We woke up to the distant sounds of fireworks and church bells. The church bells are pretty self explanatory for a Sunday morning. The fireworks were probably part of a family celebration. As Sunday is a day off for many, this is a day when families gather for meals and parties. If there’s an occasion, such as a birthday, the fireworks might come out.
On Sunday mornings (now back in full after a pandemic pause) the town closes the main road called Paseo de Montejo to cars and open’s it up to bikes. Well more than bikes as we saw carts, roller blades, and stake boards. We rented bikes from a vendor on the sidewalk close to Hennessys Irish Pub and joined the diverse crowd cycling up and down the street. It was a lot of fun and, as best I can describe, controlled chaos as there were riders of all shapes, sizes, ages, and abilities cycling at different speeds on the road with very little issue
es. After the ride we stopped to get ice creams and checked out the art and crafts vendors set up along the sidewalks. We have been looking for something to hang in our front room and when Jess and I saw the bright and colorful painting of a band we knew this was it. You can see examples of his work here https://meridagoround.com/tag/paintings-by-lobo-el-brujo/ . I ran over to the ATM to get cash to pay for it and Jess was treated to a brief story of his life which included travels around North America and at least one UFO encounter.
Then Jess had a short siesta while I, inspired by the art we had seen, set out to take some arty photos on the streets (I don’t think the artists in Merida need to worry about the competition. See below).
Our evening plans were to head to see some live music and some drinks at a fun place called Dzalbay before heading to dinner at MUGY. Due to covid, reservations are strongly encouraged. Dzalbay was a place we discovered when we were in town in March. They have live music and on weekends and early band and late band. The musicians we saw were a pair of multi-instrumentalist playing pop jazz - they were great.
MUGY (Museo de la Gastronomia Yucateca) is the only dinner place that we planned to eat at on this trip that wasn’t new for us. The atmosphere and good food & drink pulled us back. Situated in a large open air courtyard and serving up local dishes, the place has a fun and hip feel.
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