Three Kings´ Day

Today, by a perfect coincidence is the biggest day of celebration in the town of Merida. It is Three Kings´ Day, the day when the good witch comes and gives presents to children, the birthday of the city (over 400 years), a state holiday and the day before Charles´ birthday. Tonight there will be a huge procession and concert in the main square. I am expecting that it will be terribly crowded, but we will go and see anyway. The main advice is to watch out for pickpockets.

Merida is a small city and our hotel is about 2 kilometres out of the centre. This provides us with a nice walk. Merida is roughly the centre of the site where the meteorite landed and the dinosaurs were no more. The problem is that the indentation on the earth is over 250 kms, so even though we are in the middle of it we would not know it unless we were told.

Merida also has a funeral parlour in our street which opens out to the footpath so everyone can see in. All the proceedings are on public display and the grieving families are provided with a vending machine for comfort. It seemed a bit wierd to be deciding which button to press for coke or fanta while someone lays in a box, but everyone gets thirsty and in Mexico death is a very special occasion.

We did a free walking tour of the city where some interesting information was mixed in with information overload and repetition. After about and hour, Josh made the executive decision that we should just duck into the art gallery. Good decision! Some of the art was okay, but the place was spacious, quiet and cool.

I then made the executive decision that rather than sit in the main square and be bothered by hawkers trying to sell handcrafted toys and novelties, we should go to Cafe Pop. Good decision! The food was okay, the cafe had a pop art theme and it was quiet and cool.

On the way back to the hotel, I impulsively decided to get a Mexican haircut. The hairdresser spoke no English so the whole thing was fun. I figured that at worst I would have a Señor Bigotes story. When he finished cutting, he did a terrible job of blowdrying my hair into a 1982 helmet style. I came back to the hotel and messed it up and it is fine. The best thing is that it cost me the grand total of $6.50. I did actually think about getting a colour as well, but chickened out.

The hotel has a body of water that some would call a fountain and others would call a well. We have called it a swimming pool. The boys say that it is hard to have a good time in such a small space, but it is refreshing.