Time in Mérida

The grand finale of my many trips around Mexico was a weeklong trip to the Yucatan Peninsula with two of my friends, both named Anna and my mexican boyfriend Joselo. My friend Paige lived and studied in Mérida last semester and she inspired me to make the long hike down to the tip of Mexico and it was worth the 17 long hours in the bus. We finished our last exams and papers of semester, went to our program's goodbye party, said goodbye to friends and headed off to the heat and the beach. After attempting to sleep on the bus and watching bad movies, we finally reached our first destination- the city of Merida. We stepped off the bus and immediately started sweating like crazy because it was so hot. However, we were very grateful that we had booked a hostel that had a swimming pool! We arrived at what was our cheapest and favorite hostel in Mexico where we stayed in boys and girls dormitories with fans and were provided with free internet, breakfast, pool, hammocks and salsa lesson! Although the heat was unbearable during the day (we spent most of it in the cold art museum and the pool), it cooled off at night and we got to explore the city a little bit. The huge Zocalo was filled with people and food venders and I ate a huge, delicious tamale (cooked corn meal wrapped in corn husk) and churros (stick of friend sweat bread). The next morning, we headed out to see the famous flamingos on the tip of the yucatan. After taking 3 buses, we finally arrived at the reserve which was in the midst of many private estates and discovered much to our dismay that it was not flamingo season. With a sigh, we climbed the watch tower to see the beautiful view and then posed as flamingos, because we figured it was the second best thing to seeing the real thing. The good news was that Progreso, a large public beach, was not far away, so we headed to the market for some amazing mega-tacos and then to our first day at the beach, slathered with sunscreen! That evening, we joined in the hostel's free salsa class with our fellow travelers which were from everywhere from South Africa to Brazil. Despite the fact that salsa is no easy business, by the end of the night, Joselo was leading me around the dance floor and everyone was having a blast! Joselo then took me out to a lovely restaurant and the Annas went out to eat with our new german friend that we met at the hostel. Our time in Merida came to a close, and we were sorry to leave our lovely hostel and a vibrant city that slept during the day and came alive at night.

The pool at our hostel where we spent most of our afternoons- laying in the hammocks and cooling off in the water.