On Wednesday, February 1st, we went to breakfast at Cafetería Pop, simple but decent, then waited nearly half an hour at our hotel to be picked up by our Turitransmérida guide, Raul, and led around the corner to where an almost-full 14-passenger van was parked. Then we drove off to another hotel and filled it up. The tour, to the important Mayan ruins at Uxmal and Kabah, was in both Spanish and English, but we and two young Chinese women (teachers from Hangzhou--"We've been there!" we said) were the only people to need the English version--though Mary Joy and I did pretty well with the Spanish, and the Chinese had so much trouble with Raul's accented English that they eventually gave up listening and just went around with us, taking pictures. Raul's explanations were very good, and the sites themselves, especially Uxmal, were magnificent.
Finally, we stopped for a late lunch at the Hotel Hacienda Uxmal (not bad, not great), and then headed back to Merida, where, after looking for crafts at the government-backed Casa de las Artesanías (a little disappointing) we had a decent (not great) dinner at Amaro, while listening to a very good singer-guitarist.
As to crafts, Mary Joy was addressed a couple of times on the street, completely out of the blue, by guys (one claiming to be a professor of Mayan languages at the University), who both, separately told us about the same wonderful place to shop for genuine Mayan crafts--but we had to hurry, since they would close soon and wouldn't be open the next day, because of a festival. I smelled a rat and steered Mary Joy away from these very nice, helpful men. Later, we asked the desk guy at our hotel and he ratified my suspicions, telling about a French couple who had, after buying a hammock, had asked him what they should have paid for it. No more than two or three hundred dollars, he said. They had paid a thousand, so he got them in touch with the Tourist Police, and they got their money back. He recommended the Artesanías shop across the street, where the hotel had bought a lot of their things, and we ended up getting a number of nice craftworks there (mostly from Chiapas, where Mexicans on this trip kept telling us we had to go).
Finally, we stopped for a late lunch at the Hotel Hacienda Uxmal (not bad, not great), and then headed back to Merida, where, after looking for crafts at the government-backed Casa de las Artesanías (a little disappointing) we had a decent (not great) dinner at Amaro, while listening to a very good singer-guitarist.
As to crafts, Mary Joy was addressed a couple of times on the street, completely out of the blue, by guys (one claiming to be a professor of Mayan languages at the University), who both, separately told us about the same wonderful place to shop for genuine Mayan crafts--but we had to hurry, since they would close soon and wouldn't be open the next day, because of a festival. I smelled a rat and steered Mary Joy away from these very nice, helpful men. Later, we asked the desk guy at our hotel and he ratified my suspicions, telling about a French couple who had, after buying a hammock, had asked him what they should have paid for it. No more than two or three hundred dollars, he said. They had paid a thousand, so he got them in touch with the Tourist Police, and they got their money back. He recommended the Artesanías shop across the street, where the hotel had bought a lot of their things, and we ended up getting a number of nice craftworks there (mostly from Chiapas, where Mexicans on this trip kept telling us we had to go).
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