Mérida Interim Update & Musings

Doings in Mérida

We’re saving some of the tourist must-dos for when our friends Andrew and Michael visit us later in December, and we’ll report on those in the new year. And we’ve explored some of Mérida’s smaller offerings, of which there are quite a few. The city museum tells the history of the formation of the city, especially in the early Colombian period. The Maya train museum tells the history of transportation in the Yucatan from early Mayan times to the present, while displaying a lot of artifacts discovered as the train, controversially, cut its way through jungle. At the beginning of the 1900s, Mérida was a rather wealthy city, owing much of its wealth to the production and export of henequin (sisal), primarily, for the production of rope. Many Beaux Arts buildings, especially along Montejo Avenue, display this historical wealth, and a grand expression can be found in the Palacio Cantón. Built as the residence of a wealthy businessman, also governor, who made his name as a military leader suppressing some of the many Mayan revolts, the building has since served many purposes and currently houses anthropological and Mérida history exhibits. There is real beauty in the narratives told in these smaller venues.

Musings

Our first two months (!!) in Mérida have been lovely, and we’re looking forward to finishing out the year here. There has been plenty of space to slow down, relax, and reflect. A notable contrast to our month in México City, filled with uncountable impressions and so much information. We have been traveling for ten months now (also, !!), and finding ourselves in a slower place has been a gift: to take stock, to assess, and to plan. Most of our reporting has been about the things we’ve done; today’s update is a little more reflective.

Life Nomadic is filled with so much adventure and many impressions about history, society, and culture. Large parts of which we will never really understand but try to appreciate. Much of this exposure has brought into focus our own prisms and lenses through which we see and understand what is in front of us. In anthropology museums and cultural centers, as much as in restaurants and supermarkets and everywhere there are things and people. Sometimes, that’s interesting, sometimes totally exasperating, and always instructive.

After four months in México, it is great to have gotten to know it a little better. It is impossible to concisely summarize experiences, impressions, thoughts, and feelings that spending time here leaves us with. México is a modern country; complex, with deep and varied cultural roots and expressions, accomplished and aspirational.

When we arrived in México City, sitting in the back of a taxi, snailing our way through the

legendary CDMX traffic, we got to listen to much of Claudia Sheinbaum’s first annual report. In excruciating detail and amongst other things, she spoke about her government’s efforts to improve public services, infrastructure, and health, as well as about reducing poverty and advancing women’s rights. It felt like a glimmer of hope that a country, despite its many struggles and failings, can declare these themes its key achievements and goals.

At times of challenge and exasperation, it is important to remind ourselves of those aspirations, and the limited resources that can be marshaled to realize them. Many of those times are best met with humor and forbearance, as this YouTube about Mexican Sidewalks does. We’re talking about sidewalks because, in the scheme of things, they’re not all that important, and they can be completely exasperating. México City has rather impressive quality sidewalks, and the ones we’re experiencing in Mérida compare unfavorably to those of Manta (our home in Ecuador). Not until now have I desired to have the chameleon’s skill, not to blend in, but to independently move each eye. The pedestrian on Mérida’s sidewalk is well-advised to keep one eye on the ground and another up, to watch for protrusions, at eye/head level, of electric meters, air conditioners, street signs, and random wiring. Often amusing and often exasperating.

In some ways, learning about México’s government’s ambitions and experiencing Mérida sidewalks are bookends to a collection of vast and varied experiences that we’ve been able to have. Much of the time, those experiences embody humanity reflected in its time and place and history. They also connect the places we’ve been before in our journey, where Manta touches Alicante touches Buenos Aires touches Mérida. It is an absolute privilege to grow awareness of that connectedness.

Life Nomadic is sometimes difficult, especially when curveballs meet panner-managers. And when trying to figure out how new places work. And when our “this is how things should be” petulance gets the better of us. As we’ve planned the Gallivant for 2026, we are revisiting some places we’ve previously been and reconnecting with friends we’ve made.

...and Food...

December is our anniversary month. Mérida has some outstanding restaurants, and we were able to treat ourselves to a memorable celebration dinner. We indulged in the tasting menu at Nectar, which was equal parts exciting and outstanding. Onion tempura, grasshopper marinated pork chop, beef under a foam of hollandaise, seabass dressed with a sweet and slightly spicy gremolata, and so on. Local and traditional ingredients, composed to cater to an international palate. It was a lovely evening for the two of us, filled with celebration and good food.

Thank you for staying with this update to here. It felt like this was the right time to give it, and hopefully you’ve enjoyed some of the ruminations and perspective. More adventure to follow shortly.