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- Hey guys, it's Ruchi and Avi
and today is our last day in Mérida.
We've spent about three months here.
- Yeah, that's a long time for us.
- So we decided to make this video
to show you some of our favorite spots in the city
and to show you some of the things
which we haven't shown before, and at the end of the video,
we have a little segment called five things
where we are going to go over the hits and misses of Mérida.
And we're also gonna tell you where we are headed next!
So stay tuned for that!
All right, let's go!
- Okay.
- We are at our first stop.
We're waiting to get a place inside.
This place is called Chilakiller's.
And they make only one dish and they make it really well.
It's called chilaquiles and it's like one
of our favorite Mexican foods.
Chilaquiles is basically a big bowl
of tortilla chips with different types
of salsas and you can put anything you want on it actually.
Pork belly, chicken, fried eggs, avocado, anything goes.
The best part about chilaquiles is that there's no rules.
You can put anything you want and you can eat it
at any time of the day.
Okay, let's go!
Ready?
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Mine has a mix of blue,
blue chips and
yellow chips and some onions,
avocado and
yup that's it, lots of cheese.
- [Avi] Show the sauce in the video.
- Yeah, and this is like,
this is their special house sauce
and then there's gonna be like spicy sauce inside as well.
And then Avi's has a bunch of scrambled egg,
which I'm going to steal.
I will miss this place, but we can find chilaquiles
in a lot of other places in Mexico
which we'll be going to soon.
But Mérida is the place that introduced us
to this dish, so I guess it's always going
to be special here.
Okay, now it's time to find a coffee shop to work from.
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We just got done with a few hours
of work in the cafe because it's really too hot
to roam around in the daytime.
So we're waiting for it to cool down a bit
before we decided to walk down this road.
Mérida is hitting like 40 degrees.
Kind of a good thing that we're leaving.
I'm a little glad about that.
We're going to cooler temperatures.
This road is called Paseo Montejo.
It's one of the iconic roads of Mérida.
It's really beautiful.
It's lined on either side with colonial houses
and cute little restaurants and this is like one
of the first places we checked out in Mérida.
So it's really nice to walk here in the evenings.
This monument right here is called the Monumento a la Patria
which means the monument of the fatherland, or homeland.
And it's really beautiful.
It's got these really nice carvings
of Mexican history on this entire surface.
Okay, let's check it out!
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So Mérida has been really good for us, right?
Like when we came here, we only came
like we only planned to come for two weeks just
to say hello to our friend Nathan from Foodie Flashpacker
and we ended up staying for
- Three months - Three months!
Like before coming here we'd been traveling non-stop
for like almost five, six months.
- Yeah. - Yeah we went to Hokkaido
in Japan and then a week in Taiwan
and then Hong Kong and then back to India
and then in the US.
And in US we were like all over, like Miami.
And then we flew here and then just spending three months
here it really helped us like get back
on track with healthy eating and just going to the gym
and eating properly and getting like some progress done
with work so that felt really good, right?
- Yeah, basically it helped us to form better being.
Like now we go to the gym.
We have work timings.
We have been able to upload one video a week.
- Yeah and that's like a huge personal achievement
for us, uploading one video a week.
So I consider that like a major goal off my check list.
So I'm very excited about all that.
So maybe we can do two videos a week.
- If you haven't subscribed already, please subscribe.
Also we got to the travel the Yucatan a bit.
We saw one of the wonders of the world, Chichen Itza.
We saw pink flamingos in Celestún.
- And the pink lakes! - And the pink lakes.
What more?
- And then we ate a lot of the Yucatecan food.
- We ate a lot of Yucatecan food,
which is way different from the Mexican food we know.
You get dishes like salbutes, panuchos, conchinita pibil!
Not a food heaven for vegetarians.
They eat a lot of meat, especially pork.
I couldn't find that much, but I started to eat chicken so.
That was - And all the chilis!
- And the habanero chili.
This region is where the habenero chili comes from.
So she was happy! - Yes I love this!
All the spicy salsas, and the chocolate!
- Oh yeah. - Oh my god!
The Mayan chocolate is to die for.
- Yeah, so I had so many hot chocolates here.
I don't think I've had this many chocolates anywhere.
- Yes.
- This road closes on Sunday mornings
from nine to 12 for cyclists and runners.
And at the end of the road you can hire bicycles
of all types.
If you're alone you can ride a normal one.
If you're a couple, then you can do a tandem one.
If you're a large group, like eight people can go
in one, those huge cycles where four of you like
basically pedal so.
- [Ruchi] And there's like even bikes with baby seats.
- Yeah, there's bikes with baby seats.
We did it with our friends here,
who was a couple and have a small kid.
The kids leapt off, but we went around the road.
It was so much fun!
- This is a marquesita.
It's our favorite park snack.
It's basically crispy crepe
with banana and chocolate inside.
Welcome to our new segment,
which is very creatively named the five things!
- Five things!
- So in this segment, we're going
to go over some of the hits and misses
of Mérida really quickly.
You ready? Let's go. - Yeah.
- Favorite food?
- My favorite food would be the tortas from Wayan E.
They were like, oh my god, the spongy, sweet bread
with like the fillings inside from chicken fajitas.
- What's your favorite filling?
- Pork belly, castacán, pork belly and cheese
and all that spicy salsa!
Oh my god, I'm going to miss Wayan E so much!
- Mine is chilaquiles. - Of course!
Because that's what we discovered
for the first time here in Mérida.
It's an amazing piece.
It's an amazing breakfast.
It's so filling but I can eat it at any point of time.
- It's basically an excuse to eat nachos for breakfast.
- Yeah, that's true.
- And no one's complaining so that's great.
Okay, what's next?
- Favorite place you saw in Yucatan?
- Hmm, for me it will have to be the pink lakes
because like I haven't seen anything like that before.
It's amazing to just drive in the wilderness
and then there's like so, it looks so kind of deserted
and when you reach the pink lakes, it's so weird.
There are these sections of pink lakes cordoned off
because they harvest salt over there.
- Yeah we wish we could go inside.
- Yeah.
- Would you wish to go in them?
- I would have loved to like maybe just see
what it's like to actually be in such salty water
but you're not allowed to go into the water anymore because
it's very crowded
and a lot of tourists want to just go mess up
- I wish we could have flown our drone there
but we had everything set up,
but we didn't put the SD card in.
- Yeah we forgot 'em there so like
- Yeah, that happened.
- And what's your favorite place?
- My favorite thing,
my favorite place is Suytun, the cenote.
Cenotes are extremely unique to Yucatan.
So I was always looking forward to going to one of them,
but Suytun just took my breath away.
It was so nice! - It was so unique
and even though it's like one of the most hyped-up places
to go to, actually there was no one there.
There was like maybe five people besides us.
And we all kind of had it to ourselves.
- It was like an ashram.
It was so silent - And once you go under,
like it's a whole other world.
It's insane. - Yeah even if we don't know
how to swim, we thought like cenotes would not be fun
because we don't know how to swim,
but it was so much fun going there.
The thing you love the most.
- The thing I love the most?
- Mine is orange juice
or here they call it jugos de naranja.
Yucatan is known for oranges.
So you get freshly-squeezed orange juice,
which is incredible and it's so sweet.
Naranja dulce. - Anything to do
with like oranges is amazing like they have a salt orange
and like a sweet orange.
- Yeah naranja dulce, naranja agria.
- Agria, yeah.
Both are amazing actually.
Almost like a luxury being spoiled
by freshly-squeezed orange juice
for breakfast anyplace we went to.
Okay my favorite thing would be the colorful streets
and like just the colonial architecture.
It's really nice to see so many colorful streets
in the historic center of town so.
- This is our first colonial city.
We have never seen, we have never been to Europe
and we have never seen
- A lot of people compare like the center
of town to European cities
because it has the same cobblestone alleys
and like the buildings have beautiful arches
and the walkways are similar.
So it's really nice to see.
All right, controversial stuff!
The thing you hated the most! (laughs)
So for me, I think
what I hated the most would be the weather!
Like when we landed in around January,
the weather was nice and then suddenly in Feb it just got
so hot and gross and I kinda hate summer.
- I'm very surprised.
You are from Delhi!
- Yeah. - It's the same weather!
- Yeah, I like shrink in the summers
and I only like I do things, activities in the winter.
It's like the opposite of hibernation.
- My most hated thing was the toilet paper. (Ruchi laughs)
- Yeah, I hated that too! - There's no bum guns.
There's no bum guns.
There's not even a bucket nearby
if you want to like just take like what we do in India.
- And some places don't even have toilet paper
so you are expected to carry your own.
- And the thing is like we have used toilet papers
before in hotels and stuff,
but this is the first time we had
to manage toilet papers after.
- Yeah, it's like you have to think
about like okay, grocery shopping,
have to stock up on toilet paper.
- And you have to clean the toilet paper.
- All right, too much information I think!
(laughing)
- And last one.
- Last thing, souvenirs!
Okay so, there's a lot of like amazing things
to buy if you're holidaying in Mérida.
They have hammocks which are smooth as silk.
You will not like have the mark
of the net kind of mark that comes on your skin
when you use a hammock.
- Everyone uses a hammock here to sleep.
- And they fold into like this much.
Just like the size of a like scarf or something.
So a lot of people buy hammocks.
- We wish we could carry that.
- And then a lot of like the usual things,
like embroidered clothes and just like knickknacks.
But my favorite thing was the salsas.
I have like quite a collection of spicy and sweet salsas
and just add them to most of my food.
I just like maybe eat them out the jar,
straight from the jar like
- At least she has bought all the small bottles
so we can carry with us.
It's not like huge.
- Of course, that's why I bought the small bottles.
- I guess if it was possible, she would have bought the
like big jars and stuff. - Yeah I have a salsa problem.
- Yes, you do.
- What's your souvenir?
- My souvenir is chocolate.
So, chocolate originated in this region.
For a long time, they had forgotten how to make chocolate.
It was lost in the history of Mayans.
Now it's making a comeback and their chocolate is insane!
- Oh my god and I think they added like spices to it.
- Yeah, they add Mayan spices to it.
- And it's unlike any other chocolate we've had before.
Like sure, like Swiss chocolate and stuff is famous,
but oh my god, that's nothing like Mexican chocolate.
- They don't add sugar in chocolate at all
but it's still so amazing!
- And not even milk, not even milk.
- And not even milk.
They basically like put the powder, cacao and chocolate
in water and drink.
- And it's so good! - And it's so good!
- It sounds weird to do that to just have
- No sugar, no milk, like vegan.
- Yeah, it's vegan! (Avi laughs)
Yeah so it's chocolate, oh my god!
We're gonna make so much hot chocolate!
- Yeah, maybe we should make a video.
- Or cold chocolate, actually.
- No, hot chocolate, never cold.
- Yeah we should make a video about chocolate soon.
Where we are headed next.
- Where are we headed?
- We are headed to
this place called San Cristóbal de las Casas.
- That's a like very long name.
- Yeah, that's a mouthful and it's
in the South of Mexico in the state called Chiapas.
And it's like it's in the mountains
among the coffee plantations.
Another thing that Mexico's known
for is the coffee, besides the chocolate.
- And most of it comes from Chiapas.
- And the coffee here is insane, oh my gosh!
I'm very excited to go there!
- She, who is a tea person,
you've seen her drink so much boba tea,
has become a coffee drinker.
- Yes, I'm a coffee person now.
So like Mérida is hitting like 40, 40 degrees now.
So it's like the temperature of the devil
so we have got to leave!
- Yeah, so we are like very excited
to go to a different temperature.
- High altitude, so the temperature will be,
it will be cooler.
- We'll be there for 15 days.
We hope to explore all the, all the wonderful rivers
for the first time, which Mexico has to offer.
- And drink some good coffee!
- All right, that's it for this video.
We've gotta get back to our apartment
and finish packing - There's a lot of packing.
- Because we're leaving like tomorrow morning.
And we'll still be uploading the rest
of our videos from Mérida and the Yucatan.
So stay tuned for those.
If you enjoyed watching this video,
please let us know in the comments below
and also give us a big thumbs up.
It really helps us a lot.
And don't forget to follow us on Instagram.
- Both of us! - Yeah!
And we'll see you in the next one.
Bye. - Bye!
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