Postcards from Mexico: 'Mérida es el Centro Del Universo'

I did some exploring on my own Thursday, walking the beautiful streets of this city in the Yucatan Peninsula, stumbling upon one cool thing after another without ever straying more than six blocks from my hotel.

The museums, the architecture, the Spanish colonial influences, the art galleries, the restaurants, the churches… and I haven’t even seen the beach yet, which I’m told is magnificent.

So I wondered to myself – why hadn’t I heard of Merida before? I wouldn’t say I’m “worldly” like The Most Interesting Man in the World in the Dos Equis commercials, but I wouldn’t say I’m a recluse, either, and I do consider myself well-read.

And before I labeled myself an idiot, I was almost relieved to hear several travel agents here in attendance at ASTA Destination Expo 2014 say much the same. Even ASTA Chairman of the Board John Lovell said that while Mexico is the No. 1 destination for clients at his Michigan-based travel agency, “I’m almost ashamed to say that in my company’s 40-year history I can ever remember sending anybody here.”

So I figured it was time for a little unscientific social experiment. I would take the question straight to the people of Merida and ask them: Why haven’t many foreigners heard of Merida? Why isn’t it as well-known as, say, Cancun?

To say it was an unmitigated disaster would be too kind. If I didn’t get the look like I had three heads, I got ‘THE Look’, the one I get from my wife when I say something she considers inappropriate. I unfortunately don’t remember too much from four years of high school Spanish, but I could clearly understand when Rodolfo, who 10 minutes prior was my best buddy when he sold me a straw hat, looked at me and sternly said:

“Mérida es el centro del universo.”

“That’s what they believe,” Richard Westell, general manager of the Hyatt Regency hotel here, told me. Westell is a Londoner who has been here for six years. “Because of the Mayan Empire and what that represents, because of their pride, that’s exactly what they believe – that this is the center of the universe. They are proud of what Merida is for them and what it means to their identity, and they are shocked and surprised that people don’t know.”

Pretty sure that’s the last time I’ll be asking that question.