Day 28: Campeche - Mérida
At the end of the afternoon we took the bus to the city of Mérida, the capital of the state of Yucatán. What a difference that was! Although Mérida has a colonial centre as wel, but for the rest it is a big, busy, dirty, noisy, ugly city. Lots of traffic, lots of garbage in the streets and tons of people in the street. To make the contrast with Campeche complete we found a hotel for next to nothing and our bedroom was ballroom sized and immaculately clean, with two splendid comfortable beds.
When we arrived in Mérida it was already dark, but we went for a stroll into the city anyway. Our hotel was two blocks from the zócalo, the main square where everything seems to happen and the obligatory cathedral next to it.
As is mostly the case with Mexican cities, the square was really nice, with lots of shady trees and (still!!) Christmas decorations.
But apart from the square Mérida is just like Mexico City without the interesting sightes. Dirty, busy, awful and not worth to stay any longer than necessary.
As we were sitting on a bench in the main square Robbel justly remarked that all Mexican cities look alike. Every city has ugly suburbs, a colonial centre, and in that centre a cathedral with in front of that the square where everything seems to happen. And those squares are always surrounded by museums or city halls, which are adorned with balconies, galleries and pillars. And then there's the shops, the souvenirs, street merchants, shoe shine boys... and all those squares look alike after a while as well.
In a few day's time we will be in Belize. I really look forward to seeing what it's like over there!
