Over the weekend I did a lot of exploring, so I thought I'd share some of the things I saw. Merida is a decent-sized city (close to a million people) so for that reason it can be as crowded and polluted in spots as any other large city– yet the architecture and culture here really make up for it. So when I'm walking around town and a giant city bus swooshes by, blowing exhaust in my face, or it takes me five minutes to cross a busy street, it helps to look around and see beauties like these.
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| People are not afraid to use color here |
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| Neither are trees |
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| This is parque Santa Ana, a block from my apartment |
I mentioned that this weekend I went on a tour of an old mansion near my house, called Quinta Moles Molina (I thought it would be good Spanish listening practice). Here are some pics from that. It was built in the early 1900s by a wealthy Cuban man and his Mexican wife during Merida's prosperous era, when the hennequin industry (a plant similar to agave and used to make rope), was booming.
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| All the rooms are off this main hall |
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| Reading nook in a bedroom |
The place felt like a little Downton Abbey, complete with kitchen in the basement with a dumbwaiter to bring meals up to the elegant dining room.
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| The basement kitchen used by help (still), complete with dumbwaiter |
What I really loved, however, were the floors. This "pasta tile" is very popular in Colonial homes here, and foreigners who buy and restore homes here go nuts for it. Reminds me a bit of Morocco.
Money spent yesterday (Sunday):
130 pesos - skirt
100 - lunch
300 - groceries for week
100 - taxis
12 - ice cream (Magnum bar, mmmmm)
642 pesos = $34 USD
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| Merida me |
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