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roni_smith

Mar 25, 2009, 6:35 PM

Post #1 of 21 (6001 views)

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Neighborhoods of Merida

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Good, detailed article here

http://www.yucatanliving.com/...rhoods-of-merida.htm
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RickS

Mar 25, 2009, 8:13 PM

Post #2 of 21 (5981 views)

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Re: [roni_smith] Neighborhoods of Merida

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Wow, what a great article. Wish I had had this before I visited (but I found most of them anyway!).

roni_smith

Mar 25, 2009, 8:34 PM

Post #3 of 21 (5973 views)

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Re: [RickS] Neighborhoods of Merida

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It is a good article. We found and explored most of those neighborhoods too, but the ones north of the city we used a guide for. She was great and we paid 500 pesos for an afternoon of her time!!
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nancyinpdx

Mar 26, 2009, 4:59 AM

Post #4 of 21 (5950 views)

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Re: [roni_smith] Neighborhoods of Merida

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Thank you. That was very interesting. I saved it, as I am considering buying property(ies) there some day.

Hound Dog

Mar 26, 2009, 10:19 AM

Post #5 of 21 (5920 views)

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Re: [roni_smith] Neighborhoods of Merida

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There are times when I regret that we did not move to Merida which was our intention about three years ago when we became obsessed with the notion of getting the hell out of Ajijic with its stiffling (in our minds) Midwest American Lime Jello Mold With Marshmallow Tuna Salad and Celery Cups and Chicken a la King on White Bread Toast Points mindset and we had decided on Merida or Oaxaca or Veracruz City or maybe Guadalajara so we spent a couple of weeks exploring Merida´s many neighborhoods and, man, was that depressing. Endless treeless look-a-like barrios of wall-to-wall pedestrian housing interspersed with nondescript concrete plazauelas featuring ugly neighborhood churches and, while the historic center was attractive and lively, we could never find a home in our expected price range in that area that made sense to us.

Now, the food in Yucatan is the best in Mexico or just about anywhere else on the planet in out judgment and Merida has a fabulous historic center but we lived in Mobile on Alabama´s Gulf Coast when we first got married in the 1970s and my wife is a native of Paris who lived with me in San Francisco for about 30 years so moving back into that incessant heat and bone-breaking humidity became too much of a challenge so we bought in cool, highland San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas which we do not regret but still there are times when I wish we had found that neighborhood in Merida that is the stuff of dreams but which I doubt exists at all. If it did, I would probably be sipping a cocktail on the veranda now gazing out at the equivalent of the Paseo de Montejo and anticipating that fine Yucatecan dinner at a nearby restaurant but that is the fanciful stuff of dreams so I´m off to the historical center of San Cristóbal for a fine angus beefsteak and glass of Chilean red wine and when you guys find that perfect Merida dream home, let me know and I´ll give up my mountain dream for some humidity and slow dancing in the plaza. For now, I´ll have to settle for the Municipal Marimba Orchestra of San Cristóbal but there are worse fates.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Mar 26, 2009, 10:22 AM)

roni_smith

Mar 26, 2009, 12:51 PM

Post #6 of 21 (5904 views)

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Re: [Hound Dog] Neighborhoods of Merida

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Well Mr. HoundDog,

It is a hot a humid place, that is true. You have friends there who have a truly magnificent dream home where you can sip drinks while recovering from the humid dancing at various parques. I think their place will be well-suited to that. Given the world economic melt-down, we'll probably be pitching a tent somewhere in the jungle down there; swatting skeeters with the hope we don't come down with the dengue.
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yucatandreamer

Mar 26, 2009, 2:21 PM

Post #7 of 21 (5896 views)

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Re: [roni_smith] Neighborhoods of Merida

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Today in Merida it is over 40 degrees Centigrade and hasn't rained in months. The air is full of swirling dust and soon there will be ash from the Spring Burning. It is easy to love Merida in the winter but you have to be nuts to even think about loving it in April or May. Once the rains start the humidity and mold shoots up , but at least the evenings are cooler and your mouth is not full of dust. Centro, where I live, has many advantages such as being able to walk to downtown cultural events (and perhaps those Yucateco restaurants) It also has old, charming homes which inspire all sorts of people to romantic dreams. The downside is traffic, dust and acres of concrete and stone that holds the heat way late into the night.

As to Yucateco food, perhaps if you were raised on Nehi and fried pies you might find the fat and sugar content of most Yucateco food sustaining, but most of us who live here year round yearn for a nice crisp salad and a small steak on a bed of fresh vegetables. I have just returned from Oaxaca and the contrast in both the quality(Wow! no foreign objects or bone bits) and complexity of preparation is really obvious. They even had an artisan bread store and a weekly organic market.

To all those who dream of living in Merida I would suggest renting for a while before you commit. You might love it enough to put up with its shortcomings and peculiarities(It is quite backward in many ways even in the eyes of other Mexicans). Most days I am glad that I live here, but once you strip it of the romance it is a rather difficult place to live.

Hound Dog

Mar 26, 2009, 3:57 PM

Post #8 of 21 (5890 views)

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Re: [yucatandreamer] Neighborhoods of Merida

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Well said YD:

Why must the places of our dreams always resemble the repositories of our waste products after we become familiar with them. Why must Merida be a hot and miserable concrete wasteland and San Francisco a cold and woebegotten, treeless grid of godforsaken butt-ugly streets and Paris a repository of dogsh*t and overpriced Tunisian restaurants and New Orleans a place where your hair curls ten seconds after to turn off the shower and Manhattan the ugliest imaginable conglomeration of dirty brick structures on the planet and London a cold a dreary urban nightmare and Casablanca a filthy city filled with shameless beggars and on and on.

I think I have figured it out. These sh*tholes are filled with human beings. The problem is - where do we go from here? Now I am really depressed. Thanks a lot.

roni_smith

Mar 26, 2009, 4:15 PM

Post #9 of 21 (5883 views)

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Re: [Hound Dog] Neighborhoods of Merida

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I am pleased that the Southern Mexico board has had some activity.

I know I have read of people buying at first sight. That would certainly give one an incentive to embrace one's own decision.

I liked the article. I have been in the Yucatan in May. It was hot as hell on the coast and hotter than that just a couple of blocks off the coast.

I have been in Ajijic, Guanajuato, San Miguel, Leon and environs in April. It was dusty as all get out, but not as hot. Gringo Ajijicans told me to come back in November, swearing it was a green as Ireland. I reckon they were right, but I did not go back.

Maybe IslaZina will pop in and tell us about the heat on Isla Mujeres. We had a very nice Sunday with her, but that was a pleasant December day.

That article was a good one, though. Speaking of HoundDog's fecal statements, the article did name the only colonia in Merida with sewers :)
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(This post was edited by roni_smith on Mar 26, 2009, 4:17 PM)

Hound Dog

Mar 26, 2009, 4:29 PM

Post #10 of 21 (5879 views)

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Re: [roni_smith] Neighborhoods of Merida

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God, Roni. is this what it has come to to be known for one´s fecal statements? I guess I deserve that.

roni_smith

Mar 26, 2009, 5:31 PM

Post #11 of 21 (5869 views)

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Re: [Hound Dog] Neighborhoods of Merida

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I didn't mean anything untoward by it, Mr. HoundDog, and I certainly know that you are known for your love of your Chiapas mountain city far more than by the other matter.
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Hound Dog

Mar 26, 2009, 5:41 PM

Post #12 of 21 (5865 views)

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Re: [roni_smith] Neighborhoods of Merida

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That really hurts Roni. Perhaps I harp too much on the Chiapas Highlands and for that weakness I apologize. I think I spent too much time in Peoria-Upon-Sump and once I escaped that place I can now call "WallMart By The Sea" or even better "Texas With Moderation", I wax incessantly about my escape even though I seem doomed to spend months every year in that intellectual swamp if you get my drift.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Mar 26, 2009, 5:43 PM)

roni_smith

Mar 26, 2009, 5:49 PM

Post #13 of 21 (5861 views)

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Re: [Hound Dog] Neighborhoods of Merida

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I enjoy reading all your posts and especially those about Chiapas.
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Hound Dog

Mar 27, 2009, 12:57 PM

Post #14 of 21 (5817 views)

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Re: [roni_smith] Neighborhoods of Merida

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Well, OK, so here is one Chiapas post you may enjoy.

It is invariably difficult to tell right from wrong here just as it was always difficult to tell right from wrong in periods of civil discord anywhere

In 1960, my father, who was a most articulate man and a much smarter sumbitch than I realized at the time, was the mayor of my hometown, Greenville,Alabama and Time Magazine came to Greenville to interview the ignorant racist white boy who had become the mayor of that town and it turned out my Dad was a smart and erudite fellow so he irritated those Time fellows to no end to the point that all they printed about Greenville was a picture of a couple of shotgun shacks and that was the beginning of my maturity and, despite what some of you might think today, I´m a much smarter sumbitch in 2008 than I was in 1960 and you can bet your ass on that. I am also considerably dumber than I was then.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Mar 27, 2009, 1:10 PM)

Hound Dog

Mar 27, 2009, 1:36 PM

Post #15 of 21 (5810 views)

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Re: [roni_smith] Neighborhoods of Merida

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I must tell you a story about Bubba (Hound Dog) Roni.

I was born and raised on a "velt" known as the Gulf Coastal Plain which stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to about the hills of the Appalachian Chain which stretches from New England to Northern Alabama and then on, in the the form of low and undramatic hills to Northern Mississippi and I don´t know why I´m telling you this as most Americans are hopelesly ignorant about geography and clearly I am wasting my time but quite frankly I am becoming bored with this entire concept so am now going to shut up until I feel further inspired so lissen here Yankee TooTall MoFo, that´s it for now.

I will be back once I regain my composure. We Southerners are a bit fickle.

Hound Dog

Mar 27, 2009, 1:57 PM

Post #16 of 21 (5806 views)

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Re: [Hound Dog] Neighborhoods of Merida

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So, anyway, being from Mobile,I expected Merida to be a city filled with magnificent old trees and tree lined boulevards as is Mobile which, after all, is Merida´s counterpoint on the northern shores on that beatiful sea. What a disappointment I experienced when Merida turned out to be a concrete and mostly treeless hot and humid warren of low-slung cement characterless houses and nondescript squares with endless streets leading nowhere.

Still, it is a fine town but I simply cannot make it my permanent home any more than I could live in Galveston or Panama City. I would choose the run-down precincts of Veracruz City first and why is it no one extolls the virtues of that sexy burg?

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Mar 27, 2009, 1:59 PM)

roni_smith

Mar 27, 2009, 5:48 PM

Post #17 of 21 (5787 views)

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Re: [Hound Dog] Neighborhoods of Merida

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Of the places I have been in Mexico, Merida is the most likely place where we will start retirement in a couple of years. I have lived many places on a couple of continents during my 57 years, and none of them have been anywhere near perfect.

We will not buy a home early in the process. We might live in several different regions before we decide where to end up. We might become heatbirds, living in a tropical region and spending the hottest, driest couple of months up in the mountains, maybe even in HoundDog's colonia.

I like Merida. I like having culture and arts and that kind of stuff available. I'll figure out about the permanent home stuff later.
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Planning for Mexico Move Blog

Hound Dog

Mar 27, 2009, 7:34 PM

Post #18 of 21 (5780 views)

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Re: [roni_smith] Neighborhoods of Merida

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You're OK in my book Roni so I´ll tell you something that amuses me but which I tell very few peopke..

When I tricked my darlin French wife into moving to the San Francisco Bay Area from Mobile in about 1972, we lived initially in Oakland and one night we attended a cocktail party and my sweetheart was talking to some Northern California hick who inquired as to why she had moved from Paris to Oakland and she informed this buffoon that she had moved first to Mobile and this braindead moron asked her how she could have possibly moved to the city of Mobile which, in his words was "---filled with rednecks." and she responded, "Tell me, I married one of the sumbitches."

I find that amusing to say the least and now here we are living in Chiapas the redneck capital of the universe and, by God, we do not feel even one bit smarter that our neighbors and you know what? We´re not.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Mar 27, 2009, 7:37 PM)

RickS

Mar 28, 2009, 10:28 AM

Post #19 of 21 (5753 views)

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Re: [roni_smith] Neighborhoods of Merida

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"We might live in several different regions before we decide where to end up."

Roni, I realize that your 'regions' are probably geographically larger than this, but, in your travels to the Merida area, have you taken in Izamal... the Yellow City? Dawg mentions it often, and we found it to be worth more than a day's visit. It is one of the places that I think I could live in that area..... assuming that I could take the heat, which I can't!

roni_smith

Mar 28, 2009, 12:50 PM

Post #20 of 21 (5745 views)

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Re: [RickS] Neighborhoods of Merida

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In Reply To

We have not been there yet, but it is on the short list of places to visit. We think that the early years of retirement will be occasion for quite a bit of exploration.
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Hound Dog

Mar 28, 2009, 4:23 PM

Post #21 of 21 (5728 views)

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Re: [roni_smith] Neighborhoods of Merida

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Just do not make the mistake of moving to Peoria-Upon-Sump which would be akin to retiring in Gary, Indiana; Gary, Indiana; Gary, Indiana if you get my drift.

Here is the best thing about Merida. After driving about 10 kilometers you are oui of there.

God, I hope I am not offending my friends Jonna and MiMi who live in that lovely city. I was just kidding guys. It has been as cold as a witches patoot in Highland Chiapas this winter and I nearly kicked the bucket as well. You know what you call a surgeon in San Cristobal? On Wednesdays, a barber and on the weekends a fish monger. Just kidding. I love my surgeon here in Chiapas and if it were not for him I´d be writing in Hebrew now if at all. In fact the only writing near me would be an epitath saying something like "His dad requested that he be buried in Mexico or even better The Uzbek Republic where it´s so cold he could not give off his usual foul smelling gaseous odor"