Treasures of the Yucatan
Day Four – 28 March 2015
Weather: Cloudy, 29
I don’t even want to think what the temperature would have been with the sun out.
I was up a bit early again today and had my luggage out and was down to breakfast by 7. We were on the bus at 8 am and myself and my seatmate were due to sit in the front seat. Neither one of us wanted it so we traded off with the father and daughter who are behind us in the rotation. Since it moves by three seats, they were scheduled to skip it, so they got it and we took the second row.
And we enjoyed being able to stretch out legs out.
The first half of the day is spent doing a city tour of Merida. The city is known as the White City and is the capital of the Mexican state of Yucatan. It gets the name White City due to the use of white limestone in many of its buildings. The population is about 1 million people and it’s the 12th most populous city in Mexico.
The city was founded in 1542 by Francisco de Montejo y León and built on top of the Mayan city known as T’ho or the City of the Five Hills. With the arrival of the Spanish, the city’s five pyramids were destroyed and much of the old Mayan stone can be seen in the Spanish buildings including the Cathedral de San Ildefonso which was completed in 1598, making it the oldest cathedral on the North American continent (on the mainland. There is an older one in the Dominican Republic). 
First stop is at the Homeland Monument or Monumento a la Patria. It’s located on a roundabout along the historic Paseo de Montejo. It was sculpted by Romulo Rozo and finished in 1951.
It has 31 columns representing the states and districts of Mexico and the sculpt follows the history of Mexico and includes a statue representative of the flag with the eagle eating a snake on a cactus. 
The story behind the flag is that when the Aztec moved south, they had a belief that they should build a temple if they see an eagle eating a snake on top of a cactus. As they entered central Mexico, they reportedly saw this on Lake Texcoco and set about building a city on that location. It would later be conquered by the Spanish and reduced to rubble. The ruins lie within what is now Mexico City.
Francisco used this location to take our group photo. We all sat on the steps and Francisco gave his ipad to the driver who crouched in the street with the cars zooming around him.
A couple times we were expecting a sacrifice. (He was safer than the picture insinuates…LOL)
We had 10 minutes to check out the monument and then gathered to cross the street when a motorcycle cop pulled up and stopped the traffic for us. After that, some wanted a pic sitting on his motorcycle. 
They didn’t tip him. They didn’t want anything to be misinterpreted. LOL
From here we drove down the Paseo de Montejo. This was a street built by the rich owners of the haciendas there. They were making their money from the “green gold” or henequen industry. They wanted to emulate the French and built it to look like the Champs d’Elysee. 
Today, the haciendas are either homes, museums or owned by the banks (who have branches on the properties).
From here we headed to the main plaza in the centre of Merida. Here there are three historic buildings. The first is the Casa Montejo. The palace was built between 1542 and 1549 by Francisco de Montejo the Younger who was the son of the man who conquered the Yucatan, Adelantado Montejo. It is one of the very few examples of the Renaissance style of architecture called Plateresque on the North American continent. This Spanish style drew on several sources, from late Gothic to Renaissance to Moorish.
It maintains that façade today and it contains a myriad of detailed carvings on two tiers showing the conquerors, the conquered as well as the home owners, cherubs, monsters, demons and more.
It remained in the Montejo family until 1970 and today houses a museum and a bank.
The second is the Palacio del Gobierno which is the home of the state of Yucatan’s executive government built in 1892.
Inside are a series of large murals painted by Fernando Castro Pacheco which were completed in 1978. 
It took him 25 years to finish and show the symbolic history of the Maya and their dealings with the Spanish. Pacheco died in 2013 at the age of 95.
The third is the Merida Cathedral or Cathedral de San Ildefonso. The crucifix behind the altar is called Cristo de la Unidad (Christ of Unity) and is a symbol of reconciliation between the Spanish and Maya. Since it was the holy week, the cross was covered. 
A small chapel in the cathedral contains the most important religious artifact in Merida – a statue called Cristo de las Ampollas (Christ of the Blisters). It was also covered. It was moved there in 1645 after surviving the burning of the church in Ichmul in which the artifact was blistered but not damaged. Legend has it the statue was built from a tree that was hit by lightning and burned all night without charring. Much of the cathedral’s interior was stripped by angry locals during the Mexican Revolution in 1915 and the statue that is there today is a replica.
Francisco gave us the tour of the three buildings and we were done by 9:30. Then he said we had free time.
Until 1 pm.
LOL. It’s not often I’d say we got too much free time, but I think this could be cut down by about an hour. He offered to take us on a walk to the vegetable market and half the group went along for the walk. 
At this point, the sunscreen I had put on early had dripped into my right eye and it was burning. It made it hard to see and keep my balance and I’m not sure how I made the whole walk….let alone stop long enough to take pics. 
When we got back to the Plaza at 10:30, I went to the washroom and washed all the sunscreen off my face and drowned the eye. Took a while but it cleared up. (I read the bottle and sure enough it said not to get it in the eyes…so no more covering forehead with it…after all, I am wearing a hat).
With 2 ½ hours to kill, I walked around the plaza and down the side streets, dropping into shops and then had lunch at Burger King. The Plaza had free wifi as well.
We met up with Francisco and everyone was aboard by 1 pm for the drive to Campeche. It’s divided highway all the way and we make the trip in 2 hours. We pull into the Plaza Campeche and Francisco gives us an hour to freshen up before he does the orientation walk of the old part of the city.
Campeche was founded in 1540 and built on the location of the Maya city of Ah Can Pech which means place of snakes and ticks. Little trace of the original city remains. The city was repeatedly attacked by pirates and marauders and this forced the construction of fortifications starting in 1686. The fortifications worked so well, the city became a principle port and its defence system was considered one of the best in the Western Hemisphere. It is the only walled city in Mexico.
Much of the original fortifications and Spanish structures remain intact and in 1999 the old city was declared a UNESCO World heritage site. UNESCO cited that the city is “a model of the city planning of a baroque colonial city. More than 1,000 buildings of historical value have survived as witness of how space and time were superimposed in the various important historical states in Mexico since the 16th century.”
The declaration has spurred the restoration of many of Campeche’s architectural treasures. In the late 90s, over 1600 facades were completely restored and the waterfront was restored in 2000.
The city now has a population of over 250,000.
We walk along the street Calle 10 and make a stop into the cathedral. It was built in 1705 but didn’t reach its current size until the 19th Century. 
We stop inside where a group of kids are being indoctrinated about the bible. 
Outside, we continue down the street to see one section of the wall. Most of the wall is gone but several sections remain and have small museums or in one case, a botanical garden, inside. One can walk the top of the sections but it closes at 5 pm. 
I’m 15 minutes too late.
To protect the city, the walled area only had two gates. One facing the sea and one facing inland. 
Francisco finishes off the walking tour and pointed out different restaurants before we all go our separate ways. I walk down to get a pic of the inland gate. 
Then I make my way back to the cathedral, check out a couple shops and head back to the hotel before it gets dark. I spend the night sorting photos and writng up this tale while I try to stretch out my sore thighs.
Apparently, there’s more climbing tomorrow!
Go to Day Five
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