Merida

Some thoughts (but mostly pics) about Merida.

Travelling to Mexico having spent over 3 months in Guatemala was an enlightening experience. It was clear to me that Mexico (or at least Merida) is doing much better economically than Gautemala—there is a flourishing middle class, a lively arts scene, and relative personal safety. And while Merida enjoys the fruits of tourism, it is also not entirely dependent on it, and much of the city's cultural happenings are for locals.

In terms of size, Merida is a happy medium between town and city. It is hot, busy, bustling, and friendly. The baking days yield to gorgeous warm nights in which the whole town seems to be out in the main square.

Wandering around the commercial areas, watching the locals going from shop to shop, I was struck by how 1950s the place felt. It may have been my imagination, but it almost felt like a nostalgic recreation, with shopkeepers selling locally-made shirts and shoes to women in dresses and high heels. We bought ice creams from a shop on the main square, sipped coffees in a coffee shop with waiters and old men chatting at wood tables. We frequented a vegetarian restaurant where the waiters got to know us and one asked me for advice on going to school in Toronto.

Merida isn't necessarily the most picturesque place in the world, but it has a real charm that I haven't found elsewhere.

The city where cars go to die

Something that's struck me here is the proliferation of half-buried car parts on street corners—mostly axles, but also camshafts and other parts that I can't really identify.

I thought that they were to protect pedestrians from corner-cutting cars, but I've been told that they are actually there to protect the buildings (!).

The poetic part of me sees them as the bones of long-dead vehicles, sticking out of the ground as if the city were built on a vehicle burial ground.

Piñata

Sam went to his first Piñata today. He had cake, chuchitos, sucked on a lollypop for two seconds, ate and crushed some chips and ran around like a maniac with all the other little kids.

When it came to hitting the Piñata he was a bit more hesitant.

Chatty Kid, Part 2

Tonight we were out for a meal, and Sam was getting antsy so he & I stepped outside for a breather.

Crawling across a ledge was a MASSIVE cockroach. How massive was it? When Sam saw it, he did the baby sign for "bird".

Now THAT'S large-scale vermin!

Beware the Burning Squash

There is a funny squash-like veggie down here called a chayote—it looks like an avacado-shaped butternut squash, and tastes a little like, well, squash. I was preparing one for a stew a while back when Gaby warned me "be careful handling that. It will burn your hands. You have to cut off the top & rub it until it froths."

"You're full of it, woman" I replied. "Vegetables don't burn your fingers. And if it did, frothing the end wouldn't do a thing."

Well, I don't know if it was a "burn" exactly, but I have to admit that after cutting it with a knife and handling it, my fingers turned green, went numb and the skin felt stiff. Like a chemical burn, anyway. It was very uncomfortable for about a day.

Gaby, of course, laughed at me the whole time, stopping only to waggle a curved index finger at me and say "I told you so!"

Shouldn't they put warning labels on those things?

Sam's Trip to Mexico

What Sam most enjoyed about Mexico was the pool at the hotel. Having just learned to say "agua" (water), Sam relished screaming out agua! each time we were near the pool.

Hey, chica

Sam did not enjoy the heat. (Pat's note—the heat topped up at 42°C during our stay.) We dressed him up in a cool Guayabera (a cotton pleated and embroidered dress shirt that is popular in the area) but that did not seem to help much at all.

Sam seemed to have also been quite unhappy with his parents' interest in nice restaurant meals and leisurely capuccinos. He has developed a rather annoying (but effective) strategy of using his full lung potential express his dissatisfaction.

In Mexico, despite himself, Sam made a friend. The young daughter of a friend became our companion for some pool, beach, and out-of-city outings. Sam was very jealous at first that anyone other than himself should get any attention, but after a couple of days he squealed with upset anytime she left.

One of Sam's biggest highlights of the trip was his realization that he was riding on a plane. Currently focused on any means of transportation that rolls, Sam was very excited to figure out that he was actually on a plane—and would stretch out his arms to make the baby sign for "plane" until he became red (for some reason, making the plane sign also means that he doesn't breathe).

The Yellow City

This week, Gaby presented at an Anthropology conference in Mérida, which is the largest Mexican city in the Yucatán peninsula. We also happen to really like it, so it became a vacation and Sam & I went along for the ride.

I'll talk about Merida some other time (and I did! See this post on Merida)—in the meantime, let me tell you about the nearby town of Izamal, one of the strangest, most fascinating places I've seen. Izamal is nicknamed "the Yellow City", for reasons made apparent by the picture below:


Yes, the whole downtown is yellow. Paint sale at Glidden? A city council elected on a pro-obsessive-compulsive platform? Yellow rain? A promotion for Sunlight dishwashing liquid? (hey—Barbie did pink in the UK)

Don't ask me—I have no idea.

Here are some more shots (click through for full-size):

Smack in the middle of town is a massive monestary, built on top of (and from the stones of) a former Mayan temple. It is a stunning piece of architecture that was started in 1533—some mere 40 years after Columbus.


Embedded in the town's low horizon are huge lumpy hills—in fact, pre-columbian Mayan pyramids. Unlike most other sites, where you ride a bus for an hour into the jungle or countryside, these temples are actually encorporated into the town, surrounded by houses.

Despite being more or less between tourist-ridden Mérida and Chichen Itzá, Izamal is largely ignored by the hoards—which gives the town a slightly spooky quiet. Combining that with the colour scheme and the architectural features, I found it a fascinating, slightly surreal place. Well worth the visit!

I have a few more shots up on Flickr, if you're interested.

Doesn't look good for us

Some of you may recall the previous posting on the Huelga de Dolores, in which Canada was being protested for its mining practices in Guatemala. Well, things are turning ugly around this issue—particularly in the town of Sololá, through which the Renee/Cyp/Gab/Sam/Pat contingent passed several times en route to Panajachel.

As far as I can tell, a Canadian company called "Glamis Gold" wants to set up a mine with a purification process that involves large amounts of cyanide. Being an agricultural area, the local (mostly Mayan) residents worry about the environmental impact. There have been protests.

Source: Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network

Here's where it gets ugly: anti-mine protestors have been killed, and others threatened. A car bomb exploded. Amnesty International has put out an "urgent action" calling for protection of the threatened protestors. The company in turn has claimed that it too has recieved threats.

There is alot of history to this: the CIA installed the government that resulted in the 36-year civil war that left 200,000 dead or missing in order to protect the interests of a foreign company—in that case, the American United Fruit Company. The area around lake Atitlán (where Sololá is located) experienced some of the worst repression during this time (in the form of massacres and disappearances, among other things). A violent conflict involving assassinations and foreign corporate interests could dredge up a lot of ugliness.

I've only read a few articles on this, so I'm in no position to pass sweeping judgement. However, the initial reports are not making the Canadian company look good, and when those who question foreign interests start getting killed, it really becomes a cause for concern.

Here are some articles I've found:

• Critical backgrounder from "Mining Watch", a mining watchdog group. Links to more resources
• CBC Article
• AOL Finance article
• The Amnesty International call for Urgent Action