From Playa del Carmen to Merida

I can't believe we have been away nearly a week & I haven't documented a single moment, too busy enjoying the warmth of the climate & the people. 

Shana at the beach

Our flights from SLC to Dallas and then on to Cancun were luckily uneventful. We secured our rental car, a VW Jetta, easily, but were caught by our first of two timeshare invitations. An offer of a free breakfast & nearly a week’s free rental is hard to turn down!

Playa del Carmen

It was late & very dark when we arrived in Playa del Carmen & our route to our first ‘home away from home’ took us right through Playa’s wild nightlife. Poor Keith, our trusted driver, was frazzled by the time we found Melinda’s apartment we had secured through AirBnB. Because it was late, nearly 11 pm, there was no one to greet us and show us where our place was. I did have the combination to a padlock where keys were hidden, but I had to try several doors before finding the correct place. One door opened with the key, but someone else was inside so I apologized and tried again. J

Tulum

Our place was very adequate, we had a small kitchen for breakfasts, hot water & two sleeping areas divided by a folded wooded curtain. Our only complaints were the heavy smell of smoke, both cigarette & marijuana, and the happy noises of a party below each night. Thanks to the ceiling fans and earplugs we slept well the three nights we stayed in Playa.

The "pirates' of this ship

We filled our days with walks along the beach, listening to great live music, visiting with locals, touring the Mayan ruins at Tulum and attending “Residential Ownership Opportunity” presentations, which literally funded our first three days in Mexico.

Listening to a hot guitarist on the beach in Playa del Carmen

Friday, December 12^th, was the Fiesta Day for the Virgin de Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico. It was a travel day for us & a pilgrimage day for many Mexicans.  We passed dozens of groups of bikers preceded by a truck decorated with a banner or statue of the famous image of the Virgen. 

Pilgrims on the highway as we pass by

While it made travel on the roads more difficult & dangerous, I found it heartwarming to see such dedication & strong cultural heritage.

Keith & I had over an hour of holding our breaths while we watched the needle on the gas gauge go way into the red empty zone as we figured the distance shown in KM into miles to the next gas station on the toll road from Cancun to Merida. Shana Jan was asleep in the backseat when the fuel signal announced that we were empty more than 50 miles out of Valladolid. Somehow we made it on fumes and laughed aloud with the gas station attendants, all without alerting Shana to the dire situation we had faced on the road.

After a short walk around Valladolid’s main colonial square we had lunch, which settled our nerves before heading out again to Merida.

Not ten minutes out of Merida we were stopped at a police checkpoint and asked to pull over to the side of the road. Keith asked to use the porta-potty as I found our passports & answered the officer’s questions. Finding no infractions of Mexican law, the officer was forced to shake us down for $2.00 US for Keith’s use of the bathroom. We laughed and gave him 10 pesos, about 70 cents. If we didn’t speak Spanish we would have been nervous, but we were calm as cucumbers and found it hard not to break down laughing. The police officer, complete with machine gun, made me promise that Shana had the proper papers to be in the country when we woke her up again.

Cathedral from 2nd story of Government Palace

Keith with Dona Maria making tortillas

Merida is a big city and driving into the center of town was exasperating for Keith. Following Google maps we drove into neighborhood celebrating the fiesta day with a big party looking for the address of ULE, our 2^nd sleeping spot on this trip. Because the address was a little off we found ourselves in front of a dilapidated gate in of an abandoned house. Three groups of people saw our dilemma and came to our rescue walking us around the block, offering their home phones & helping us determine the mistake in the posted address. We followed their advice and were soon at the correct location, a 500 year old historic guard station renovated to house visiting artists and writers in Merida. While the room Keith & I have is delightfully restored, poor Shana, an amazing good traveler (quite gnarly really), is staying in a giant convent-styled space. Her bed is comfy and she sleeps well so all is fine.

Cathedral in Merida's Plaza Principal

Merida is a cultural capital! Free events are offered every day of the week. Our first night we witnessed a reenactment of the ancient Mayan ball game similar to soccer played in front of the Cathedral in the Plaza Principal. The young men swing down on their sides to strike the ball with one hip or the other and then are up on their feet again in an instant. The pride of Mayan heritage is strong here!

Keith with his new hat holding an ancient Mayan relic

In the morning of our first full day we took a city tour with a very knowledgeable guide. Later we followed up by spending more time in each location and doing a little shopping in a Mayan collectivo for a ceramic iguana for Shana’s porch. The young man in the shop spent a long time with us showing the incredible needlework of the typical Mayan women’s clothing and answering questions about life in communal Mayan pueblos.

Palacio de Gobinero

This morning Eugenia, our host at Ule, arrived to make us a lovely breakfast. We spent the day looking at crafts in the main park, listening to music & poetry, and enjoying Folkloric dancing with a full mariachi band, all for free in the center of town. 

The dancing in the park, simply beautiful!

Every Sunday Merida’s Plaza Principal is packed with arts & crafts for sale & free entertainment all day long. We walked around the park looking for a birthday dress & hat for Vivien. The music drew us over to a folkloric dance presentation with beautiful costumes & a live mariachi band, which was very professionally done.

Our meal for the day was a stew made with three meats (chicken, beef & pork) followed by a long walk by the colonial mansions, most of which are now financial institutions. 

When Shana & Keith became a bit fatigued I walked to the end of the boulevard. 

The end of the boulevard

This is a tradition for the traveling Brownings.

They became very nervous about me and Shana started to head off looking for me. Several military trucks filled with machinegun-armed soldiers pulled up where I had passed and she was heading, so luckily so headed back & I returned soon after. The armed police presence is heavy throughout large Mexican cities & on the highways. It takes a bit to get used to it. The police are paid around 100 pesos daily (less than $10. US). If you didn't speak Spanish the roadblocks would freak you out, but if you are following the rules as we are, it really is no big deal. We can't figure out how they decide to pull you over or not. Just in case, we decided a haircut & beard trim for Keith might lessen our chances for trouble. 

This is Keith's signal that this property will someday be his...keep dreaming, mi amor!