what's up people. if you're trying to figure out what you're gonna do in
Merida Yucatan this is the video for you
it's crazy but it's been more than a year since I filmed any vlog content of this sort so what better way
to start up again than where it all started in Mexico. For this video I'm in
Merida, Yucatan's capital City. So I'm gonna start off this video in centro
historico of Merida or the historic center. To one side right in front of me
is the government palace behind me is the house of Montejo who was I believe
the first conquistador who made his way to Merida from Spain and then to one
side is the biggest Cathedral. now if you've seen my videos in Mexico City or
Guatemala City you might notice a very familiar pattern here
looks like the Spanish didn't get too creative on how they designed their city
centers back in the day so once you're already at the Plaza for centro historico
the next logical thing to do is to head over to the main cathedral which happens
to be one of the more impressive cathedrals in this part of the world
so along with holding the title of being the second oldest cathedral in all of
Latin America there are a couple of other really cool things about this one
first one is that it's next to this gorgeous passage called the passage of
the revolution. it always seems to have these nice works of modern art in them
right now it's got some really cool statues. the second one is that the big
statue of Jesus Christ in there is supposed to be one of the largest
statues of Jesus Christ of that kind in Latin America. And the third one and the
one that was the most interesting to me was that, when I was walking along
inside the cathedral I noticed that the tiles on the ground were looking a lot
like tombstones and I found out later that they are indeed tombstones
apparently it was really considered a prestigious thing to be buried or have
your ashes buried in the cathedral back in the days
so people paid a lot of money to be buried underneath the Cathedral where
people are praying. So that's a new one for me at least
after the Cathedral walk over to the house of Montejo. Montejo was the Spanish
conquistador who conquered Yucatan way back in the 16th century and being the
ruler of the land he tried to ensure that his residence was fit for a king
these days whatever's left of that has been turned into a mix between a bank
and a museum that you can still visit. So I think one of the interesting things
about Montejo was that apparently he was quite the narcissist even compared to
Conquistador standards. how do I know? because apparently he had his face
carved into a bunch of the statues on his palace that were not even of him
so there are a few more interesting places you can visit without going too
far from Centro walk a few minutes and you'll find
Palacio de la musica a museum dedicated to Mexican music. walk another hundred
meters and you'll be at the famous Hidalgo park with the famous statue in
the middle. now right behind this park, right there actually, is iglesia El Jesus
another church that is smaller than the main cathedral but arguably also
prettier. Walk another hundred meters and you can see the Autonomous University of
Yucatan with it's pretty courtyard if you happen to go inside. this was founded
by Felipe Carrillo an enduring local hero with indigenous roots. Carrillo was a
revolutionary hero and the first governor of Yucatan after the Mexican
Revolution. He was known for pushing reforms to help the region's neglected
Maya community. so the thing that was the most interesting about this guy is that
he was a socialist back when he came into power and the Mexican government
didn't like that very much so they ended up killing him. And then a couple of
years later they realized that oops we made a mistake. His s tory is definitely
one worth reading more into but back to merida. a little further away from centro
is its most famous avenue. Paseo de montejo. it's not exactly as fancy as
Paris's Champs-Élysées if you've been there but it's still definitely worth checking
out, for its famous ice-cream spots and
delicious streetside food if for nothing else
now speaking of food, no trip to Mexico is complete without trying some amazing
local food so I did a little bit of research and ended up going to this
restaurant that was recommended on Yucatan's official reddit page for its
amazing Yucatan cuisine it was definitely a pretty fancy place and I
have to say the appetizers were on point
pico de gallo spicy Gino Panaro gracias
now after discussing with the waiter I got some of the items he recommended
the soup called SOPA de Lima and some stuffed cheese with almond sauce. now it
was time for the real deal and to find out how good this was
now Yucatan cuisine is considered by many experts to be one of the best
cuisines in Mexico and that right there was pretty amazing but I'm not gonna lie
if I had to choose between street tacos and that I'd probably pick street tacos
any day of the year, maybe it's because my peasant tastebuds are not very good
at appreciating that cuisine but it is what it is for me. good news was I didn't
give up on Yucatan food after that so I was talking to a local about
the food and after hearing my thoughts he told me what I really needed to do
was to head to a popular local market and try some panuchos and salbutes
the next day I headed off to Santiago park to find this food. I walked past a
white church and a cute little park and it was time to order some panuchos and
Salbutes. A Panucho starts with a tortilla that's stuffed with some
refried beans and then the tortilla is fried and finally topped with meat
pickled onions and more delicious veggies. A salbute is very similar but the tortilla is
simply fried and topped up with everything but refried beans
that was just incredible. the food was so good and the best part was when I asked if I
could record it they got super excited and took me straight to the back so I
could watch them make it and prepare the whole thing. I ended up getting another
round of two more Salbutes (dos. Gacias). So this brings me to probably the most important
point I want you to take home from this video. If you're ever anywhere in Mexico
and you're not finding amazing food you're probably not looking hard enough
so that is it for this video from Merida. if you have any questions about any
other places I went to feel free to leave them in the comments and I'll get
back to you and if you like this video don't forget to like the video and feel
free to subscribe to my channel if you want to see more of my content I'll
catch you guys next time