L A Times

It wasn't Catherine Watson's first trip to Merida and from the sound of this appealing article about Merida it doesn't sound like it will be her last.  When her dog groomer mentioned he was renovating a house in Merida she dropped what she was doing and hopped on the next flight.  Now she knows what all the fuss is about.

T Magazine

No stranger to beautiful interiors and beautiful people the supermom goddess style maven Sara Ruffin Costello bumps Merida a few notches up on the New York Times must do list.

Merida on the Map

Here is the article from Travel+Leisure that was published 8 years ago this Christmas.  What's changed?  Not a lot at first glance but when the article was written there were no (zero) vacation rentals in Merida.  It was David Keeps idea that we start Urbano Rentals and Best of Yucatan.  We were meant to spend a couple of hours together during the holidays of 2003 and we spent 8 days together going to all of our favorite places and trying all sorts of new places that David discovered.  Who knew you could walk up to someone's door and ask to be invited into their living room to see their sprawling nativity scene?  Tulum is no longer a 4 hour trip.  You can make it in 2.5 hours if you bypass Valladolid.  I never said "I know everything and everyone" and today I certainly don't know all of the new comers to Merida from the North or East or even from the Western states of Mexico.  My little sleepy Yucatecan neighborhood became "the" hot place to be during the real estate boom that this article helped create.   The antique dealers are no longer a secret and their prices are sometimes higher than they would be in New York or Paris but they still call me when they know I'd like something or when they need some quick cash and I'm still in the market for a bargain...or a treasure. Sabrina's tacos are still the best thing going but Santa Lucia park has been renovated and some very trendy and stylish boutiques and restaurants are about to open (maybe).  Trotters, Ki Xocolatl & Pez Gordo are waiting for INAH to approve their building permits. David Sterling has become the go to guy for every famous chef or Martha Stewart that passes through town and Los Dos Cooking school gets rave reviews from all of our guests who attend. Now Starwood does not have the monopoly on pricey boutique hotels with mediocre food...there are others. I still find it hard to eat dinner in Merida.  There are lots of pricy ambitious eateries that stack food or concoct disastrous combinations under the banner of fusion to entice and poison you.  I'm still happiest in the old traditional places that serve simple mexican fare or seafood.  I started raising chickens and doing yoga a couple of years ago which led me to stop eating meat and so eating out is increasingly difficult but every winter I make the effort to check out the newest places if I can stomach it or the old unreliables to see if they've improved.  I'm seldom surprised as you can tell from my two food blogs on Merida and the Yucatan.  It was fun to catch up with David again in May 2012 for an article on Tulum which you can see below.

Boom Boom Tulum

Josh & I took off for a 10 year anniversary visit with David Keeps to Tulum for Travel+Leisure. For the past 3 years we've stayed at Coqui Coqui and had most of our meals at Hartwood. So traveling with David was like rediscovering Tulum. Coqui Coqui and Hartwood are still going to be my home away from home but now I know there are a few other options when there's no room at the inn. "In Tulum, luxury and earthiness coexist, but the coin of the realm is spirituality. It is a place known for on-site shamans, and the swankest hotel in town, Be Tulum (where the Argentinean-style rooms have limestone walls, freestanding tubs, and air-conditioning), offers something even more ambitious: for $100, the in-room menu promises that a holistic card reading will “recess your inner wisdom and clarify your paths.” Seeking a more hands-on experience, I stop at a roadside kiosk for a massage in a palapa and a take-home jar of Dijon-colored Mayan Clay, which claims to relieve sunburn, eye bags, insect bites, and depression. “Mix it with honey if you put it on your face, then wash it off in the ocean,” the salesperson advises. The idea just makes me hungry. At Casa Jaguar, where Euro-house lounge music provides a mellow backdrop for conversation, my friends and I enjoy cocktails that combine mezcal with hibiscus, cinnamon, and orange. We are joined by Jiri Filipek, a Bangkok-born former Manhattan fashion and home-décor retailer, who has set up Passage to Culture, an insiders’ concierge and tour company for Tulum visitors. “It’s like the Wild West here in a way,” she says of her new home. “If you have a dream and ambition, you can re-create your life here.”

Valla con Dios...

The New York Times has discovered one of my favorite towns the Yucatan. Hopefully it will be 20 years before they discover my other favorite. Austin Considine bit off more than he could digest when he tried the habanero in Valladolid but he survived to write about it. "Authentic: it’s a word that is frequently used when describing Valladolid. Culturally speaking, it’s a layered authenticity. The city is deeply Mayan, from the cuisine — sweet and spicy, heavy on the beans and slow-roasted pork — to the guttural consonants of the Mayan language heard on its streets. Many women wear the traditional Mayan huipil — white cotton blouses or dresses adorned with bright, flowered embroidery and sold in places like the Mercado de Artesanias, a block from the city’s beautiful, newly refurbished Parque Principal, or central square. It is also distinctly Spanish: Founded by invading Spaniards in 1543, its colonnades, pastel stucco and paving-stone streets give Valladolid an Iberian feel. The central cathedral, a fortress of ascetic Franciscan architecture, is standing room only on Sunday evenings. As in Spain, shops are often shuttered each afternoon for siesta."

New York Times may have spent 36 hours in Merida

And then again they may not have. Nothing new in this New York Times article... It seems they neither wanted or needed my advise...It's about as reliable as Trip Advisor. It would be hardly worth coming to Merida for 36 hours if this is all you did.

YUCATECANS are fiercely proud of their culture, sprinkling their Spanish with Mayan words and quick to recount the stories of resistance and revolution that set this region apart from the rest of Mexico for centuries. Somehow, those tales seem a little distant now in Yucatán’s capital, Mérida, a languid city of pastel mansions and evening promenades. The city, now one of the safest in Mexico, is an architectural jewel, and has one of the country’s largest historic centers outside Mexico City. Block after block of houses dating to the mid-19th century and earlier are in the midst of a restoration boom, and the city’s cultural and restaurant scenes are flourishing.

Merida: Mexico's Foodie Hot Spot

If you read this article in Departures Magazine you'll have the impression Merida is the Foodie center of the universe. I doubt you'll leave town with the same impression unless you are invited into the private homes of Yucatecans and Expats who are fortunate enough to have a real Mayan cook from a nearby pueblo cooking their meals.

Here's another article about authentic Mayan cuisine from Mark Bittman the New York Times food columnist and friend of a friend.  This one is about his travel to the interior of the peninsula on the trail of farm fresh peasant fare.

"Almost all of this food came from their milpa (which Rosendo still works, with a hired hand), and from the garden, where there are tomatoes, pigs and chickens. With the exception of the lard and the eggs from those animals, the meal could have been produced 500 years ago, and in much the same way. It tastes like that: essential, ancient, unlike any food you’d find in a big-town restaurant."