Mérida

We took the ADO bus again from Tulúm to Mérida, which took around four hours. When we arrived in Mérida we realised we were less than two kilometres from our hotel so we decided to walk even though it was the hottest part of the day. The streets were very quiet as it was Sunday, although as we approached the Plaza Grande we could tell that this was where all the action was. The streets were closed off and lots of food vendors had set up stalls around the outside of the Plaza Grande.

We checked into our hotel - a boutique seven room hotel a few blocks from the Plaza Grande, situated in a converted hacienda with a pool in the middle. The rooms have retained the old fittings, floors, doors and general ambience. We immediately felt relaxed in the little oasis and it was difficult to leave to explore the city.

About two minutes after we left the hotel we thought we would melt so our first task was to find ice creams. We sat in the Plaza Grande admiring the beautiful buildings around the outside, including the stunning Catedral.

For dinner we went to a restaurant specialising in food from the Yucatán. We had tamales, tacos with roasted turkey and roasted pork with onions. The flavours were a lot more subtle and earthy than Mexican food, but it was definitely all very tasty!

Next morning we headed out toward a cafe named Chocolaté, but it was closed! Wandering despondently, we then stumbled across a little Cuban café that offered breakfast. A very cute and well-fed cat wandered around the interior dining-garden as we devoured familiarly delicious Cuban breakfast eggs and café con leche.

Then we headed to the Gran Museo del Mundo Maya - a huge new museum on the outskirts of town in a very impressive building. It covers current and past Mayan culture as well as a section on evolution and the extinction of the dinosaurs, as not far from Mérida is the impact point scientists have determined for the meteor which struck earth at the end of the cretaceous period.

Back in the town centre, and after some lunch, we visited the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo and the Palacio de Gobierno. This is another government building containing spectacular murals which is open to the public for free. The murals depicted Mayan life and culture before, during and after the Spanish invasion. Both the building and the murals were amazing.

For dinner we chose a restaurant near the end of the Paseo de Montejo - a beautiful, tree-lined main thoroughfare with many old haciendas built by prominent families along either side. The restaurant had an excellent view of the Monumento a la Patria which is in the centre of a major roundabout on the Paseo.