Archive for May 19th, 2010
Merida’s Rich History Is Worth The Trip
May 19th, 2010
Merida’s Rich History is Worth the Trip
Merida is an ancient colonial city and the capital of the Yucatan state located to the west of Quintana Roo, abundant with historical churches, architecturally distinctive buildings, scrumptious flavors, music, night life, shopping and more. Every night, the Historic Center hosts conventional folk dancers, right in front of City Hall, dancing to live music, in traditional costume. On Sunday nights, salsa and cumbia dance liven up the streets. Restaurants and street vendors are plentiful, as is the shopping. Staying near the Main Square is recommended.
My wife and I had the delight of staying at Casa Mexilio, in Merida, over the first weekend in August, 2009 and it was one of the most distinctive places we have ever stayed. Located next to the town center, about 4 blocks from the main square, you’ll find Casa Mexilio squeezed in amongst residences and businesses along one of the typically urban sections of Merida. All of the buildings in this portion of town have no spaces between them and the only manner to quickly separate where one ends and the next one begins is the variation in color. Each block is consequently full in distinctive colors and personal distinguishable window boxes, signs, benches, and the like.
The main entry to Casa Mexilio, a Merida hotel, is relatively non-descript, with a few metal gates fronting wooden doors right on the street. Don’t be fooled by the lack of ordainment outside this exceptional small inn. When inside, the hotel is more museum than hotel with vintage furnishings, artifacts, books and pictures throughout. It genuinely is akin to stepping back in time. The lodge is a transformed home dating back to the late 19th century and is detailed of its personal intriguing history as are the structures and city of Merida that surround it.
The main courtyard of the hotel is situated directly behind the front desk and service locale where you will find a luxuriant garden and “grotto” like pool with a Jacuzzi. It always stays pleasant and cool due to the shade of the gardens and sheltered location, a splendid place to cool off anytime and very romantic. We went for a swim to cool off before bed one night and the burning smell of copal was a nice affect (this is a indigenous herb and incense renowned for its cleansing properties). This area with the trees and plants almost reminds you of being in a jungle cenote apart from there are stairs and balconies virtually everywhere you glance. There is even an elevated catwalk that connects one of the top sections of the lodge. Here are patios, landings and obscure garden nooks everywhere; the place begs to be explored.
Our room was wonderful with very high ceilings and very clean with a comfortable king sized bed, added pillows, ceiling fan and AC, though we only used the AC for a few hours at night, the ceiling fan was fantastic for air circulation. The furniture, like everything else we saw while we were there were vintage, antique couches, chairs, dressers, bed and wardrobes, really nice touches. Our room also had eclectic tiled floors. I truthfully don’t know the actual name of our room, but each one has its own unique charm with similar furnishings from what we could see, one of the nicest Merida hotels available.
Our only disappointment was missing a great breakfast! We got up awfully early…too early for breakfast seemingly as we looked around and didn’t see anyone (this was around 7am) so we walked a few blocks to one of the local cafes. Upon our return to the inn one of the waiters stopped by our room wanting to know if we wanted breakfast. We’ll positively catch that on our next visit! We will be back to Merida in pursuit of other attractive sites, sounds and flavors and recommend this hotel to anyone, as it is truly a magical place.