Interesting Comments About Merida

[hdawson]

Some interesting musings by an American living in Merida. It's from a website of Gringos living there.

 

 

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I recently saw an entire group of folks like this: Americans from what I could tell. They had come into Merida from a cruise and apparently been dropped off - en masse - mid-block on Calle 59. They seemed to all be afraid to go anywhere! So, they stood in this big group, one or two straying a few steps to peer into a store window, others to gaze at the traffic, or look at the restaurant I was ducking into across the street.

 

I decided to kid the waiter and asked if he thought all those pale people looked funny, with their colorful shorts and white legs. He said, "No, they look very afraid." He actually seemed pretty concerned about them, but there was nothing he could do. He sees them the same days every week - the same kind of people in the same place.

 

Soon, a bus or some other transportation appeared at the end of the block. Everyone rushes off quickly in that direction. Suddenly, the narrow little sidewalk is open again.

 

Oh, the tales they'll spin of their dangerous adventure in Mexico!

 

 

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And this bit of good information.

 

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I meant to mention something about the water for first time visitors or those considering it.

 

Mexicans / Yucatecos are just like anyone else - they do not want to get ill from polluted water. Everyone drinks bottled water. Everyone makes their ice at home from bottled water. Restaurants have filters and/or purification systems. I've ordered ice water in many, many restaurants all over Merida - never worried a second and never become ill from it.

 

Commericially made ice - those big bags - comes from plants with water purifiers. That's why the cubes are so clear - minerals and pollution (whether bacteria, organic, etc) tends to cloud ice.

 

This business that is written in so many guide books about "avoid the ice in Mexico" may be true in some backwater village where there's no bottled water (but then how in the heck did they freeze the water???? Do refrigerators go where bottled water fears to tread??? Think about it.). But in a big city like Merida, and most small cities around Yucatan as well, the ice is perfectly fine. Good grief, Merida was the first city in Mexico to have electric street lights, etc.

 

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Mexico is not to be feared as some seem to think. Granted the crime rate in Mexico City is very bad but that is unusual. Enjoy your stop in Progreso and visit to Merida.