The last few weeks have been so fun. Once we got over the heat (haven’t really, but it’s less noticeable now) and started to get our bearings regarding fav cafes for coffee and smoothies (Selva Coffee Garden, Rosas & Xocolate) and cute shops (Casa T´HŌ Concept House, Úumbah Arte Mexicano), we were able to relax and dig in.
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Most importantly, we’re striving to be grounded and intentional. Being away from home and all its pleasures/conveniences encourages us to find happiness in nuances and moments. Having eyes open and embracing awareness over opinion (much easier said than done) is a goal more easily interfaced with while away from home.
“Be curious. Be constantly, consistently, indiscriminately curious.” Maria Popova1
🚍 Transportation
This is a topic we couldn’t possibly spend enough time on. It’s make or break. Knowing the apps, acceptable payment methods, and norms2 will ensure an easier trip (or at least help avoid some new city blues 💙).
TLDR: In Merida, Didi is king 👑. It’s the cheapest and most responsive. Americans cant sync their cards as a payment method, but you can select to pay in cash(!!) - a lifesaver especially if you have issues with cards (as happens on trips sometimes due to fraud alerts on the bank side). Uber is super amazing too - but we’ve had some issues with pickups - especially on motos.3 In town buses are generally unreliable (we haven’t cracked the code on collectivos, which we assume are more reliable) at least in terms of tracking them with Google Maps’ public transit feature and moovit (a local bus app). Another method of transit is city bikes via Enbici, which are really great! Cheap (3 months free when you sign up!) - but there arent many good bike lanes in our neighborhood - Santiago - so we arent able to take advantage :(
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Getting out of town, ride share isn’t a good option. Way expensive + you’re often stuck without service to call an Uber + Ubers just aren’t a thing out in the countryside. So we’ve had great luck with ADO busses. Very inexpensive (~ $30 Mx pesos for a ticket that gets you an hour outside of town. The TAME terminal gets us to a ton of places, including west to Valladolid and Izamal. And S loves riding on buses - mostly bc she gets to rack out while splayed across the two of us. Trips are usually 1.5 hours - short for a nap but better than nothing.4 Remember that ADOs usually just take cash, and usually wont book your return ticket (you’ll do that on the way out). Also - schedules change by the day. Saturdays and Sundays have unique schedules not alike the week. A best practice is to verify the day before youre leaving a place.
🧘🏻♂️ Rituals
Like all good yuppie millennials, we are heavily invested in maintaining a set of rituals - meant to enhance our lives and prevent broken bodies. This includes taking lots of supplements (to name a few: Amazing Superfood for health, Calm magnesium powder for digestion, quick yoga sessions with Down Dog morning and night, and meditations with Headspace when able - please laugh at any/all of this if you’d like 🤦🏻♂️). Travelling makes adherence to rituals much harder.
Start with morning meditations. Usually they’re fit in before S is up, in the quiet hours of the morning before the sun rises. But in Mexico, daylight savings time went away in late 2022, so the sun is full up at 5:30 AM - and S is up too. Super cute seeing a lovely little lady wake you up with a smile and a kiss, but there’s definitely not time to fit in the superfluous activities that are usually foundational to the morning.
Also, the simple ritual of sleeping times and locations changes. Luckily, we gave up on sleeping in separate beds from S a few months back (2 years of sleep training and unravelling and many nights of crying coupled with total peace when we’re all in the same bed all set the stage for co-sleeping). In addition to 5:30 wakeups, there’s jet lag that encourages frequent napping throughout the day (and consequently difficulty falling asleep at night), there’s heat (we’re all tired all day because we feel zapped), and there’s S’s uncertainty of being in a new place. She’s so far really struggled to fall asleep for naps without us in the room, which is definitely related to trust in a new setting and the not-yet-arrived feeling of safety that accompanies being somewhere for longer than a week.
And then, just sitting at coffee shops is hard. Coffee shops used to be a mainstay of our travels - a chance to pay a buck to chill and relax and collect your thoughts. Now, while we’re still getting coffee, we spend more time in open spaces. We’re trying to filter for restaurants that have open spaces, or even yard games(!), so that we can enjoy ourselves as a family. (The joy of solitude is replaced by the joy of attachment in the stage of life). Patio Petanca fit the bill perfectly. We played ball games, and S chilled in the dirt, piling up gravel into little hills. Pro tip: Merida is chalk full of unsugared juices - perfect for a little one (in moderation) to enjoy while Mom and Dad get grownup drinks.
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🥣 Food
There’s a ton of great food around. You just kinda need to dig in and find the spots. (And make sure you have the city downloaded on your maps app + a good data plan 😂)5
At the end of a long day, you’re hungry as heck but everyone is so tired. If the stars line up, S will crash when the sun goes down (which is 6 PM here) and we can enjoy a nice dinner - while she’s crashed. Thanks to the riquísimo Lou’s (unreal Italian food) for letting us pull together chairs as a makeshift bed.
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We’ve already been so impressed by coffee shops and restaurants tucked into the city’s nooks and crannies. Big thanks to an awesome AirBNB host who has a thorough guidebook, and lots of cool blogs describing where to start. For starters, Volta Cafe inside of Plaza Carmesí is such a cute spot. Delicious pastries, perfect coffee in various roasts. And a superb spot for remote work - super fast wifi. Pan & Køf.feé is also lovely. It’s on Montejo Boulevard, and is a real haven. Nice staff, plants everywhere, top-notch coffee and healthy breakfasts). And we’ve been dying to go to Bar La Ruina around corner from our place in Santiago - but theyve been too full! It smells great and has music playing always. We’ll followup once we’re let in 😆
I’d also be remiss if I did not mention some of the superb eateries we’ve come across. For the sweet tooth, Casa de Flan is an inexpensive but delish spot in a rugged part of town - many many flavors of flan, all around $40 Mx. Also crushed a “cenote of dulce de leche” last night at the city’s cutest rooftop bar: Restaurante Picheta (such amazing views of the square). And Cafe Montejo in the Santiago neighborhood was quite pleasant - flowers falling from beautiful bourgeoning trees at the entrance.
Still on the list are brunch at Good Day Cafe, late night craves at Cosmic Monchies, and Kaan Ha (which is never open - but when it is we’re beelining). Way too many spots to hit up - our wanna-go bookmarks are growing daily we notice and add while traversing town. Mérida is packed with goodness.
😙 Wrapup
Nick’s mom is coming into town this weekend! We’re going out to Uxmal for a night at the onsite lodge 🤗 We’re also planning a day trip out to Sisal, which is a Pueblo Magico6 and beach town. Will lather up on sunscreen to beat the UV and take lots of pics. Renting a car7 for the weekend - hope that’s a good experience!
Thanks for being with us on these adventures so far. Please connect with us via the chat section in Substack :) We’re creating a few conversational topics so we can learn from each other :) Until next time.
From her conversation with the NEA years back.
In Hawaii we’ve found that car rentals are cancelled if you’re more than an hour late to pickup. In Portugal, we were 5 hours late an no one cared.
BTW - motos - so cool! Such a fun option for getting around town. The drivers carry helmets if you don’t have one - and they don’t obey traffic so they’re usually faster.
Side note on napping: Phone keep us awake. A few times - on buses specifically - Simone will be fighting sleep while she’s on one of our laps. The reason (sometimes) is because we have our phones out. On more than one occasion during this trip, just pocketing our phones induced quick naps.
We are using our Verizon Prepaid plans, and it’s been great. For $50/month, we get unlimited Call/Text/Data in the US, and unlimited Call/Text + 2GB of 5G data per day in Mexico and Canada. Throughout Merida, our phones worked well, with only a few dead zones.)
These are special towns with a unique designation by the Mexican government. The towns are usually historic and beautiful and super clean. A few incredible ones we’ve been to are Tepoztlán south of DF, and the irreplaceable Santiago Apoala in Oaxaca.
The daily rate is like 1/10th of the total rate once you add in auto insurance. Caught us off-guard.
Beautiful read!!! I can’t wait for the next posting!
That pic of S fast asleep on the chairs is too cute! How's the coffee where y'all are?