We go to the Nomadas hostel in Merida at about 2:30 yesterday. The hostel was clean, well-run, and affordable ($17). We settled in and took a few minutes to calendar out the rest of our trip. We have heard differing reports about the cities we had planned to see, and we wanted to map things out. We decided that we will stay longer in San Cristobal and go to Puerto Angel (south of Oaxaca on the coast) to chill out on the beach. We´ll spend approximately 4 days in Oaxaca and Mexico City each.

We walked from the hostel to the main plaza, El Zocalo, just to look around. There are less gringos here, so approximately 1,000 Mexicans asked us if we wanted a hammock (hamaca) on the 10 minute walk to the square. A legit senor from the tourist office came up to us in the square. He gave us a list of free attractions and led us to a Maya warehouse. Apparently, there are different factions of hammock vendors in Merida. The Nomadas hostel supports one group and the senor from the tourist office warned us against them. He led us to a government sponsored hammock warehouse. According to him, the Mayans who work there don´t pay taxes and they make a higher quality product, not from nylon. We received a demonstration on the superiority of these hammocks from a producer for about 20 minutes. Neither Kathy nor I had any desire to buy a hamaca but we played along.

Next, we went to the Governor´s Palace to look at some murales by Pacheco, who is from Merida. He studied under Diego Rivera and his murales cover the same topics. The paintings were grand, communistic, and powerful. They gave a good history of Merida; the resistance of the Mayans, the conquest of the Spanish, Henequen production, and the Revolution. Afterwards, we had dinner at a Yucatecan restaurant off of the main square. I had Choc-tuc, which is a traditional Mayan way of preparing pork. They use oranges in the marinade and the product is appealing. Kathy had a quesadilla with some sort of black mushrooms in it. Unfortunately, the mushrooms were not the hallucinogenic type that are apparently famous here, but they were rich and tasty.

We met up with Kathy´s friend at Hoyo, a newly established coffee shop 3 blocks from the square. We had a few drinks and I was jealous of the Waffle Kathy and Marika ordered. It had a caramel like syrup, bannanas, and Ice Cream on top of it. Que rico! The conversation was somewhat stilted, but I did learn a lot about immigration laws. Marika and her friend Amber are both married to Mexicans. Amber may never get to return to the states with her husband because they have not been living in the same place in Mexico for long enough. To even legally visit the US with a Visa, you must show that you have serious economic ties to Mexico. Amber´s husband is in a band "Punk Guerrilla," so it´s hard for them to prove. Marika and her husband´s situation is different. They have been applying for legal residency within the US for 2 years. They hope to get their first face to face meeting by next November.

We went back to Nomadas and were asleep by 11.

Today has been a long one. We had the complimentary breakfast of bread and butter and walked to Marika´s house to drop off our bags. We left quickly in order to have a free walking tour of the Zocalo from the tourist office. Victor was our guide. He spoke decent english with a heavy accent and went from it to Spanish between sentences so that the Mexican tourists and us gringos could all understand. He showed us the Bishop´s house, the cathedral, and the Governor´s house, which together with the tourist office form the 4 sides to the Zocalo.

Merida was an important city to the Mayans because of its proximity to the coast. Where the Zocalo is now, once sat the grand pyramid of the Mayans in Merida. The Spanish, led by a father-son-nephew Montejo trifecta, tore down the pyramid and put up spanish buildings. As we were walking throught the bishop´s house, which is now owned by Banamex, Victor pointed out the collumns. Portions of the collumns had holes in them where you could see the original Mayan stones that were taken from the pyramid and used in the new buildings´constructions. The rest of the tour was okay. The cathedral was nice, but I don´t really like churches. We took a second look at Pacheco´s murals, tipped Victor, and headed on our way.

It is hot here. We walked to a fresh fruit market that was 14 blocks away. We drank a liter of water along the way. We bought 2 mangos (90 cents) and slurped them down in a small square next to the market. They tasted sweet and fresh. We headed toward the Museum of Anthropology in hopes of seeing a Cantina along the way where we could order a beer and get free appetizers. No suerte. We got to the museum, and realized how hungry we were, so we trudged aimlessly in search of food. Three old ladies in a convenience store suggested a Chinese place for us because Kathy could not eat meat. We checked it out, but Kathy could have only eaten rice there. Something must have been lost in translation.

Next tore was Tacos de Cabeza. There were 3 areas to this fine eatery, and we made our way to the air conditioned quarto in the back. Kathy ordere something vegetarian and I ordered tacos. The tacos never came but the vegetarian stuff was surprisingly tasty and filling. There was also a free appetizer. I had a cerveza. The bill came to 3.50.

The air conditioning in the Museum was a nice relief. The displays covering Mayan civilization were fairly informative and mildly interesting. I like history, but not the old stuff. Here´s some interesting tidbits. Elite Mayans shaped their children´s heads to make them as flat as possible on top. They used boards and vices to achieve this. The Mayans were really good at keeping time, collecting water (there are no rivers in the Yucatan), and philosophizing. They had a deep faith and saw celestial forces at work in their everyday lives.

It was still hot when we left the museum. I wanted to scream, "Yes, I am a gringo, but I do not want any of your god damned hammocks. ¡No quiero hamaca!" After resting on a bench we decided to go back to Hoyo for some caffeine. The afternoon dragged on as we read while the rain poured. We have basically been killing time (as you can tell by the minute details of this blog) waiting for our night bus to Palanque at 10.

I am currently reading Leon Uris´Exodus, which is about the establishment of Israel interspersed with horrifying flashbacks to the Holocaust. I feel like I should have a witty comment for what it feels like to read a Zionist novel in the Yucatan, but I simply do not. I think we are going to leave this wonderful Interneteria soon for some dinner and then eventually trudge back to the bus terminal. We will see Palenque in the morning and probably collapse shortly thereafter. After that, it´s off to San Cristobal, which we have heard great things about.

Hasta Luego, John