Mérida

Merida, Yucatan, economic and social centre of southeast Mexico, is a tourist destination of the first rank. It is known as the White City for its clean streets, houses and people, and it is an obligatory starting and finishing point for those visiting the State of Yucatan. Merida depicts much of the splendor of Colonial Mexico. The Spanish conqueror Francisco de Montejo founded Merida in 1542 on the site of a former Mayan city he destroyed.

Splendid regional dishes and traditional music and dances local to this region are found in restaurants, theatres and shops housed in palatial mansions along Paseo de Montejo, a boulevard fashioned after Paris' Champs Elyse. Merida was named by UNESCO as a Cultural Heritage in 2000, that very same year the OAS (Organization of American States) gave Merida the recognition of American Cultural Capital, winning this prize over important cities like Arlington, Toronto and Vina del Mar. In Merida, Yucatan the old and the new, respect for inherited tradition and modern urban development, blend with originality and grandeur. The traveler can find a whole range of possibilities walking the streets and visiting points of interest such as museums, parks, markets, malls, boutiques and stores selling handcrafts and typical clothing. At night Merida becomes a fascinating tour around open-air cafes, first class restaurants, serenades, concerts, discotheques, night clubs, or buggy rides.

You can experience the flavors that have earned it a well deserved place of honor within Mexican gastronomy. Any day and any time, Yucatecan food gives from fresh seafood and traditional Mayan cuisine with dishes including Cochinita Pibil or Papadzules, to fine continental fare.

In Merida the services are for the most demanding and the wide-ranging tastes. There are accommodations from family guest houses to luxury hotels, travel agencies, car and coach rentals, an international airport, restaurants, banks, malls and anything else tourist might require to complete his enjoyment on this beautiful Mexican provincial city.

In a nut shell, there are three main reasons to visit Merida: first, to try tasty Yucatecan dishes; second, to use it as a base for touring Uxmal, Chichen Itza and other Maya ruins; and third, to take part in "Sundays in Merida," when the streets of the old city are closed to traffic, and the downtown plaza fills with food booths and native craftspeople selling their wares at excellent prices.

Mérida's gardens add to this relaxed Mexico vacation a tropical atmosphere. Gardeners do not strive for control over nature. Here, natural exuberance is the ideal, with plants growing in a wild profusion that disguises human intervention.

While enjoyin your Merida & Yucatan vacations, you will learn about the Maya culture while having fun!

Among Merida & Yucatan attractions, you will find exquisite architectural jewels, tours to surrounding cities and archeological sites. Beautiful beaches are hardly 20 minutes away from the city of Merida, like Puerto Progreso among others.

Come and enjoy the beautiful Merida & Yucatan sightseeing!

Parque de la Madre. The park contains a modern statue of the Madonna and Child, a copy of the work by Renoir. Beyond the Parque de la Madre and across the pedestrian only street is the Teatro Peón Contreras, an opulent theater designed by Italian architect Enrico Deserti a century ago. The theater is noted for its Carrara marble staircase and frescoed dome. Try to get a peek at it, and look at the performance schedule to see if anything of interest will take place during your stay. National and international performers appear here frequently. In the southwest corner of the theater, facing the Parque de la Madre, is a tourist information office. Across Calle 60 is the main building of the Universidad de Yucatán. Inside is a flagstone courtyard where the ballet folklórico performs on Friday nights.

A block farther north is Parque Santa Lucía. Bordered by an arcade on the north and west sides, this park was where visitors first alighted from the stagecoach. On Sunday, Parque Santa Lucía holds a used book market, and several evenings a week it hosts popular entertainment. On Thursday nights, performers present Yucatecan songs and poems. Facing the park is the Iglesia de Santa Lucía (1575).

Four blocks farther up Calle 60 is Parque Santa Ana; if you turn right, you'll come to the beginning of the Paseo de Montejo in 2 blocks.

Exploring the Paseo de Montejo

The Paseo de Montejo is a broad, tree lined boulevard that runs north south starting at Calle 47, 7 blocks north and 2 blocks east of the main square. In the late 19th century, stalwarts of Mérida's upper crust (mostly plantation owners) decided that the city needed something grander than its traditional narrow streets lined by wall to wall town houses. They built this monumentally proportioned boulevard and lined it with mansions. Things went sour with the henequén bust, but several of these mansions survive some in private hands, others as offices, restaurants, or consulates. Today, this is the fashionable part of town, with many fine restaurants, trendy dance clubs, and expensive hotels.

Of the mansions that survived, the most notable is the Palacio Cantón, which houses the Museo Regional de AntropologíaAnthropology Museum). Designed and built by Enrico Deserti, the architect of the Teatro Peón Contreras, it was constructed between 1909 and 1911, during the last years of the Porfiriato. It was the residence of General Francisco Cantón Rosado, who enjoyed his palace for only 6 years before dying in 1917. For a time the mansion served as the official residence of the state's governor.

Viewing the museum also affords you an opportunity to see some of the surviving interior architecture. The museum's main focus is the pre  Columbian cultures of the peninsula, especially the Maya. Topics include cosmology, history, and culture. Captions for the permanent displays are mostly in Spanish. Starting with fossil mastodon teeth, the exhibits take you through the Yucatán's history, paying special attention to the daily life of its inhabitants.

Exhibits illustrate such strange Maya customs as tying boards to babies' heads to create the oblong shape that they considered beautiful, and filing teeth or perforating them to inset jewels. There are enlarged photos of several archaeological sites and drawings that illustrate the various styles of Maya dwellings. Even if you know only a little Spanish, this is a worthwhile stop, and it provides good background for explorations of Maya sites.