January 15 - In Merida

 We spent the weekend in Merida, just to recover and get some energies before continuing with our expeditions. Merida is a nice and modern city, with an historical center that keeps a reminder of the brutality of the spanish conquest. The first conquistador was Francisco Montejo. Along with his son, Francisco Montejo, and his nephew, Francisco Montejo, they took care of destroying the local maya city and building their own replacement palaces. They dismantled the local piramids and used the stones to build the cathedral on one side of the plaza. On the other side they built the Montejo residency with an impressive fachade proclaiming who was the strong man of this place. What is surprising is that even today the main avenues, boulevards, and neighbourhoods, are named after Mr. Montejo.

On the main plaza we also have the Government Palace. The inside patio and first floor is decorated with huge murals by Fernando Castro Pacheco describing the history of the Mayas and their progress into the XX century.

Today, Sunday, we visited the ruins at Uxmal. This was an extense city that is most notable for the beauty of its decorations. The city was built on low hills, so the buildings are at different levels. The buildings are decorated with abstract and idealized representations of jaguars, eagles, guacamayas, turtles, and snakes. Their artistry was at the same level as their building skills.

As always, there is scant information on the place, making the visitor's life more difficult.

Tomorrow we will move on to Chichen Itza and the city of Valladolid.

Here is internal patio on the entrance to the Government Palace.

 

 

Francisco Montejo's Residency.

Zooming on the front shows interesting details, such as the heads over which stand the conquistadores.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Uxmal: The Soothsayer's pyramid

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A building with feathers and guacamayas, in the Quadrangle of the Birds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Details of the guacamayas