Mérida

Wonderful city. The Paris of Mexico? (for those who don't know I am on a bit of a quest to see the 'Paris'' of the world. Buenos Aires - Paris of the south. Beirut - Paris of the East, though it may have been superceded having had the proverbial Paris bombed out of it. Tromsø claims to be the Paris of the North, and San Fran the Paris of the West.... not sure where this leaves the actual Paris).


Mérida does have a beautiful, wide and cobbled promenade - the Paseo Montejo - lined with mansions, cafes and big old trees, which are all lit up at night. On Sunday's they close it and half the old city off to traffic (could you imagine that happening in Australia?) so people can cycle and eat and enjoy it. The other day we went down there and they had all these free art and activity stalls set up for kids. And every single night there are at least two free, public events on in a square or at the cultural centre - dancing, concerts, theatre, music - it is incredible. There is a free zoo (just don't think too hard about the ethics of it, and bypass the freaked out birds - think 'turtles', 'turtles'...), free WiFi everywhere, considerate traffic, free beer snacks. This is a city that loves it's people. Which makes it a nice place to be.


So we are enjoying metro life - museums, cafes, galleries. I find it unfair that I'm putting on weight after walking at least 8km a day and most of that lugging a three-year old. Sure, our breakfast is cooked by a wonderful Texan man serving up down home potato rosti fried in butter with eggs, bacon and probably more butter.... walk along a bit, maybe a snack of tortillas filled with saucy pork and guacamole... getting hot, to the pub, what's this? 5 plates of food to go with my beer. Well okay.... Mexicans also seem to be cake lovers, and there's a 100 year-old ice cream shop on our corner. You get the picture. Actually we're hankering for a glass of wine and a piece of chocolate. Despite living near the home of the cacao bean there isn't a block of chocolate to be seen in this town.


Anyway so I was skipping and doing sit ups for a while but that's kind of boring, so yesterday I bought some flash new running shoes (bright blue) and a teeny weeny running skirt (tangarine) and some kind of alien-fabric singlet (purple). I am the colourfulest gal on the Paseo (they will call me the 'Paseo Parrot'. Or possibly just 'that ridiculous gringo').


The kidlets are having a great time and are very much loved by the general populace. Some guy even turned his motorbike around to tell us how muy bonito our kids were, and we had one wacky occasion of police officers taking photos of girl scouts who had stopped to cuddle our kids. They're enjoying the food and their Spanish gets better by the day. They have a great time accosting local kids in playgrounds and showing them they want to play (kind of like puppies).


The town is currently preparing for a great big Carnaval, starting this afternoon. We try to look disappointed when the retired Yanks next door tell us it's just a bunch of people drinking lots of beer and naked girls riding on floats. 


Sorry once again that this post is kinda boring... the computer isn't my priority really. But I do love you all! 


Promise to be more insightful next time. xx