My count of days I went Contra Dancing or English Country Dancing in 2016 was 92 - only 90 for Robert rsc who didn't come on my 2 reunion trips to NYC ( Read more... )

Towards the end of trip to Mérida in January we visited another Mayan ruin quite near Mérida: Dzibilchaltun. This one has not had as much restoration as some of the others and didn't have many visitors. There was an accompanying museum but we finished walking around the site too late to go to it. There as a cenote (swiming hole) there and some ( Read more... )

As part of our trip to Mérida we visited Parque Zoológico Animaya. It is a small zoo in a park not far from the center of the city. It had a wide range of fauna in a pretty small space amd was well worth going to. When we first got to the park it wsn't clear where the zoo was, but we knew we were in the right place because of the zebra waste bin ( Read more... )

The Museo Regional de Antropología “Palacio Canton” is in an magnificent old mansion on Paseo de Montejo in Mérida. Paseo de Montejo is a tree lined boulevard in a fashionable district (near the center and thus a short walk from our hotel).

It is full of fascinating Mayan artifacts.

Click for pictures:

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We took a day tour to Celestún, a town that has Parque Natural del Flamenco Mexicano, a biopreserve off the Gulf of Mexico. We say lots of flamingos, pelicans, other birds, and a mangrove forest. There is a mix of fresh and salt water. They warned us at the orientation session that we might not see any flamingos since they are somewhat nomadic - ( Read more... )

On the way back from Uxmal and Kabah we stopped at a place for snacks. There were some interesting things there including some fancy folk sculptures and a face embedded in a wall. The first 5 pictures in the set below the first two pics are from there. The rest are various spots in Mérida ( Read more... )

We went on an organized tour to Uxmal and nearby Kabah, both ancient Mayan cities ( Read more... )

Plaza Grande is in the center of Mérida. It is surrounded by the Cathedral, the old bishop's palace - converted into a museum, City Hall, arcaded buildings with shops and eating places (nice ice-cream store). The center had benches, some of the ubiquitous tu y yo chairs seen below, some greenery and lots of people. On Sundays some of the streets ( Read more... )

There was a market, Mercado Lucas de Gálvez, a few blocks from our hotel in Mérida and we went there twice. We always like visiting markets. This one is open every day. Elizabeth, one of Brooks' friends in the dance comunity, has a stall serving food, but it closes at 8am which is too early for us so we didn't go there. Food, clothing, toys, ( Read more... )

We returned late Sunday night from a delightful trip to Mérida, a large city in the Yucatan ( Read more... )