Merida, my home

I live in Merida. Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. The Yucatan Peninsula is way closer to Cuba than to the U.S. border. It takes me 4 days to drive from the Texas border to my house. But it's getting so modern here that I hardly notice I'm not in Kansas, er, Florida, anymore. This photo is of "el centro," the old downtown. I rarely go there unless I want to go to the English library or find a bargain worth putting up with trying to find parking.

 Merida has about a million people now, I think. It's known all over Mexico as being small-town safe, and yet it's cosmopolitan. (Yeah. The people speak Spanish. Usually I understand them and I can make them understand me. This morning the cashier in WalMart spoke so fast I had no idea what she said.) People move here daily from Mexico City, I'm told. The local people are called Yucatecans and they are friendlier than people from any other Mexican state, I do believe. Until the 1960's they weren't even connected to Mexico by road and considered themselves The Republic of Yucatan. Their ancestors are Mayan, not Aztec or Tolmec, so they look different, too. They are a mixture of Mayan and Spanish.

One thing I don't like is that the Yucatecan seems to have had a war on trees since time began. Anything taller than a man gets chopped down. I suppose originally it was for firewood, and then perhaps for the henequen plantations. Also, there's no ground water ( lake or rivers) in the State of Yucatan. The soil is porous limestone and beneath it there is lots of water. In places that water reaches the surface and appears in little pools called "cenotes" and many are great swimming holes. Some are slightly underground and rays of sun shine through holes in the roof of their caves and give the water a gorgeous torquoise color.
They connect to an amazing array of underground springs which they've recently discovered connect all the way to the Caribbean, opening out south of Cancun.

South of the state of Yucatan, but still on the Yucatan Peninsula, there are trees and hills in the state of Campeche. That area kind of reminds me of southern Ohio. It's also not as sunny as it is here in Merida. Oh. Did I mention the SUN? And the HEAT? Yeah. HOT. Merida is always HOT. We're having a little cool spell now with the windows open, but by Friday it will be 95º again.

 During the late 19th and early 20th century, Merida was extremely wealthy due to the production of rope and twine from the henequen plant, known as "green gold." Europeans came over and built huge haciendas and got really rich off the stuff by transforming barren plots of land into acres of henequen Eden. By the 1880's, Yucatan into was one of the richest states in Mexico producing ninety per cent of the rope and burlap bags used worldwide. The hacienda owners lived lives of wealth and privilege, like the silver barons in mountainous Mexico. But like all things, that came to an end and all around the state are old haciendas in ruin, some being renovated by brave or stupid souls and turned into hotels, etc.



This is a photo of the big FiestaAmericana Hotel and mall. (It did NOT used to be a hacienda!)

Since NAFTA began allowing for the import of US goods, I can now shop at Home Depot, four WalMarts, Sam's Club and Costco, Office Depot, GNC, and Starbucks. In the last year, 4 malls have been built here. But I pretty much stay holed up in my house because our house is such a haven. This is our 4th house we've owned in Merida, and we finally got it right, but that's for another entry!

Oh, and I forgot that Chichen Itza, recently voted one of theSeven Wonders of the World, is about an hour and a half from here and someday I really must see it. ;)