We’re ten months into making our way around Mexico by motorhome and find ourselves 5,500 road miles from our starting point.
We’ve decided that the Yucatan Peninsula will likely be the farthest we’ll go on this journey, but aren’t ruling out an overland trip farther south into Central America in the future, perhaps with a different vehicle purpose-built for that sort of thing.
We love our 25-foot Class C, and it really shines when we can find cheap RV parks with full hookups. In North and Central America, that basically means Mexico. Farther south, we’d need a smaller rig that can handle off-grid for longer periods of time.
We’ve already started to encounter this issue in the Yucatan, where RV parks are few and far between (and many are ridiculously expensive). Luckily, we’ve found at least one good bet outside of Merida.
Still, we’ve been wanting to explore more of the Yucatan with the boys, so it seemed liked a perfect opportunity to leave the RV behind for a while and explore the region by bus and train for 3-4 weeks in the month of January.
The top destinations are all well-connected by intercity buses, and the recently-completed Maya Train loop now offers another way of getting around the peninsula.
Our first stop on our Yucatan Peninsula backpacking trip is the Yucatan capital and UNESCO-designated city of Merida, a city of around two million.
Happy faces at the Merida-Teya Rail Station as we set off to the big city. We’re not here to take the train today, however. It just happens to be the best place in these parts to grab an Uber into the city center.
Our condo for the week doesn’t look like much from the outside. But it’s one block off from the main boulevard—Paseo Montejo—and is a pretty nice unit.
Upon arrival, Noe goes straight to work—as he always does—making his space his own.
A block away is this crazy looking place. I initially thought it was a mosque, but it’s the former residence of a wealthy Merida family, now turned swanky restaurant, Yerba Santa.
One of Noe’s favorite pastimes recently is checking out the menus at expensive restaurants—mainly to find the most expensive dish on the menu to see if he can break his previous record. I think he’s up to around 3,000 MXN (~US$150) for a rancher’s plate.
These unique concrete chairs are scattered throughout the city and seem to be something of a Merida trademark.
The sign, above, says it all.
Day and night, old-fashioned horse and carriages ferry tourists up and down the length of Paseo Montejo.
Along the Paseo, we stumbled upon Galerías el Triunfo, one of the weirdest and most interesting stores we’ve been into in a long time.
I thought this hat would be a perfect driving hat for the RV, but at nearly US$40 I had to pass, sadly. That didn’t stop Riley from giving it a go.
We had no idea that Merida would be jam-packed with old mansions like this one. Most of them are now owned by various banks, but some of them have been converted into museums. A few even continue to be the residences of the descendants of the original owners.
In that respect, Merida is a little bit different than most of the other UNESCO-designated cities we’ve explored in Mexico. Rather than offering a striking historic center that transports you back to another time like San Miguel de Allende or San Cristobal de las Casas, Merida’s historic buildings are scattered across the city.
Fortunately, there are a number of ways of touring the sights of Merida, from horse and carriage rides and rickety old tour trolleys, to renting a bike.
And on certain days and evenings, the city closes Paseo Montejo and various companies offer an eclectic variety of pedal-powered transport to rent.
One of the first attractions we visited in Merida was one of its most famous: Museo Casa Montejo, located right off the Plaza Principal.
As you may have guessed by now, the Montejo family held just a bit of clout here, going back to its founder, the Spanish conquistador Francisco de Montejo.
The city was founded in 1542 by Montejo and friends on the site of the Mayan city of Ti’ho. In the Spanish fashion of the time, the stones used to build Merida’s earliest buildings were taken straight from the pyramids of Ti’ho, which was already in ruins by this time.
The House of Montejo used to cover an entire city block but has shrunk considerably over the past five hundred years. These days, it’s owned by the Bank of Mexico and is open to the public.
In addition to sightseeing, we also had a few errands to run during our time in the Big City. Topping the list, getting Riley’s flip-flops repaired. It was surprisingly challenging finding a calzado in Merida, until we figured out they were all hiding out in the central market.
We’ve been to more Latin American markets than we can count over the years, but the collection of markets southeast of the Plaza Central surprised us, evoking memories of market complexes in Southeast Asia where you can get just about anything you need.
Half the Mercado Lucas de Galvez were actively making their various wares or repairing somebody else’s. The boys loved it.
As good as new! Well, not quite, but now Riley’s got a functional backup pair.
“Birria” flavored Cup of Noodles.
Noe longed for someone besides Dear ‘ol Dad to place chess with. So…Riley found Noe’s chess app on the iPad and taught himself one day. Noe and I were surprised how well he could play, especially for a self-taught six-year-old. We have a travel board in the RV, but they still get excited whenever we happen upon a set at a coffee shop or bar.
Lots of impressive estates scattered throughout the city, most of which were built during the Henequen boom in the early 1900s. Many have been well-preserved (above), while many others have fallen into ruin (below).
But Merida is also known for a number of modern projects, including the electric buses that ply its streets, huge La Plancha Park, and several malls and shopping centers.
One of the more striking shopping complexes—Paseo 60—was just around the corner from our condo. There’s a taproom there so we thought we’d check it out.
The boys’ go-to activity during such times has been Pokemon UNO. Lori promised to bring our UNO cards but forgot to pack them. Fortunately, in our first day in the city she happened upon a pack of Pokemon UNO in a small shop. The boys were quick to forgive.
Midway through the week, we took a long walk north to have brunch at an interesting sounding coffee shop. Along the way, we passed Merida’s famous Monumento de la Patria (Homeland Monument).
A while later, we arrived at Manifesto Barra Cold Brew, located in a very cool Midcentury Modern house surrounded by Asian-inspired gardens. The food was excellent, but the star of the show was the Nitro Cold Brew, a rarity in Mexico.
After brunch, it was then on to Gran Parque La Plancha. We received several recommendations to go here, and it’s not hard to see why. This is one heck of a park—one of the nicest I’ve seen anywhere for a very long time.
The park was opened just over a year ago but the 55-acre grounds were originally developed as the city’s original rail hub in the late 19th century. Today, this amazing park is home to a large central lake, 3,000 trees, a Gastro Market, sports fields, EIGHT playgrounds, nature trails and more.
But the centerpiece of the park might just be the Yucatan Railroad Museum containing 25 restored locomotives and rail cars, starting with the ticket booth.
A few more “Big City” errands. Dental checkups!
Noe still loves going to the dentist, even after having had his fair share of being poked and prodded. Riley, still remains skeptical, though Pokemon on TV in the waiting room seemed to help win him over.
One rainy evening, we poked around one of Merida’s malls and the boys got their first ever taste of Krispy Kreme donuts.
While there, we picked up a few odds and ends at the supermarket. I did not expect to find pony kegs of English ale and lager.
Merida’s Centro Historico is ringed by several roads of colorful houses.
Another one of Merida’s top draws is this old governor’s mansion, now converted into the Regional Museum of Anthropology. Noe had been looking forward to this for most of the week leading up to our visit. Once inside, he was especially taken by the marble work, of which there is much.
We couldn’t leave Merida without doing a Gua-Gua bus tour of the city’s landmarks. Admittedly, we had covered most of them by now. Still, the ride itself on these old buses was worth it.
Later in the week, We continued Lori’s birthday celebration (started back at the RV Park earlier in the month) at the very worthwhile Museo de la Gastronomía Yucateca.
Tomorrow, we’ll head to the nearby beach town of Progreso, then return to Merida for a few more days before heading on to the next stop.
