After spending a night in Cancun, I boarded the bus to Merida. Not sure exactly what my purpose was, but it seemed like a popular spot along the Mexico backpacker route.
I found a cute, traditional hostel at the plaza with the only downside being that the female dorm rooms were located right in front of the female bathrooms. The result being that there was high traffic always passing through the rooms. Only one night, I can deal.
I spent the first day exploring the city centre.
The usual fanfare of churches, markets, and museums.
Merida’s anthropology museum was one of the best museums I’ve ever been to. Especially considering the many Mayan ruins I’ve seen in the past few weeks, and more that’s to come. Lots of information, yet not overwhelming. Small enough to be enjoyable : )
Around the plaza, there were numerous stalls and boutiques selling souvenirs. Did you know that Merida is hammock capital?! I would’ve loved to buy one. My dream pastime would be to curl up on a hammock with a good book. BUT…hammocks are big and heavy. There’s no way I’d be able to carry it around with me for the duration of my trip (although I’ve met people who do!), and probably not a really cost-effective item to send home either. Plus, I’m sure I can find one at some store like Target if I ever decide to purchase one.
It doesn’t take much time to check out the city. By late afternoon, I was getting slightly bored…
There were a couple of famous cenotes (underground water pools) around Merida that I thought I might want to see, but getting there proved too time-consuming. Forget it.
Instead, I decided to be lazy at the hostel and read (albeit on a sofa, not hammock).
At night, I went back out to the plaza with my Swiss dorm mate to bask in the festival-like atmosphere. Lots of food stalls (cheap, delicious tacos!) and a street show. I guess it was comical (everyone laughing), but I didn’t get it at all – the show was in Spanish.
The following day, I got on the La Ruta Puuc bus. Each morning, there’s one bus that takes you around several Mayan ruins around Merida, culminating in Uxmal.
To be honest, I wasn’t familiar with the ruins here. I’ve heard of Palenque, Chichen Itza, and Teotihuacan, all Mayan ruins in Mexico. But nothing on the Ruta Puuc, which included Kabah, Sayil, Xlapak, Labna, and Uxmal.
The bus takes you to all of these places. With so much to see in one day, you only get about 30 minutes in each of the first 4 stops. Rush, rush, rush!!!
In a sense, they all looked similar. But interesting and eye pleasing nonetheless! Compared to the ruins I’d seen in Honduras and Guatemala, these were shorter in height, more colourful (reddish tint), and had a lot of circular themes. Reminded me of building blocks.
These sites were quite small as well, but with the bus stop being a bit aways and with me wanting to see everything, I was running around the whole entire time. Needless to say, I was very exhausted by the time I got to the final stop of Uxmal. Seriously, by then, staying in the nicely air conditioned bus was more appealing than getting off to explore more ruins.
But I did get off and paid the 108 pesos admission. That’s 3x what I’ve been paying for the earlier ruins. Waru thinks, This place MUST be good.
TOTALLY. I wasn’t disappointed at all.
As soon as I saw the elliptical (yes, the base is elliptical!) pyramid, my energy level shot up. How awesome!!!
And all the details that are put into the buildings around the courtyard. Wow! 
Can you tell that I loved this place???
The place is huge, and 2 hours was barely enough to check out all the different architecture. I wish I had more time… Most people seem to skip the other ruins and head directly to Uxmal (lots of buses from Merida). I could definitely spend an entire day here, but at the same time, I’m glad I got to glimpse the other ones along the Ruta Puuc as well.
I admit 5 ruins in 1 day is ruins overload. I can’t believe that I booked myself on an overnight bus to Palenque tonight. Yes, more ruins… What am I doing?!?!?!
I found a cute, traditional hostel at the plaza with the only downside being that the female dorm rooms were located right in front of the female bathrooms. The result being that there was high traffic always passing through the rooms. Only one night, I can deal.
I spent the first day exploring the city centre.
The usual fanfare of churches, markets, and museums.Merida’s anthropology museum was one of the best museums I’ve ever been to. Especially considering the many Mayan ruins I’ve seen in the past few weeks, and more that’s to come. Lots of information, yet not overwhelming. Small enough to be enjoyable : )
Around the plaza, there were numerous stalls and boutiques selling souvenirs. Did you know that Merida is hammock capital?! I would’ve loved to buy one. My dream pastime would be to curl up on a hammock with a good book. BUT…hammocks are big and heavy. There’s no way I’d be able to carry it around with me for the duration of my trip (although I’ve met people who do!), and probably not a really cost-effective item to send home either. Plus, I’m sure I can find one at some store like Target if I ever decide to purchase one.
It doesn’t take much time to check out the city. By late afternoon, I was getting slightly bored…
There were a couple of famous cenotes (underground water pools) around Merida that I thought I might want to see, but getting there proved too time-consuming. Forget it.
Instead, I decided to be lazy at the hostel and read (albeit on a sofa, not hammock).
At night, I went back out to the plaza with my Swiss dorm mate to bask in the festival-like atmosphere. Lots of food stalls (cheap, delicious tacos!) and a street show. I guess it was comical (everyone laughing), but I didn’t get it at all – the show was in Spanish.
The following day, I got on the La Ruta Puuc bus. Each morning, there’s one bus that takes you around several Mayan ruins around Merida, culminating in Uxmal.
To be honest, I wasn’t familiar with the ruins here. I’ve heard of Palenque, Chichen Itza, and Teotihuacan, all Mayan ruins in Mexico. But nothing on the Ruta Puuc, which included Kabah, Sayil, Xlapak, Labna, and Uxmal.
The bus takes you to all of these places. With so much to see in one day, you only get about 30 minutes in each of the first 4 stops. Rush, rush, rush!!!
In a sense, they all looked similar. But interesting and eye pleasing nonetheless! Compared to the ruins I’d seen in Honduras and Guatemala, these were shorter in height, more colourful (reddish tint), and had a lot of circular themes. Reminded me of building blocks.
These sites were quite small as well, but with the bus stop being a bit aways and with me wanting to see everything, I was running around the whole entire time. Needless to say, I was very exhausted by the time I got to the final stop of Uxmal. Seriously, by then, staying in the nicely air conditioned bus was more appealing than getting off to explore more ruins.But I did get off and paid the 108 pesos admission. That’s 3x what I’ve been paying for the earlier ruins. Waru thinks, This place MUST be good.
TOTALLY. I wasn’t disappointed at all.
As soon as I saw the elliptical (yes, the base is elliptical!) pyramid, my energy level shot up. How awesome!!!
And all the details that are put into the buildings around the courtyard. Wow! Can you tell that I loved this place???The place is huge, and 2 hours was barely enough to check out all the different architecture. I wish I had more time… Most people seem to skip the other ruins and head directly to Uxmal (lots of buses from Merida). I could definitely spend an entire day here, but at the same time, I’m glad I got to glimpse the other ones along the Ruta Puuc as well.
I admit 5 ruins in 1 day is ruins overload. I can’t believe that I booked myself on an overnight bus to Palenque tonight. Yes, more ruins… What am I doing?!?!?!
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