Category Archives: Mexico

More from Mérida, Yucatán

August 19, 2024Mexico, Travel, Yucatán PeninsulaChrist of the Blisters, Governor’s Palace, Mérida, Museo de Musicakarenfranza

Aug 16 – What should we see today? I wanted to visit the Museum of Modern Art, which wasn’t open when we passed by yesterday. Today there was a big sign saying it was open, but the guard at the door said not yet. We walked around for a half hour and went back. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Still not open. Oh well.

We like this little pilot on a paper airplane – looks like a Minion!

Christ of the Blisters, behind a locked gate

We strolled back over to the cathedral, and they were between services, so we got in! Pretty stark inside, but we were looking for a statue in the side chapel called Christ of the Blisters. Legend says the statue was carved from a tree that was hit by lightning and burned all night without charring. It was also the only object that survived the fiery destruction of the church in the town of Ichmul (though it was blackened and blistered from the heat). The statue was moved to the Mérida cathedral in 1645.

Worshipers waiting to enter the chapel of Christ of the Blisters

We moved on to the Governor’s Palace to see the famous murals. They are huge, and there are a lot of them. The descriptions are printed in Spanish, English and Mayan. I asked a guide if people still spoke Mayan and she assured me they did – 9% in Mérida, and about 25% in the Yucatán overall.

Some of the murals were of patriots (above) and some had many interwoven elements (below)

Natives enslaved by the Spaniards (the shadowy white figures on the right)

A detail of a large mural, showing a serpent and an eagle

Next was the interactive Museo de Musica. I expected to see children, but it was all adults with headphones on, listening to classical and Latin music

We stopped into an open church and encountered life size statues similar to ones we saw in Spain – a full size Jesus above the altar

Full sized Last Supper figures next to the altar

I thought this painting was interesting – Jesus cutting down evil perhaps?

We stopped for lunch at our favorite hole in the wall restaurant, then retired for a siesta. It didn’t rain this afternoon, so we took a dip in our shady pool. Very nice! Tomorrow we move on…

Mérida, Yucatán

August 17, 2024Mexico, Travel, Yucatán PeninsulaCasa de Montejo, Catedral de San Ildefonso, gorditas, Mérida, Museo de Ciudad Mérida, St. Jameskarenfranza

Aug 14 – As we were unable to get provisions last night due to the power outage, we set out early this morning to find some breakfast. Still lots of flooding on the streets, but the sidewalks were okay. We had to navigate around some pretty deep puddles when crossing roads. Thankfully, drivers were considerate and didn’t speed up to splash us (as often happens to me when walking the dog at home!)

We found a nice little restaurant where Joél (pronounced Oh EL) conversed with us while our huevos rancheros were cooking. He said this is the wet season, and the flooding is normal as it rains every day. In September it will get cooler and the rain will stop. He asked if we lived in Mérida, as many expats live here due to safety and the many cultural offerings.

Joel brought us some excellent huevos rancheros – fried eggs on a tortilla covered with a tomato sauce, served with fryol (puréed black beans)

We planned a short day of exploring, so we could acclimate to the temperature here. It is HOT! We walked 15 minutes to Centro Mérida, the main city square, which was totally torn up and being renovated.

Our first stop was the Catedral de San Ildefonso, built in 1541 by the Spaniards from the bricks of the Mayan temple that formerly occupied the site

Carving above the main door was cemented over due to anti-Spanish sentiment during the revolution, and has now been restored

Statues of Saint Peter and Saint Paul on either side of the entrance

Unlike many cathedrals we have visited, this one celebrates Mass every hour throughout the morning, then closes in the afternoon. Tourists don’t seem to be welcome, with a guard at the door to keep non-worshipers out. I snapped a photo from the doorway, which shows an extremely large crucifix above the altar. That’s all we got to see.

The day was quickly heating up, so we set out to find a grocery store and get some provisions for our stay. Jim looked at his phone and told me the name of the store, and a local came right over to tell us that the store was closed, and gave us helpful directions to another. He said that lots of things have closed in Mérida. Helpful person of the Yucatán!

The store was only a few blocks away, but I was pouring down sweat even though we stayed on the shady side of the street. Jim got eggs, cheese, bread and the makings of a spaghetti dinner. Our kitchenette has a single burner hot plate, a microwave, one pot and one pan, so Jim had to think of things he could make with limited resources.

The supermarket had a good selection, but the checkout lines were long and slow.

That was enough for one day, so we picked up some lunch and brought it home to eat in the air conditioning. A good first day!

I like statues with birds on their heads

Aug 15 – After Jim made us a yummy egg, fruit, coffee and toast breakfast, we were ready to face a new day. Back to Centro we went.

Our first stop was Casa de Montejo, a museum housed in a manor built by the Spaniards in 1540. The carvings above the door show Spanish conquistadors standing on the heads of the locals.

Look at the screaming heads being crushed

Beautiful inlay and murals on the ceiling

Upstairs there was an art display with some pretty strange photos

I liked the colorfully painted wood carvings

We stopped at a famous eatery called Gorditas Doña Gorda, where we watched gorditas being shaped, cooked and filled

These are equivalent to the arepas we tasted in Colombia. Jim was very happy with his gordita

Our next destination was the Museo de Ciudad Mérida. Two statues of Saint James the Moorslayer, crushing Moors

In this carving of the Nativity, Mary is missing her arm, and Jesus has lost his head

We stopped in at an open church, with a very native looking Jesus:

Hanging near the entrance was my favorite sign for the day: respect the church!

Back toward home to pick up another Menu del Dia to eat in the air conditioning. Shortly after we got inside, the rain poured down. Unlike at home, when it rains, it does not get one degree cooler. A good day!

Yucatán Adventure

August 15, 2024Mexico, Travel, Yucatán PeninsulaMéridakarenfranza

Aug 13, 2024 – Has the summer been hot where you are? It’s been plenty hot in Virginia. So why would two old people fly south to a place that’s even hotter? In August?

Jim was asked to speak at a conference in Mérida, and you know our motto: once you’ve paid the airfare, you may as well hang out a while and see what there is to see. So here we go!

The Yucatán is the ‘fishhook’ end of Mexico, a peninsula shared with Guatemala (where we’ve been), and Belize (where we’ve not been yet). Our first destination is Mérida, named fondly by the Spanish conquistadors after Mérida, Spain, where we’ve also been! Small world and getting smaller…

Although Jim booked our flight with only one stop in Atlanta, the airline canceled and shuffled us into an additional stop in Mexico City, Although we’d been to this airport before, it was a real challenge to get through Customs and find the gate for our connecting flight to Mérida. When we finally found the gate, passengers were already boarding. Whew!

We reached our destination in the early evening (Mexico is two hours behind eastern time), Knowing that there are no restaurants near our room, we stayed at the airport and had a lovely supper of Yucatán cuisine favorites.

Poc Chuc – thinly sliced pork marinated in orange juice, served red onions, tortillas, black beans and fresh salsa

Pachucos – shredded pork on corn tortillas – Jim pronounced the haberñero sauce sufficiently hot!

Fortified, we hit the ATM for some pesos (approximately 20 pesos to the US dollar), and arranged a taxi for the 20 minute drive to Hotelito Yum Kaax. We knew that it had rained earlier in the evening, but were surprised by the deep flooding on many of the roads. When we reached our address, the street was totally dark and we had to use my phone’s flashlight to manage the digital entrance code. We got into our room and had our fear confirmed- the electricity in the area was out and it was absolutely dark. And hot.

We brushed our teeth by phone-light and got into bed – what else could we do?

After about half an hour of lying absolutely still and trying not to sweat, the power came back on – hallelujah! So here we are in our air conditioned room with great wifi, and a little kitchen with a fridge containing two cans of welcome Mexican beer. Life is good!

Home to Mexico City and then to Home

March 17, 2018Mexico, TravelCaravaggio, Metro, Mexico City, Museo Nacional de Artekarenfranza

Mar 15 – A two hour bus ride took us from Puebla back to Mexico City, where we hopped onto the Metro, then walked back to our original B & B. Coming from this direction, I got a totally different feel for this city – we walked down a street that contained all music shops, and the music made me tap my feet and smile! Nicer shops, better restaurants, just a more affluent feel than my first impression, I guess.

What to do with just one day? For the first time in our entire trip, the sky was cloudy and threatening rain. We opted to explore the National Art Museum, where the weather would not affect us.

The first exhibit was of Mexican painter José Maria Vasquez. His landscapes reminded me very much of the famous Brooklyn artist Jeanette O’Keefe (also known as my grandma). AJ and MH, don’t you agree?

The museum advertised a special limited exhibit of Caravaggio, who was not Mexican, but still a very good painter.

We walked through several rooms of paintings by others who were inspired by Caravaggio, and then finally to the room where his painting, The Fortune Teller, was displayed. Dozens of art students huddled around it, taking notes. It was the only Caravaggio on site, and was one of his earliest works, showing a pretty young fortune teller smiling beguilingly at a handsome young man while she takes his palm and steals his ring.

We then walked through a multimedia video display of many other Caravaggios, showing his attention to light and shadow, and the detail he painted into every inch of his work. The paintings were displayed on the floor and walls, magnified so you could see every detail. Very impressive.

Some Mexican inspired sculptures:

Bacchus always has a good time!

Smart looking Jesus:

Funny looking Jesus:

Meanwhile, the sky opened, the thunder boomed and the rain poured down. The museum workers scurried about with squeegees and mops, drying the floors, as the museum is built around an open center courtyard that let in all the wet.

A good place to be on a soggy afternoon.

Mar 16 – Just to prove that you can’t step in the same river twice, we got a terrible room with no hot water at our previously beloved B&B. Oh well. The breakfast was still great!

A bus ride to the Aeropuerto, two on time flights, and we are home! Thank you, PB for picking us up at the airport. Tomorrow we will pick up our dog, and life will return to normal. Until next time!

Puebla – Pottery!

March 16, 2018Mexico, TravelPuebla, Talavera pottery, tileskarenfranza

Mar 14 – Now here is the reason Jim wanted us to go to Puebla. Whenever we are able, we purchase a decorative plate from whatever country we are in, to add to our colorful plate wall at home. Although we looked everywhere we stopped here in Mexico, we didn’t find decorative plates anywhere. Jim knew that Puebla was the home of world renowned Talavera pottery, famous not only for plates, but also for the tiles that adorn many of the buildings here.

The tiles reminded us of our time in Portugal.

We walked down to the Artists Quarter (Barrio de Artistes), and we found plates, cups, and pottery like crazy! Although we looked at the very beautiful and expensive Talavera pottery (in the first pic below), we settled for a regular ol’ colorful plate that will remind us of our time in Mexico.

So now we can go home…

Puebla

March 15, 2018Mexico, TravelBiblioteca Palafox, Cathedral, Convento de Santo Domingo, Pueblakarenfranza

Mar 13 – If you recall, we started this trip by flying down to Mexico City, then took a short flight all the way south to Huatulco, and have been working our way back north by bus. To break up the last long stretch from Oaxaca back to Mexico City, Jim added one more stop for us – the city of Puebla, a five hour bus ride from Oaxaca. This was a full sized, very comfy bus that showed movies as we traveled. We got to watch “Sing” in español, one of our grand girls favorite movies!

Puebla and Oaxaca have a friendly competition going on. They both claim to have invented molé, although Oaxaca has seven different colors, and Puebla is most proud of molé poblano. They tell similar stories of the poor nuns who had nothing to serve the bishop during his visit, so they scraped together bits of many spices, boiled the melange down and served it over an old turkey. The bishop loved it, and molé was born.

Puebla has beautiful architecture and many colorful buildings.

Puebla has the second largest cathedral in Mexico, second only to the one in Mexico City. To my little mind, this cathedral is so much prettier – lighter, brighter, shinier! The ceilings are particularly lovely.

Puebla is also the home of the Convento Santo Domingo. I particularly liked the main altar.

The Convento also contains the famous Rosary Chapel, or Capilla de Rosario. So much gold!

The first public library in Latin America is here, with over 5000 volumes donated by Bishop Palafox in 1646 with the mandate that the books be shared with the common people:

There is an interesting statue here. Do you prefer the front view or the rear view?

Want to know what else there is in Puebla? I’ll tell you tomorrow!

Oaxaca – Chocolate, Cheese and Churches

March 14, 2018Mexico, TravelBasilica de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, Cathedral, Oaxaca, Oaxacan cheese, Oaxacan chocolate, Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzman, Templo San Felipe de Nerikarenfranza

Mar 12 – One of the things Oaxaca is famous for is chocolate. It is the basis of molé sauce (which tastes much better here – I think I’m becoming accustomed to it), but is also sold in all its forms. Today we stopped at Mayordomo for a classic hot cocoa made with milk, which is what many folks here drink in the morning instead of coffee:

While we were waiting for the cocoa to come, we were served a dish of corn chips with molé negro (black). It turns out that molé comes in many colors:

On the menu of the chocolate shop was a list of postres (afters), which usually means dessert. Not knowing what any of them were, Jim picked one at random. We expected a cookie or a pastry, and instead we got…

…tortillas with molé and Oaxacan cheese! We have really enjoyed the cheese made here, which crumbles like feta, pulls like string cheese, melts like mozzarella, and is served on everything!

Oaxaca has several beautiful churches, a cathedral and a Basilica. We’ve been sampling them in between shopping, sightseeing and eating. Here are some highlights.

The Basilica of Our Lady of Solitude (la Nuestra Señora de Soledad), was built in the 1600s out of green cantera stone. It was built without tall spires to better withstand earthquakes:

El Templo de San Felipe Neri was our favorite, with old stenciled walls, old paintings, and San Felipe himself (I think) up on the altar:

Metropolitan Cathedral, built in the 1500s out of the same green stone was pretty on the outside, but dark inside:

Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzman used to be a monastery. The family tree of Santo Domingo is illustrated in gold on the ceiling:

We’ve really loved our time in Oaxaca, but it is time to move on. Where do you think we will go next?

Árbol del Tule

March 12, 2018Mexico, TravelÁrbol del Tule, Oaxaca, Santa Maria del Tulekarenfranza

Mar 11 – You are going to be so jealous when I tell you where we went today! El Árbol del Tule! What is that? Well, it’s not the tallest tree in the world (that would be the General Sherman, a sequoia in California), nor the oldest tree in the world (that would be the Great Basin bristlecone pine, also in California, over 5000 years old). No friends, today we visited the world’s stoutest tree! A really, really wide cypress tree, over 2000 years old!

A half hour’s bus ride from Oaxaca city, the little town of Santa Maria del Tule exists for the sole purpose of taking care of this tree! A lovely park surrounds the tree, with fountains and topiary animals.

For 10 pesos (50 cents), you can walk inside the gate and see the tree up close and personal. Folks say they see faces and animals in the tree’s bark. What do you see?

There is a pretty church here, unfortunately closed.

On the other side of the church is the Son of Tule, only a thousand years old. If the original tree ever kicks the bucket, the townspeople are prepared with a replacement!

A nun sells souvenirs:

There are some lovely metal sculptures here:

We spent a few hours wandering about, then found the bus to take us back to the city. A great way to spend a sunny Sunday!

More from Oaxaca – the Markets

March 11, 2018Mexico, Travelcervesa, markets mercados, Oaxaca, tétela, Zócalokarenfranza

Mar 9 – Oaxaca is known for textiles, but there is a lot of variety on offer from the local street markets. The central square is called the Zócalo.

Usually when we travel we are backpackers, so we do not shop for anything that would add weight to our packs. On this trip, we are tourists, and looking for presents for our grandchildren. We meandered through huge indoor markets. Do you think the kids would like some spicy fried insects?

How about some mezcal?

Maybe a hat?

Just kidding! Plenty of stuff to choose from!

There was one area called the Aisle of Meat, where hawkers entice you in with stall after stall of sliced raw meat. Point to what you want, and they grill and serve it to you right there! This was a very popular place at lunchtime.

As we walked back toward home, we noticed free drinks being passed out by a variety of shops and hotels. When we got back to our hotel, we asked the significance, and were told that today is the day that Oaxacans honor the Samaritan woman at the well who gave water to Jesus, by giving free drinks to strangers. I got fig juice, and Jim got something white that smelled of cinnamon. Thank you, Samaritan woman!

Today, as part of our menu al dia, we tried another Oaxacan food delight, the tétela, which is a corn tortilla filled with black beans (or other things), covered with salsa and Oaxacan cheese and served warm. Muy delicioso!

We have been experimenting with the different brands of Mexican beer that we don’t usually see in the US. Tonight we tried one called Sol, without reading the fine print… Aieee! Beer with lime, salt and hot sauce! Let’s not get that one again!

Monte Albán

March 10, 2018Mexico, TravelDanzantes, human sacrifice, Monte Alban, pyramids, ruins, temples, tombskarenfranza

Mar 8 – One of the many reasons to visit Oaxaca is its proximity to the ruins of Monte Albán, which was the largest city known in Mesoamerica, inhabited by up to 20,000 people, that thrived over a period from 500BCE to 1000CE. We took a taxi across town to catch the bus that drives up the mountain once an hour. You can explore at your leisure, then get back on a return bus when you’ve seen all there is to see.

Not much is known about the Zapotec and other peoples who used to live here, or why they abandoned their city. The site was known to archeologists in the 19th century, but excavation didn’t start until the 1930s. The work is still in progress:

The structures just looked like hills…

…until they started to dig and uncovered the bricks and stones beneath. This is the other side of the hill above:

Archaeologists have had a fine time guessing what the buildings were for, what type of religions may have been practiced, and the culture of the peoples who lived here. They uncovered monuments drawn with figures, called Danzantes, as the initial theory was that they depicted dancers due to their weird leg positions. Now the theory is that they represent captives being castrated and readied for sacrifice. What do you think?