I’m flying to Cancun on New Years Eve on KLM from Dublin with Shane… it’s a very early flight as we are flying through Amsterdam so we are up before 4am but by the afternoon we will be in sunshine. We are flying fancy class and the booze and food is fantastic – It doesn’t get much better than this!
We’re staying in Playa Del Carmen at the Reef Coco resort for a few nights before we embark on our Central America adventure. The next few days are all about relaxing and chilling out. We are all inclusive and I’m looking forward to doing very little as we ease into our month long trip.
We check out the resort and have a cocktail on the beach looking at the stars. We are really tired so it’s hard to stay awake for the bells at midnight. We manage a few cocktails, a nice dinner at the really good buffet restaurant and then we have to call it as I cannot stop yawning and we really don’t have it in us to stay up for the festivities!!
Next morning we are up nice and early as we got a great sleep and we walk the length of Coco beach.
This is the Caribbean Sea, along what is known as the Mayan Riveria. The sand is cool underfoot (it is winter after all) and so soft.
There are plenty of people on the beach and many of them seem to be still partying from the night before! We have a nice dip in this beautiful Caribbean Sea – it’s so warm, especially considering the last time we were in the sea was the Irish Sea on Christmas Day and it was freezing!!
While we’re splashing away we witness a terrible incident where a girl is dragged out of the water…. Her friends are screaming and we really think she might be dead but after medics and the police eventually arrive she comes to – seems she was very very drunk and went into the water – scary stuff. What a start to the new year!
The breakfast buffet is extensive and has all sorts of local dishes I want to try. I also have my first ever Bloody Mary on New Years Day and I’m not even hungover!
The food is really good at the resort – in addition to the buffet which is excellent, we book into the Mexican restaurant one night and the Italian another. The Mexican food is really good – I love a dish called chilaquiles for breakfast which is essentially tortilla chips soaked in some delicious sauce with cheese and red onion on top – it’s so good.
I do also love a nice view for breakfast.
Our resort is very central to Playa Del Carmen town so we bust out of the resort and take a walk down 5th Avenue which is the busy street. Lots of shops and restaurants and it’s quite buzzy. The police station is an interesting building in the middle of the road!
We do stop to have a drink that Shane is keen to have. It’s called pulque which is a strange milky concoction – also known as agave wine, it’s made from the fermented sap of the agave plant. I taste it but it’s not for me, instead I have a delicious margarita!
After our evening meal we have a drink looking out to the beach and catch some local entertainment!
The resort looks really nice at nighttime and it’s not too big or too busy – it’s just about right.
We start each day with a walk of the beach going all the way to Playa Punta Esmeralda. At the top of the beach there’s a little break in the sand which forms a pool which we realise is a fresh water cenote. It’s so clear and warm and although shallow, nice for a little sit down!
When we checked in, a guy (who was actually Italian) did the hard sell for us to attend the “presentation” where they try to sell you a timeshare. I have to say I was tempted as the free stuff for going included a massage and facial! Although we tentatively said we’d go, on reflection we ditched it as we just didn’t have enough time to fit it in and really the thought of sitting through it just didn’t appeal to me- I was that soldier before with my San Fran girls but that was a different time!! I do love a bit of pool time and I’m planning to catch up on a backlog of books I haven’t had time to read so I think this is a better use of my time!
After three lovely nights at this resort we have a final walk of the beach, pack our bags, have a last brekkie and head to the bus station. We are taking the ADO bus to Mérida. It takes about 4 hours and we are met by Shane’s friends when we arrive.
Mérida is the capital of the Mexican state of Yucatán. It is quite a big city with a rich Mayan and colonial heritage. We arrive in the afternoon and I’m excited to meet Shelagh and Fernando, friends of Shane’s for more than 30 years. They welcome us into their beautiful home and have a fabulous guest room for us at the back of their garden facing out to the pool. This is gorgeous!
There’s a lot of catching up to do and obviously that’s best done over a margarita or two! For dinner they take us to a local place called Las Vigas which has fantastic ceviche prawns and tacos and surprisingly to me, some really nice wine! What a great fun night to kick off our Mérida adventure.
Next morning we get a tour of town which involves an early stop for Mexico City style tacos on the side of the road…. Wow these are good!
There are a lot of Christmas decorations still around and most of the roundabouts are decorated.
We do a drive by of the Monument to the Fatherland, a landmark sculpture on a traffic roundabout depicting Mexican history from the Mayans to modern day.
Walking around the city, we admire the colourful and ornate colonial buildings.
We walk into a number of famous hotel buildings, most still decorated for Christmas.
It’s time to stop for, you’ll never guess what, ok maybe you can, a margarita or some sort of tequila cocktail! 😜
We order a snack of “queso chicharon” which are crispy cheese cylinder crackers… delicious!
This place is called LA PARRILLA and the vibrant decor is fab!
Across the road is Parque Hidalgo and another church – Iglesia de Jesus. There are churches everywhere!
Next we go to a traditional cantina called EL TUCHO. It is fantastic. It’s not so busy when we arrive but within a half hour it is packed.
We order a round of drinks and are given some free “snacks” – it is a serious amount of food!
There is also some local entertainment which is really good and I find the singer totally mesmerising. Love a bit of local entertainment…
We take a walk around and see the city’s focal point, Plaza de la Independencia, which has a nativity scene with an elephant – I’m not sure there was an elephant in Bethlehem!!
We also check out the Mérida sign!!
The square is bordered by the fortresslike Mérida Cathedral and white limestone Iglesia de la Tercera Orden, both colonial-era churches built using relics from ancient Mayan temples. This catholic cathedral is one of the oldest cathedrals in the Americas, construction having completed in 1598.
Inside the cathedral we see photos of John Paul II who was the first pope to visit Mexico in 1979. A local man notices me looking at the photos and tells us he didn’t say mass here but he prayed at the cathedral.
Among other interesting statues, we see our first black Jesus.
We walk through the Santa Ana neighbourhood which has some old grand houses where the wealthiest of Mérida once lived.
Next stop is Hennessy’s! Now normally we wouldn’t visit an Irish bar when we are travelling but this is a favourite of Shelagh and Fernando’s and honestly it is a really nice proper Irish pub. I get to meet Sean who’s one of the guys who runs it and he is super nice. He even gives us a round of drinks on the house as I’m “real” Irish – apparently not a whole lot of Irish tourists visit Mérida!! I try a Mexican cider called Robin Hood and we enjoy meeting a few locals and having a chat.
A view of the Monument to the Fatherland by night on the way to our next spot.
The final stop of the evening is for tacos at TAQUERÍA HERMANOS 2. We had so many snacks today so can’t do a full dinner but there’s always room for tacos. These ones are “Barbacoa” which are barbecued lamb. They’re really tasty and someone is very happy!!
Next morning after Fernando rustled up some very tasty eggs for breakfast we drive for about 40 minutes to a cenote. A cenote is a natural sinkhole created when limestone bedrock collapses in upon itself, creating a system of caves and sinkholes. Something I never knew is that the asteroid that hit earth millions of years ago, and is believed to have killed the dinosaurs, was centred on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. In fact the impact site, known as the Chicxulub crater, is exactly where Mérida is!!!!
We start with a tour of the hacienda. Hacienda Mucuyché dates back to the 17th Century. Agriculture, livestock and the growing of henequen were some of the activities in the hacienda. Henequen is a fibre that comes from the leaves of the agave plant and it was used to make strong rope which the guide demonstrates for us.
The gardens around the hacienda leading to the cenote are really nice…
We even get to see an iguana looking to the sun!
Next it’s time to go down into the caves and enjoy the crystal clear water of the cenote. The water looks very inviting.
Everyone is given a life jacket and you must wear it so I’m delighted! We get in and bob our way along this narrow channel to the second cenote.
It is so beautiful floating around.
My water camera photos aren’t great and it’s very dark in the second cave but we capture some of the atmosphere.
We have a snack and a dip in the poolside bar and decide after another quick visit to Hennessys that we’ll roll on to dinner. This evening we eat at a really nice restaurant – Matilda Salon Mexicano. We have delicious but giant sopes and I find there’s barely room for the main course – the lads do a decent job on it though!
Next morning we are leaving Mérida to travel to Campeche but we’re leaving behind our big bags as we will just do an overnight before travelling onward. So it’s not quite goodbye yet!
More coming in the next instalment…..
odohertyelaine 
ElaineWhat a great write up and pictures!! Looks like a fun time was had by all.You guys coming to the west coast anytime soon?We are planning a big trip to NZ/Australia in early 2026. We’ll spend 2-3 weeks in NZ, then head to Australia (which Karen & I spent 5 weeks at years ago on Sun Microsystems dime) for likely another 3-4 weeks. We’ll see how the planning goes!Are you still working? Or into full time travel and play mode?I hope to cross paths with you soon…Kelly
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