Life at the Convent

As I sit here and type this, I am trying to recover from a pretty significant hangover. Tara and I actually motivated ourselves to go out last night (which was a big thing, since we've been going to bed at the old-lady time of 9pm recently!). We hadn't planned on going out drinking, we actually had an appointment with a Mayan shaman to get new souls at 6:00, but when we went to meet him, he suggested going to our hotel and so we quickly removed ourselves from that situation! However, being semi-drunk from our pre-new soul elixir (an anis and honey flavored 'wine' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xtabent%C3%BAn_(liqueur) ) we decided to explore the bar scene of Merida.

The first place we went to seemed like a T.G.I.Fridays of Mexico. However, for 110 pesos (about 9 dollars) we got two pitchers of beer and an order of wings! We followed that with a another bar near the town square, and then made our way to a local salsa bar. We were definitely intimidated by the place, but with our liquid courage, felt GREAT going in! And once inside, it was like we were celebrities! We had no less than 5 different waiters and the door man attending to us (ie making sure we had copious amounts of tequila)! I showed off my salsa skills (of which I have none) and Tara showed off her Spanish skills (of which she has some). We closed out the bar and then went back to our hotel for an early morning swim.

Yes, you read that right, we are staying at a HOTEL with a POOL! And there's AIR CONDITIONING! After a week in Tulum living at a hostel that reminded me of my days at summer camp, we decided to splurge a bit. We met a woman in Tulum who is an English teacher in Merida, and one of her students is dating the owner of a hotel, which she recommended to us (how many degrees of separation is that???). Anyways, the hotel is absolutely beautiful! And more spacious than our apartments back in New York! The hotel is actually housed in what used to be a 16th century convent, and is still attached to the church, Iglesia Santa Lucia. http://www.luzenyucatan.com/

Merida is an absolutely wonderful city. It's large, close to a million people, but feels like a small town. We spent yesterday hanging out in the town square, walking around the craft market and eating street food. People here are soooo friendly! Walking down the street, we were stopped by a man who insisted we go to the University to see the photo exhibition. He accompanied us there, and gave us all kinds of information about the school, the city, the culture. And it seemed that everywhere we went, people wanted to talk to us to tell us about the region, to find out what we were doing, and if we were enjoying our time here. We met another man as we were walking down the street who gave us advice on how to avoid being ripped off at the market, and how to tell if different things were authentic. We ran into him later, and he showed us the way to a Mayan market that had a beautiful gallery of Mayan statues and jewelry. We had our own personal tour or the gallery along with a lesson on the Mayan culture and a taste testing of Xtabentun.

We had only planned on staying in Merida for a night, but based on our experience so far, our stay will be extended a bit.