). On the way there we stopped for lunch at the Cafe Chocolate, nice but no chocolate in sight. The museum contained lots of Mayan artifacts and is housed in a lovely building just north of the plaza. By now we really were melting and we wandered back to the b&b and our air conditioned room. In the evening we planned to go to a middle eastern restaurant, Alberto’s Continental Patio, which, despite being Friday, had a sign outside saying open from 1600 to 2300. We arrived there in the evening to find it was shut so instead we went to La Casa de Frida and had a very tasty Mexican meal. We were the only diners but we were entertained by Coco, the family's pet rabbit! Afterwards we bought icecreams and sat in the Plaza Grande people watching.