Climate shock in Mérida

From Puebla to Mérida it is around 20h by bus. When I exited the bus terminal in Mérida at about tea time the day after I left, I was of course a little tired from the long journey but it was nothing compared to the massive climate shock. Mérida is a city located on the Yucatán peninsula, two degrees north and eight degrees east of Puebla and enjoys a very hot Caribbean climate. And there I came walking through the city looking for my hostel in boots, warm jeans, shirts and jacket under a gazing sun. That was very very hot and I needed like five showers in a row.

The difference in climate depends on the differences in altitude. Mérida is located a mere 50 m above sea level, which can be compared to Puebla on 2160 m (no I didn’t type it wrong!). How high was that silly Ben Nevis now again? Or Kebnekaise by all means.

In Mérida there was some kind of a festival going on. Unfortunately, it was not a food festival (in which case I would have stayed there forever or until the food stalls closed) but some crappy music festival. All streets were full of people and it was a hassle to find spare beds in town. There was also a need to regularly move around as some days the rooms were fully booked, which made me lose my patience and I eventually left the city fairly quickly. It was a pity as there are a lot of things to see around Mérida, for example the Maya city Uxmal (and many other ruins) to the south, the gulf beaches 20 minutes to the west and flamingo colonies to the north. Instead I headed east towards Chichén Itzá.

Lot’s of people in the centre, was difficult to walk

There were not many food stalls around Zócalo (centre square) and there were few things I hadn’t tried already

I woke up early to be able to take some pictures without a million people. Here is the Zócalo again