Blogs :: Merida
I had my doubts when we were planning our little excursion to this city because of the potential that it be just a smaller version of Mexico City. The almighty Lonely Planet however touted that this place be a great place to spend a weekend because of the weekly festivals and street parties. We were once again not disappointed with the LP advice...
Every Saturday and Sunday there is a giant street festival in Merida, MX. Begining Saturday night the streets surrounding the Plaza Grande (the Zocalo) are closed off and the restaurants spill out into the streets so set up a unique dining experience complete with their own band and portable tables that make walking in these streets difficult at best. The hardest choice you have to make all night is possibly which combination of food and music best suits your personal tastes. There are Mariachi bands, 80's American rock cover bands, and local up and comers that cover anything up to and including Juanez. (that is a whole different blog) After walking up and down the numerous streets surrounding the Zocalo we settled on one with a mellow cover band, decent priced food, and a generous view of the the rest of the crowds around the square. I have never seen a city that the people seemed to enjoy themselves so much. They danced and sang until the wii hours of the night. It was fun and I was seriously impressed. I shouldn't have been cause on Sunday they out-did themselves with flair!
So Sunday was a lazy morning and consisted of us sleeping in for a few hours because we had heard that the fair started around ten in the morning. The ad hoc street party that had been set up the night before had overnight turned into a full blown festival to the greatest sense of the word. Street food was more than abundant and consisted of tacos, deep fried hot dogs (I know what you are thinking but they are actually really good!!!), fried bananas, Churros, corn with mayo, and just about anything else that you could fry, cook, or serve raw out of a cart. The street performers had come out in force and there was anything from talking trees to a Geisha that didn't talk at all. The clowns were picking on people in the square and drawing big crowds but nothing compared to the dancing displays that were going on nearby. I could have sat here all day and watched the displays if it weren't for the rain in the afternoon. There were traditional Mexican dances, traditional Mayan dances, belly dancers, hip hop, provocative attire dances, and age groups starting in the four to five year old category all the way to the 70+ year old and everything in between. It was truly interesting to see the traditional culture blended so seamlessly with the modern. Unfortunately the rain prevented me from having my camera the entire day (something that we are working on) but the pictures in the Merida album do have a good number of the street performers and the festival. If you ever make it to Mexico I highly recommend giving up the Cancun resort for a weekend and spending it submersed in the culture of a truly Mexican city that embraces culture like nowhere else I have seen thus far.
Lonely Planet, Merida, festivals, Mexico
Posted By:
Jason
10/15/2008