Day 24: Merida to Progreso

January 5, 2024

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We had to attend to some minor glitches before leaving Hotel Zocalo this morning. Dodie's front tire had been losing pressure, enough to have to pump it every day, or two. Research revealed a tiny pinhole, right in the middle of the one patch that was already in the tube. That is suspicious, and we searched carefully for what had caused the repeat offence. But, we found nothing. Dodie wanted to do the luxury of putting in a brand new tube, but I didn't see the need, so I patched the patch. So our poor waif-like Dodie has patches on her patches.

Dodie also avoided injury this morning, when the shower curtain rod fell on her head. The rod had been held up by a variant of a legitimate system we have seen at home, in which the rod telescopes to contact two adjacent walls, and stays up by friction. In this case, the telescoping arrangement was an old wooden dowel travelling within an old metal pipe. It just was not up to the chore!

Showered or not, we showed up for breakfast right at the appointed 7:00 a.m. time, but they were not ready. Specifically the eggs weren't cooked. Dodie used her amazing Spanish skills then, and got them to bring whatever they did have - like the fruit and coffee. This way she kept the show rolling, keeping me from fainting from starvation, while giving the kitchen a chance to get in gear.

But Dodie was not so accommodating at the next step. Our room at Zocalo was far from the front desk, both up and down some steep steps. When we came to check out, the desk lady demanded that we produce our (soaking wet) towels. Dodie told her to get stuffed, and challenged her to show where in our packs we might be smuggling these precious artifacts. The lady, of course, gave up.

Lower tech not solution to a low tech problem.

Merida had at least two more faces to show us, adding to the the colonial elegance one and the frantic market one. We began at the start of Montejo boulevard, which features a string of mansions, repurposed into museums and the like. The boulevard is modelled on the Champs Elysees, and we do like it for its broad street and bike lane all the way. But just over a decade ago, a statue of Francisco de Montejo, known as El Adelantado (the one that came first) and his son, Francisco de Montejo, el Mozo were erected on Mérida’s Remate, the starting point of this Avenida Paseo de Montejo. This statue has caused a huge amount of controversy, along the same lines as the debates over American civil war statues, and it has been vandalized several times. It's tricky, because in modern terms these guys were war criminals, but at the time - were they founders of the country? I would take the statue down, and stash it in a museum.

Two of the first mansions along the way are called the Camara or also the Twin Houses. They were built in 1908-1911 and are said to be in French Second Empire style. Lots of illustrious people have stayed in the houses, like Princess Grace and Jacqueline Kennedy.

Next up was the "Canton Palace", also built in the early 1900's. It was made for a general in the dictatorship of the time, and is large and grand. Currently it too houses a museum - the Regional Museum of Anthropology.

Here below is the Quinta Montes Molina house museum. The building is also from the early 20th century, and as a museum now it preserves the original rooms and furniture.

At the very end of the boulevard is the "Monument to the Homeland". This was sculpted entirely by hand. It took 11 years to complete, and was done in 1956. The carvings narrate Mexico's history, but you would have to look closely and long to figure it out. Certainly there are a lot of indigenous themes immediately obvious, in contrast to the Montejo's at the other end.

Reaching the end of Montejo blvd is not at all time to celebrate making it out of Merida, because now we enter the next phase of the city. Amazingly, if you think back to the San Benito market downtown, the city now becomes America. The road is broad and smooth, and appearances are put in by everyone from Office Depot and Petco to Home Depot and Texas Roadhouse. One thing at least, bicycle lanes persisted all the way out of town.

As we rode out of town, there were some final touches of Christmas - such as elaborate decorations in the roundabouts.

And at one bakery we find the Brioches des Reyes - the baking to celebrate Jan 6.

We stopped for a break and noticed this ready to go horse, whose owner had also stopped for a break.

Here we go, out of Merida after about 15 km and ready to head for the coast.

During our time in Merida, we saw only pigeons, grackles, and one hummingbird. Now that we are out, we expect to be rejoined by birds. Here anyway is a billboard with one - some kind of a Flycatcher. (although Scott says it is a Bluebird, makes sense)

24017 (And soon, an actual) Tropical Mockingbird.

Although Progreso is our destination today, we diverted by way of Conkal to head more directly to first visit our friends Doug and Elaine, who are living in Uaymitun, along the coast road.

This unusual Christmas display features large sized Marvel and Disney characters. Where did they get this stuff?

By the roadside in Conkal, this lady had a nice selection of fruit. We bought a bag that had grapefruit, orange, mandarin, jicama, and mango. The quality was super and it gave us a big boost along our way.

Also in Conkal, in a park, we found all these birds. Can you name them all? (Not sure we can!)

This large gate must be a hacienda remnant.

Here we are at Chixulub pueblo, which shares the famous name with Chixulub puerto, coming next. Puerto is on the coast, while pueblo is inland.

The thing about Chixulub pueblo is that it is the centre of the impact crater from when the 10 k diameter asteroid struck earth and wiped out the dinosaurs, along with 75% of other plants and animals on earth. The crater from this is 180 km in diameter and 20 km deep!