Postcards from Mexico: Lessons Learned

MERIDA, Mexico – This is my final missive from the Yucatan, where the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) held its annual Destination Expo.

In short, it was a glorious five days. I had never been to Mexico before, much less Merida, but it was a wonderful crash course in culture that makes me want to go back strictly for leisure instead of business.

Here are a few things I learned about Merida:

• This isn’t some sleepy beach town trying to become a bigger tourism draw. For starters, the beach in Merida is 18 miles from the traditional hotel district in the center of town. And Merida isn’t sleepy – this is the capital of Yucatan, the financial center of the state and a very charismatic and cosmopolitan city rooted in ancient tradition.
• The Sunday marketplace is fascinating. If I could have fresh papaya every day for breakfast I’d move here just for that. It makes for a lively, fun place when they close down some streets near the center of town and fill them with booths. This is most definitely not your New York City street fair with the same cashmere scarves and sunglasses and diabetic socks every 20 feet. It’s a mixture of hand-made jewelry and fresh fruits and other delicacies, live music, and more. It’s like being at a carnival.
• I like flan.
• I really, really like sorbet.
• I totally should have paid attention – or at least retained – what I learned in high school Spanish. Unlike the snooty French, Mexicans go out of their way to help you overcome the language barrier. But it would have been wonderful to be able to converse in Spanish. And by the end of the week I was remembering enough to understand the clerk at the airport convenience store, who was telling me that, yes, I could pay her in American dollars for my bottles of water but she would have to give me back my change for a $20 bill in pesos.
• Yucatecans take great pride in the asteroid that hit their land millions of years ago, essentially breaking it off into a peninsula. This is sacred ground.
• News flash: taking a bus in Mexico is most definitely not the traditional Hollywood version in which you share a hot, sweaty, un-air conditioned ride with your new best friends, including livestock animals. These are sleek vehicles, comfortable, and air conditioned. As more than one person said to me during the week, ‘the bus is Mexico’s train system.’
• Standing outside the Catedral de San Ildefonso, knowing that you are looking at a 500-year old church that was actually built on top of the ruins of the Mayan city of T’ho, is nothing short of awe-inspiring.
• Diet Coke is known as Coca-Cola Light in Mexico. I don’t know why I find that interesting, but I do.
• The Paseo de Montejo is every bit as cool as New York’s Fifth Avenue or Chicago’s Magnificent Mile if you’re into everything from shopping to seeing some of the old restored mansions to restaurants and nightclubs.