Welcome back to the Snail Travelers YouTube channel.
In this video I'm going to tell you some amazing facts about Merida, Mexico.
And these facts really surprised us. Merida is not what we expected.
As always we'll give you a tour of our apartment.
We'll tell you how much money we spent. And we'll tell you about some of the activities
in Merida and the surrounding area. Let's get started.
So let me start with the fact that surprised us the most.
Merida is the safest city in Mexico and the second safest city in the Americas.
So Mexico gets a bad reputation for crime, but we have traveled to 11
states in Mexico so far and have not been in a situation where we have felt unsafe.
But yeah okay so Merida feels safer than other Mexican cities
but in the Americas according to CEOWorld Magazine only Quebec City was rated safer.
And Merida was rated the 21st safest city in the world.
Not bad if you ask me.
The safety situation anywhere in the world can change quickly
so you always want to research the latest security information before going somewhere.
Fact #2: The oldest cathedral in Mexico is in Merida.
This cathedral was built in the 16th century and it was built on the site of some Mayan ruins.
They even used some of the stones from those ruins to build the cathedral itself.
One key feature this cathedral is the coat of arms on the structure which originally contained
a representation of the royal crown of Spain, but then to protest against Spain the crown
was removed and it was replaced with the eagle as seen on the modern Mexican flag.
Fact #3:The neighborhoods in the northern part of Merida are relatively wealthy.
Now every city in Mexico and the world for that matter is going to have certain sections that are
better off than others. And here in Merida it happens
to be the northern part of the city where you're going to find the modern and high-end housing.
We booked an apartment we saw online that had an address we thought was going to be here,
but there are different streets with the same name around the city and it turns
out that our apartment was actually over here in one of the city's wealthiest areas.
Here's a quick tour of our apartment where we lived.
All right we just got here to Merida.
Let's take a look at our apartment, let's come inside here.
The first thing we would notice is how tall the ceilings are.
So here's the living room, here's the kitchen, fridge nice big countertops.
We're going to like it here. Huge bed in the bedroom.
Closet the size of an actual room, it's a monster closet.
And then here's our bathroom. So we're going to be here for about one month.
Fact #4: Merida's cost of living is reasonable. So I was just telling you about the wealth we
have seen en Merida and when we arrived we assumed that this meant the prices would also be higher.
But we were surprised. Here's a breakdown
of how much money we spent here. Our apartment was $832 per month that included
utilities and we had the AC cranked up. But we rented through Airbnb.
Renting on a one-year lease directly through the owner could cut the cost
for a similar apartment in half. Our food came to $361 for the month.
We had a nice kitchen so we did a lot of our own cooking.
But we did go out to eat a few times a week. Activities was quite high this month at $209
and we'll tell you more about our activities later in this video.
Not too much on transportation $29. Miscellaneous for things like
toiletries and laundry came to $57. We both went to the dentist for a cleaning
and spent $50 in the health category. And then insurance was $364.
So that comes to a total of $1902 dollars for one month for two people in Merida.
Fact #5: Merida is one of Mexico's hottest cities. I'm referring to temperature here.
Now the northern part of Mexico has some desert areas that get very hot.
Merida is very hot and very humid. When you factor in the humidity
it feels like it's around 110 fahrenheit or around 45 celsius for a big chunk of the year.
We were in Merida in November which is when it starts to cool off a little bit.
But cooling off here just means slightly less hot. But we did have some pleasant days here.
Fact #6: Merida was once the henequin capital of the world.
Henequin is an agave plant that was cultivated around Merida
mainly to use in the manufacturing of rope. We visited one of the many large and very
beautiful haciendas or plantations built in the areas surrounding
Merida where this industry flourished. This man you see here began working at the
hacienda when he was 11 years old and continued working here until the industry eventually faded
out due to the increased use of synthetic rope. Fact #7: Merida and Yucatan have unique food that
is different from the rest of Mexico. My favorite was cochinita pibil.
This is a pork dish where the pork is wrapped in banana leaves and roasted underground.
I wish I could have seen the process but hey it's the flavor that counts the most.
And it is truly delicious having been marinated with citrus juices.
Another great dish is sopa de lima or lime soup. This soup as you would expect from the name has
lime juice mixed with chicken or turkey broth and then some oregano cloves and other seasonings.
Fact #8: Merida is surrounded by a ring of cenotes.
You can see just how many of them there are on the map here.
So a cenote is a giant sinkhole or cave that typically contains groundwater.
They are popular places to swim and cool off in the heat.
The cenote we went to was located just a little bit south of Merida
and the water absolutely crystal clear and beautiful.
Take a look. All right we're here
at the cenote with some friends of ours and we have the whole place to ourselves
and in my world travels I have never seen anything like this. Look how pure the water is here.
Fact #9: Some of Mexico's best archaeological sites can be visited as day trips from Merida.
Let me start with Uxmal just south of Merida. I first came here in 1989 on a family trip with
my parents, brother, grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins.
There's a picture of me in the parking lot. I was 17 and yes that really is me.
And here's a picture of my cousins climbing one of the pyramids here in Uxmal.
Okay back to the present, the buildings here in Uxmal are noted for their size and decoration.
The most dominant structure is the Pyramid of the Magician but there are many other
interesting structures around the site. This Mayan city was home to around 25,000
inhabitants and flourished for about 400 years beginning around the year 600AD.
All right the next archaeological site near Merida and one of the most famous sites in Mexico if not
the entire world is of course Chichen Itza. I know everybody has seen pictures of this
place but it just is not the same as actually coming here.
And yes the architecture of the temples and ruins is impressive but what is just absolutely amazing
is learning about the lifestyle of the Mayan people who inhabited this magnificent city.
The civilization was so advanced for its time in all aspects: in its economy,
its academic knowledge especially in the field of astronomy, in athletics, in urban planning.
When i came here in 1989 it was still permitted to climb the structures
and even though climbing is no longer allowed and even though there is a little bit of a
theme park atmosphere here it's still just an absolutely wondrous site.
A must do when visiting Merida or the Yucatan Peninsula.
Fact #10: The world's longest pier is near Merida. The beach town of Progreso just about an hour
north of central Merida is by one measure the world's longest peir that stretches
out four miles into the ocean. Merida has a good bus network.
It was confusing to find the right bus at first but easy once we figured it out.
Sometimes the buses are crowded but sometimes they're practically empty.
There is also Uber and taxis that will be just a few dollars to get around town.
Merida also has plenty of high-end supermarkets, modern shopping malls, and yes as you see they
still have Sears and Radio Shack here. We were in Merida on one of Mexico's
biggest holidays, dio de los muertos or the day of the dead.
Celebrations were limited due to Covid but there was a parade that you can see here
and also shrines that were set up to honor deceased loved ones.
So what was our overall impression of Merida? Well first if you've been to Merida please leave
a comment to compare your experience with ours. I'm sure it would be helpful to others to
hear your opinion too. We really liked Merida.
We like that there is the traditional authentic Mexico mixed with the modern and contemporary
lifestyle all together in one place. But could we actually live here in Merida?
Yeah I think we really could. The only downside that we see to
living in Merida is the heat. It's just so hot here.
But we really enjoyed our time in Merida. We appreciate the safety and security of the city,
the numerous activities, and now we understand why people come to live here.
Hey we still have more videos from Mexico coming soon so subscribe to our channel
so that you can be notified when our next video is ready.