Yucatan Mexico Merida Feb 4, 2018

A Day In Merida

With only a half day after a late night wedding, we visited a fascinating museum about the history and culture of the Mayans and a dinosaur exhibit for the afternoon before a nice dinner.

We visited the Gran Museo del Mundo Maya
(Grand Museum of the Mayan World)

 Chac Mool-the rain god

 Ek Balam replica of the front part of the Acropolis

 Ek Balam art

 Ball court hoop next to the Ek Balam exhibit

Museum staircase

 

Mexican flag

Fan Vendor from downtown Merida

Merida Colonial downtown vendors.  Merida is known for embroidery and guayaberas, shirts usually made with 4 pockets.

 Amaro Restaurant photos start here

Hanging decorations

 Whimsical folk art was on the edges of the outdoor restaurant.  I loved the pink boots!

 This artwork had a huge sparkly tongue.  Is it a mermaid or a dragon or a dog?  Really fanciful!

Nearby Pancho's restaurant looked interesting.

Yucatan Mexico Trip February 3, 2018

We returned to Merida, our main trip destination and a good hub for exploring the Yucatan.

 Many of the cities in Mexico now have these artistic signs in front of a picturesque scene.  Behind the sign in the main square (zocalo) is the Catedral de San Ildefonso.

Our pink and white hotel, The Gamma de Fiesta del Castellano.  I liked the colors and it also has an excellent reputation.

We took a carriage ride from near the cathedral to familiarize us with the downtown area.

Another horse and carriage nearby.

 Some buildings along the way.

Museum, Quinta Montes Molina

 We turned around the circle at the Monumento a la Patria, depicting Mexican patriotism.

  

 The main Catholic Cathedral (Catedral de San Ildefonso), in the downtown square.

 Clock tower of the Municipal Palace

 Embroidery vendors in the town square.

 Finally, the reason we went to Merida, to see Jim's friend's son Jorge get married.  Here is the Iglesia de la Tercera Orden de Jesus where the wedding was held.  A Jesuit church.

  

The ceilings were very ornate.

 Jorge and Maru after the ceremony.  The wedding and reception were in very low light.  Most of the time flash wasn't an option, so the best I could do was to capture the emotion and romantic feel of the event. 

 The reception.

 Jim, Anita and Jorge, Jim's friend.

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 Anita and her son Jorge.

Father daughter dance.

Jorge's daughter, Pilar and her son, both good dancers.

 Jorge's daughter, Mariana and her boyfriend.

Yucatan Mexico Trip Jan 30-Feb 1, 2018

We had a slightly difficult trip to Merida on Aeromexico.  We had to change planes twice.  I ordered a wheelchair to make it easy for Jim, and I laughed when the distance was across the hallway in Detroit.  I almost lost my back support in Detroit. I left it on the plane, but suddenly remembered about it after the plane left. When I asked about it, they had held it behind the desk before the plane took off (so I retrieved it)!  It made all our driving less painful. In Mexico City, Jim was raced through the airport after a long delay in Detroit waiting for about 50 delayed passengers. I certainly got some exercise.

We arrived around midnight in Merida and took a short cab ride to the Hotel Hacienda Inn Aeropuerto.  It was a lovely little hotel with a very pretty pool.  We enjoyed talking to front desk man about Merida.  We tried to photograph the pool at night, but needed a tripod, so most of those photos were blurry at 2 AM.  We had breakfast by the pool and walked around in the morning.  The hotel was very photogenic with colonial touches and a Chacmool statue.

The beautiful pools at the Hotel Hacienda Inn Aeropuerto. 

 Chacmool statue

At Alamo car rental the next day, Theresa our clerk had recently read about Sylvanus Morley, Jim's Great Uncle, the famous Archaeologist.  We added Jim's left foot accelerator to the silver Nissan Sentra and off we drove to find a Walmart to purchase some items we needed for the trip.  It only took us about 5 hours, since it took us 4 tries and a lot of detours to find the underground entrance parking lot to the Walmart. 

Then we headed south to the Hacienda Uxmal to see some interesting ruins for a few days.  We really liked the hotel too.  Many famous people have visited including Grace Kelly, Jackie Kennedy, Presidents and Kings.

The pool was beautiful at night.

The main entrance hall was lovely, but we were happier with a ground floor room.

We even found a gallery sign about Jim's ancestor on the wall of the hotel, his Great Uncle, the famous Archeaologist.  Sylvanus Morley died when Jim was very young and was revered by the locals.