After three days at Eco Genesis, it is time to move on. I’ve relaxed and unwound, I’ve done everything I want to do here and more, and Sue must have long since arrived in Merida. I don’t want to leave, but I am ready to go. Perfect! Nothing worse than traveler’s Complacency!

The local taxi stand consists of a single taxi, and the driveway of the taxi owner’s house. Just as I leave the guest house, the taxi drives by. I don’t know where he is going, but he is more than happy to throw his plans out the window and take a paying customer to Valladolid. At the bus station, I have enough Spanish to understand that the next bus to leave is slow, and that the bus that leaves later will arrive in Merida earlier.

I have just enough time for lunch, an even bigger advantage to the later bus. Asking around, I find that the best food options are a taxi-rid away at the town center. but I don’t have time that. I am baffled by the lack of restaurants or food near the bus station. If I were somewhere like Thailand, there would be food stalls in the bus station, next to the bus station, and all the way from the bus station to the town center. Once again, I question how seriously Mexicans take their food. I must be missing something here, don’t all cultures take their food seriously? I can’t imagine any other way!

After about ten minutes of wandering around, I find a place with so-so food, but it does do the job of filling my stomach in the time available.

It is an efficient bus ride from Valladolid to Merida along an excellent highway. Once we reach Merida, our progress is slowed considerably. From this direction, Merida has no main road into the center of town. Instead there is a lattice of narrow streets, with many speed bumps. Some streets have few if any stop signs, and savvy drivers know to stay on these streets, and the others have stop signs at each and every intersection. There is a moderate amount of traffic that moves slowly but steadily towards the center of the city.

I steel myself for the bus station. A very prominent warning in the Lonely Planet guide book warns to watch out for pick pockets ‘at the bus station, or in any crowd‘. When I arrive, there is no crowd, no feeling of skulking criminals with evil intent. I sometimes think that Paranoid Planet might be a better name for that particular guide book publisher.

Merida is an easy-going city. The crowded part is crowded only because it is buys and the streets are narrow. After relaxing at Ek’ Balam, it is nice to have a change of pace!

Last Modified : January 22nd, 2007
Filed under : Mexico 2006
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