Yucatán 2017 Part 1 - First Impressions of Mérida

Details: Written by Tom Snow; Created: 02 May 2020

Ever since my first expedition into Mexico in 2015 I had wanted to go somewhere, anywhere, in that country for a few days unconnected to a cruise. Mexico City was at the top of my list, but I would've gladly gone to any big city outside of the cartel states. The international Rock 'n Roll Marathon series had a few events in Mexico, and their half-marathon in Mérida, Yucatán, scheduled for November 4, 2017 worked out great as it was at a time when I didn't have much else lined up.

By a funny coincidence, this race was only eight days before I'd be boarding a cruise ship bound for the peninsula, hitting the same ports as in 2015.

Thursday, November 2, 2017

For this trip, getting to the destination and back would require three flights each way. Instead of spending Southwest points, I would be earning points with American Airlines. First was a short hop from San Antonio to Dallas/Fort Worth, then the second flight from DFW to Mexico City where I had a layover over lunch. I had to get my passport stamped, pick up and re-check my baggage, and then in the terminal food court had a pretty good salad for lunch.

One thing I noticed was that Mexico City's airport was rather small, which I found surprising considering how enormous Mexico City is. I'll discuss that more later.

The third and final flight, from Mexico City to Mérida, was not on American but Interjet, a Mexican budget airline. I got there in the evening around the time the sun went down. Before leaving the airport I stopped by a coffee shop after the baggage claim.

Mayan heritage is everywhere in this part of Mexico, even in the name of this coffee shop.

Next, I took a taxi to my hotel. I was staying at a reasonably priced hotel right in the middle of the city, at the intersection of Calle 57 & 58, Hotel Flamingo. I really liked this place. It's small and from the outside doesn't look like much, but I thought it was a great deal.

The room where I stayed.

With little left of the day, I took a little walk downtown to see what I could see.

Pretty common scene at downtown public squares. Looking back, this actually reminds me of many of the farmer's markets and such I've seen in northern European cities.

Finally, I stopped at, of all places, Hennessy's Irish Pub. Gotta stop at an Irish pub everywhere I go. I had, of course, a pint of Guinness, but after that had a shot of Havana Club rum. I've never really liked rum all that much by itself, but this one I had to try because it's made in Cuba and so not sold in the US. This was my first time trying it.

Friday, November 3, 2017

Mérida does not have a well-defined downtown. There isn't a single business, government, entertainment, or shopping disctrict; rather, all the things you'd expect to find in such quarters are evenly scattered throughout the central city. This urban core consists of a large grid of extremely narrow streets lined with tightly packed buildings that are usually one or two stories high, rarely more than three. Manhattan this is not. Wander around this grid and everywhere you look you'll see stores, restaurants, bars, and even government buildings everywhere; researching now where all the state government buildings are, it looks like I may have walked past the Yucatán state legislature building several times without realizing it. Here and there you'll also find public parks like the Zócalo, which are surrounded with shops and restaurants and are where locals are often hanging out by day and night. You might even find a wider street, similarly lined with shops and restaurants, like Paseo de Montejo, where I found myself on Friday morning. I had been here before; Hennessy's Irish Pub from the night before was on this street.

Another thing about that street grid: most of the streets are numbered rather than named, with east-west streets being odd and north-south streets being even, and the numbers increasing to the south and west. This makes it almost impossible to get lost unless you try really hard to not pay attention.

Typical shopping alley.

There was no breakfast at the hotel so I was searching for something to eat out in the city. It wasn't long before I found a place on Paseo de Montejo called El Gran Café. This restaurant had a pretty good breakfast buffet with everything you'd expect (eggs, sausage, pancakes, coffee, and such). I came back every morning for the rest of the trip.

The aforementioned park, the Zócalo, is where you'll find the historic cathedral of San Ildefonso. Construction on the cathedral started slowly in the 1560s, ramped up in the 1580s, and it was finally completed in 1598. At the time of my visit, it didn't occur to me that there are historic churches in Europe which are actually newer; the Theatinerkirche in Munich, for example, started its construction in 1662, nearly a century after San Ildefonso's first stone was laid down.

I didn't expect to find a mass going on Friday morning.

While walking around after lunch I stumbled onto the most incongruous place I've yet found in Mexico, certainly the last kind of restaurant I'd ever expected to find.

That's right, it's a German bar and grill and it's called La Bierhaus.

I didn't have time to stop by yet, though, since I had to get to the Coliseo for packet pickup for the next day's race. Deutsches Bier would have to wait.

Sitting outside the city's northern edge is a multi-purpose concert hall which looks like a stadium inside and out, though isn't big enough to host any sporting events. Back then it was merely known as El Coliseo de Mérida, but since then has been renamed Foro GNP Seguros (apparently they have a sponsorship deal with an insurance company). The next day I would be running the Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon, so here at the Coliseo was what we usually call "packet pickup." This is where I got my bib--the piece of paper with my number on it that I would wear in the race--along with my official race shirt and all the usual ads and such they always throw in. I didn't stay very long since I didn't have much interest in the merch being sold there, so after I got what I came for I took a taxi back into the city.

So finally, in the evening, I had the chance to stop by that German place, La Bierhaus. This was definitely one of my favorite finds in this city. They had quite a beer selection here, German and not, and the first thing I had was an Augustiner Edelstoff. Four years earlier, I had gone to the original world-famous Oktoberfest in Munich, and one of the beer brands I had there was Augustiner specifically because I had never seen it before in the States. To this day I still haven't; this is the closest I've found it.

The menu even had a newsletter as part of it. Check this out:

The article here is about the hefeweizen style of beer which is based on wheat and is usually drunk in the summer. The last paragraph says "Germans drink wheat bear on any imaginable occasion and especially in the summer when it's hot...and in our Yucatán it's always hot. So, 'PROST.'"

I finished off the night having dinner at an outdoor patio restaurant, and checking out what else was going on in the center of the city.

During my visit, it sure seemed like there was always something going on somewhere, like some live music, no matter what day it was.

Tomorrow would be the long-awaited half marathon...