Back down to earth with a bump! Quite literally - our AeroMexico flight from La Habana bumped down at Cancun International late on the 28th and we checked in at the Comfort Inn just outside the Airport and nowhere near the sunny Caribbean Sea! Great time with George & Albert! Great time in Cuba for a week! Now back to the Pan American Highway and 10,078 km of road from here to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska!!
Pinch, punch, first of the month - exactly half way through our Grown-up Gap Year Adventure - today we're off 303 km west to Merida - vibrant capital of Yucatan State with a rich Mayan and Colonial history. Rare result from booking.com plus an unexpected Hotel upgrade sees us hanging our hats at Hacienda Merida VIP Hotel - photos tell it all! Wow!
Touristy town Merida. Not quite as Rick Stein portrays it on his 'Road to Mexico' prog.
Lovely Plaza Grande (Main Square) - probably very peaceful and relaxing as a meeting place for the local population - although nobody sat there for the two days we were in town thanks to a very vocal political protest complete with 'white noise' played through giant speakers pointed at the Council Offices in one corner of the Plaza (a technique first used by the US Army when they invaded Panama in 1989 and captured General Manuel Noriega).
Casa de Montejo on the south side of the Plaza was built in 1549 as a barracks for the Spanish invaders. Carved into the facade of the historic stone building are two enormous 'triumphant' Spanish Conquistadors with Halberds (long two handed spear like axes) standing on the severed heads of several Mayans!
Nice hey!? If I was of Mayan descent I'd be up a ladder with my hammer and chisel smashing those obscenities off the wall!
Casa de Montejo is now a Bank and a Museum where tourists can buy postcard images of the vile Conquistadors to send home to Friends & Family!!!
