Sam And Saundra's Year Long Adventure - Part 46

Sam And Saundra’s Year Long Adventure – Part 46

Mexico 

2/16/09  - Merida  -  Merida Tour

Merida is the capital and largest city of Yucatan State.  We board the colorful, open trolley ‘bus’ for the tour.  We are ready!  We are taken all over this amazingly modern city with architectural influences from everywhere.  There are not a lot of tall buildings, but many modern ones.  Businesses from around the world are present. Traffic is horrid.  Keep your eyes open wide and you’d think you were still in Portland, or worse.  Again, Sam is thankful that we are on a tour bus and that he is not driving through this traffic pulling our trailer.  Construction is everywhere, involving everything.  We see colorful buildings that compete with the bright colors of the flowering shrubs and trees.   Statues, a midway-type carnival, many parques, fountains and churches utilize every inch of space. 

Merida

We stop at La Cathedral de San Idelfonso and are informed that most of the contents of the churches in this country were destroyed in a revolution and that much of what we see is reconstructed, like the Black Christ.  The churches are beautiful anyway.  We tour the Government Palace and we are surprised at the good artwork in the form of wall murals that depict much of Mexico’s history. Again, I amaze myself – I am not into history – and I really love this.  Maybe I can find the US ‘murals’ and learn our history better.  As we were leaving, Sam got his picture taken with three armed and uniformed policia.  Even though Sam was the taller, he should not be confused with the ‘taller mechanico’.

Mural

Just A Photo Op

We leave all this and visit a hammock store.  Don’t laugh.  Sam and I bought one in Baja Mexico and he uses it all the time at home – well, when it’s not raining.  So he uses it once every … oh… maybe every blue moon.  But he and Owen like it anyway.  That is what counts!

A few scraps of info:  Our guide said that the eagle with the snake in the mouth on the Mexican flag represents ending poverty (?).  Sanitized water is available and is used   widespread by the locals.  The trick is to know how this system works.  Every area has it’s own brand name of bottled 5 liter water jugs.  You have to pay for the bottle and the water for the first jug, usually 80 pesos.  Then, to fill it, you can either go to a self-serve station, if it is available, and fill it for 6 to 8 pesos or go to the neighborhood ‘little market’ (one every couple of blocks) and exchange the empty jugs for full, sealed ones for 20 pesos.  Otherwise, you are paying at least 80 pesos for every 5 liters of sanitized water.  But remember – it must be the same brand. Another alternative for safe water is to put bleach in your tank and fill it with the ground water, if available.  Electricity, if available, is 15 amp and rarely grounded and the voltage changes from 104 to 128 to more. A surge protector for the trailer (a big hummer) is recommended, as well as a grounding system.  Sewage – you just have to remember to dump every time you can and be very careful in between.

A small entrepreneur awaits us when we get back to camp.  We buy a few souvenirs from him and take a break.