10. Merida Moments

So we returned to Merida on Thursday, February 15 and today is Sunday, the 18th. Wow, we have been so busy with the logistics of travel. When on a long vacation there are days that need to be set aside for business. Thursday and Friday were those days for us. We needed to get a lot of laundry done, find another hotel to stay at in Merida since Luz was booked after Thursday night, get our teeth cleaned, and learn to use Uber to get to said dentist. BTW it cost us 500$ pesos or $27. per person to get our teeth cleaned and the dentist does the cleaning! On Saturday we met our friends, the Diaz Bermudez ladies, for ice cream on the Paseo Montejo at Helados Colon (including Raquel this time!). I recommend the coconut ice cream! Then on Saturday I was delighted to find the Ibis hotel where I could sign up for  the Alianz Francesa de Merida 5K on Sunday.  Katia and her mother, Patricia, kindly agreed to join the race along with me. See me? I'm waving, in front of and to the left of the woman with the coral and white top.

So now we will spend our last night at the Hotel National in Merida. This is our third night here and we requested a larger room because although it was clean the first room was so narrow we were always bumping into each other. This room has a couch and a coffee table and the entry way is larger. The view onto the parking lot is not the best but having space is more important to us. 

The cost of the first room was 750$ pesos ($40.50 USD) per night and the larger room is 850$ pesos ($46.90 USD) per night. This is a business hotel and because it deals mostly with Mexican business people, the staff speaks very little English. With my meagre Spanish and their patience, we get by. The hotel has a beautiful pool that is underused, we spend afternoons just hanging there. In fact I am putting together this post at a picnic table there!

The restaurant serves very good food but service is slow. There is no refrigerator in the room but the restaurant will give you a glass of ice if you ask for it...and yes it is clean ice!  Tomorrow at noon we will be on another bus, this one first class, back for one night in Valladolid. 
More random photos of Merida:
Our favorite Merida restaurant for authentic Mayan food, Chaya Maya. 

A new to us, but been here forever restaurant with a marvelous view of the main square. Great food too! La Casa de Mi Tia

Near the old railroad station

Hmm...I'm still trying to piece together this entrance tile to an abandoned building.

Institute of Music indigenous to Mexico

This was SO delicious! It is from Organico Bar de Cafe Y Cocina. I loved the coffee but the bread of my sandwich was too dry.

Loom inside one of the artesian shops

One of the more modest, but surely expensive, homes along Paseo Montejo.