Arrival in Costa Rica

In order to get to Tres Ríos, Costa Rica, from Mérida, Mexico, I first had to go back through Houston. I left before the crack of dawn (4:45 AM) from my homestay house and arrived at the airport shortly after 5 for my 7:10 flight. Since the line was short for both check-in and security, I had a lot of time to wait around near the gate (Mérida is a small airport; the only snack stand was charging 46 pesos for a 300ml bottle of milk that could be purchased at Oxxo, a convenience store, for 11.50 pesos). Luckily, JC was on the same flight as I was, so I at least had some company. Once we touched down in Houston, JC and I left together to go through customs. Unfortunately, we were separated as I was just passing through on my way to Costa Rica and JC’s final destination was the US. I spent the rest of my (short) time in the airport going through security again, finding an ATM, and trying to get my ticket changed for my return trip (I was originally scheduled to go through Newark (and Chicago) before getting to Louisville, but a flight change made it so that I would arrive in Newark at 3:15 when my flight out of Newark left at 3:00—this was something of a problem, in my opinion), which took a ridiculously long time but was eventually accomplished. From Houston, I flew into San José, Costa Rica, which is a beautiful and bustling city of 3 million that is also the capital of Costa Rica. From there, I went through customs for the 2^nd time that day and quickly found my homestay mom, Emilia (we’re twins!). We then took a prearranged taxi to Tres Ríos, which is 30 kilometers from the airport (though only 12 kilometers from the center of the city). It took us over an hour to get to Tres Ríos, partly due to traffic. I thought our taxi was going to break down on the highway (we came to a complete stop at least three times!), but we did make it. Helpfully, none of the streets around here have signs with names (I didn’t even know the address of this house for a few days), so unlike in Mérida, I cannot find anything based on an address.

Travel in Mexico

I was lucky to be able to do a fair amount of travel throughout the Yucatan with my group on the weekends. 

The first weekend visit was to Izamal, a small town founded by (or taken over by, anyway) Franciscan monks, who started a monastery/church and painted the entire town a sunny golden yellow. Along with the church, which is built on top of Maya ruins (subtle statement about religious superiority, no?), there is also what could qualify as a “pyramid” built by the Maya. I got to climb it, which was interesting as part of the “stairs” were more like a cliff wall. The view from the top was great, of course, but the climb down could reasonably be called treacherous. My group ate at Kinich, a restaurant specializing in Yucatecan food. I had Poc Chuc, which is a fabulous pork dish that anyone going to the Yucatan should try. After eating, we decided to head to Cuzamá, a small town with three cenotes, which are big fresh water underground cave things. Because we ended up taking the long way (total derecho leads everywhere, apparently), we arrived quite late and were only able to see one of the cenotes, but the visit was still worth it; the 30 minute ride in a horse led cart on tracks was just the icing on the cake. We also took the long way back thanks to total derecho, so we arrived in Mérida quite late as well. The cenotes are a must see, so I was glad to have the chance to go.

Part of the pyramid we climbed

Our whole group in the cart with our drivers

The second weekend trip was an overnight that included many different sights. We first traveled to Chitchen Itza, an ancient Maya ruin sight including a large pyramid (closed to walking because of a fatal accident) and the largest ball field (speculated to have been purely ceremonial because of the dimensions). Chitchen was an amazing sight but the hawkers were everywhere and it was quite crowded with tourists. We went on a guided tour (mostly in English, partly in Spanish) that was very informative and the tour guide was a very nice indigenous man who also taught us some phrases in Maya. The next stop was Ik Kil, a lovely cenote with a nice buffet restaurant attached. We swam in Ik Kil and at one point (for about 15 minutes) had the entire cenote to ourselves. The only down point was that I slipped on the stairs and banged up my foot, knee, and hip. The bruising was pretty bad, but it didn’t put a damper on the rest of the trip like a twisted ankle would’ve. After spending a good amount of time at Ik Kil, we continued on to Valladolid, a small city in Yucatan. Valladolid was somewhat similar to Mérida, just much smaller and less crowded. We were in a great hotel on the centro with a good restaurant. The students (including me) spent some time exploring the centro and the surrounding area; Brittany and I went on this ridiculous tour/party bus, but we couldn’t convince Eric and JC to accompany us (spoilsports). In our defense for riding this very touristy bus, we were the only foreigners on it. After dinner, our whole group (including the professor) went out exploring Valladolid and ended up at a karaoke bar, where we watched a group of Mexicans from Cancun party like it was their last night on earth. Since the karaoke was in Spanish, I did not know any of the songs, but it was still and interesting and somewhat entertaining experience. I’ll have you know that I only had a Coca Light (by the way, Mexico is obsessed with Coke, way more than the US; it even costs more than Pepsi in some cases), which made the experience even more interesting. After going back to the hotel at an early hour of the morning, I still got up early and spent my time waiting for Eric reading one of my textbooks. Since Eric and I were way ahead of Brittany and JC, we had time to go out and sit in the square afterwards (my first time trying one of the S-(or love-)chairs, which was surprisingly very comfortable. This reminds me about a part of the previous night in the square and a bird POOPING ON MY HEAD, which was not a fun (or funny) experience despite the fact that Eric couldn’t stop laughing at me. JC and Brittany were a bit more sympathetic since they had also had bird poop incidents just moments before. Anyway, on Sunday we headed out to Ek Balam after doing a bit more exploring in Valladolid. Ek Balam is another ancient Maya ruins sight but is unique in the fact that it includes an observatory (the Maya were literally hundreds of years ahead of the Europeans when it came to astronomy). There was also a palace that we got to climb (the stairs were definitely not made for European-sized feet), which also had an amazing view from the top. After Ek Balam, we were back on the road to Mérida.

Chitchen Itza

The third weekend was left up to us to use how we wanted, so we all ended up going with Brittany to Uxmal, another ancient ruin site. My British coworker Ruth and Eric’s friend from home Lindsey came with us and we all had a blast, though catching the bus back to Mérida was a bit of a hassle (when they say 3:00 they don’t really mean 3:00). Uxmal also had a pyramid we could climb, so we did climb it and then took a bit of a snack break on top, which was cool. Uxmal was much less crowded than any of the other sites, which was nice, and we took ourselves on a tour (helped by Eric, who had previously seen Uxmal).

Overall, I did what I think is a fair amount of traveling in the less than a month that I was in Mérida. I would recommend any of the above sites to anyone visiting the Mérida region.

Mi Horario en Mérida

My daily schedule is thus:

5:30 AM: wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast, and otherwise get ready to leave the house

6:10ish AM: leave the house, walk to the bus stop (3 blocks), wait for and catch the bus, ride for 

a few minutes, get off the bus and walk six blocks to the school

6:35ish AM: arrive at school, greet teachers and students

7 AM: school starts, watch starting meeting/gathering

7:15/45 AM to 12:00/15 PM: teach English classes, talk with teachers, students, and the principal, play with the small kids during recess, wait for class to start, observe the principal

12:00/15 PM: walk to the bus stop, catch the bus, walk home

12:25/50 PM: arrive at home, change clothes, do some homework, eat lunch, prepare for next job

2:00 PM: leave the house, take a bus to the centro, walk to next bus, take bus from the centro, arrive at the Salvation Army

2:55ish PM to 6 PM: arrive at the S.A., teach English class, help with homework, play with the kids, translate between my coworkers (one is British and speaks a bit of Spanish and the other is Mexican and speaks a bit of English, but a lot of translating is required)

6 PM: wait up to 20 or 25 minutes to catch the bus, walk to the other bus, take other bus, walk home

7:00/7:15 PM: arrive home, eat dinner, take a shower, do homework, plan next classes

10:00/30 PM: go to bed

Next day: repeat

Add in occasional meetings, weekend trips, etc.

Total: 8.5 hours of work, 3 hours of travel daily

LONG DAYS

Mi Vida en Mérida

I live in a beautiful house in the northern part of the city. The street I live on is all houses, but one block over is a major avenue with many stores, banks, and restaurant. I catch my bus three blocks in the other direction at the local Costco. It takes about 15 minutes to get to el centro by bus from my stop; the bus stops about a block away. All the bus fares in the city are only 6 pesos; if you have a student or senior citizen card it is 3 pesos. The public transportation here is very safe and reliable. In addition to lots of buses, there are also taxis. Taxis are much cheaper here than in the US, but it is still more economical to take a bus unless you are a family traveling a short distance.

The houses here in the city are made out of concrete due to the tropical climate. The house that I am staying in has a courtyard that two or three of the rooms open out to; in the morning, I eat breakfast with a view of the courtyard, which is nice with large trees and many pigeons. My homestay family feeds leftover food to the pigeons. I am not sure if this is true of all or even the majority of houses in Mérida, but both the house that I am staying in and the house that my college has purchased as a permanent residence have only tile floors. The tile is different in all the rooms in this house, but it can’t beat the original gorgeous tile pattern pictures in the college house. The architecture around here is like a mix of Florida and New Mexico; I am reminded of both places every day. 

The schedules for daily living in Mérida are quite different than any schedule I’ve ever been beholden to. Breakfast is at an early hour but lunch isn’t eaten until 2o’clock in the afternoon and dinner not until 7:30 or 8 o’clock in the evening. I usually cannot make it till lunchtime; I have to eat a snack. My house pretty much closes down after dinner, with most people going to their rooms to sleep or watch TV. The stores here don’t close early but they also do not open until around 10 AM, at least in my neighborhood. Everything about time is very different here.

Mérida

Mérida is a lively city. The city is always bustling and el centro is packed with people in the plazas and el mercado. Mérida, like most places in the Yucatán, is flat. The buildings are almost all one story and are connected in el centro. Most of the stores do not have traditional doors; instead, they have the metal garage door-like roll up storefront. When the stores are open, they are completely exposed to the street and the weather and you can see everything in the store. The restaurants are more traditional and are everywhere in el centro. There are many cafés, eateries, ice cream and sweets shops, and full sit-down restaurants. 

                                          Rozca de Reyes, an event in the northern part of the city

Outside of el centro, there are two extremes. The northern part of the city is very developed with malls and supermarkets and other huge stores and hotels. There is a Hyatt, a Costco, a Sam’s Club, and a Walmart. There are also large Mexican supermarkets (Mega and Soriana Súper) and chain stores. If you are in the northern part of the city, you could be anywhere in the States (granted, most signs are in Spanish). The southern part of the city is a different story. If you head south from el centro, you know that you are not in the States. Instead, you could be in any underdeveloped country. The houses are falling apart, some do not have running water, and if the house has electricity it hasn’t been for long because many of the neighborhoods did not have access to electricity until the mid-2000s. There are dogs running around everywhere and the streets are poorly kept. Most of the houses do not have roofs and have open or semi-open doorways. There are no lawns or plants or trees, just block upon block of crumbling concrete. The people who live here mostly work in minimum wage jobs such as construction or service sector jobs. The minimum wage here is 57 pesos (about $4.50) per day. In the US, federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour and in some places the local minimum wage is much higher.

Mérida is in one of the top states for the percentage of indigenous people in the state. In Mérida you can see many traditional Maya. The Maya are a short people compared to people from the US (which I love, as I’m on the tall side at not quite 5’2”) and are very dark skinned. The Maya women wear white shift-like dresses with colorful embroidery. Also in Mérida there are many indigenous women who have come from the southern states of Oaxaca and Chiapas. These women wear black wool skirts and dark blouses. Many of them sell hand-made wares on the streets for extremely low prices (50 pesos for a hand knit scarf). These women have come to Mérida because it offers them more hope than their hometowns. There are many reasons and causes for this, but one cause we have been studying in our group is NAFTA. The indigenous people of the southern states were mostly farmers of maize, but the structure of NAFTA at this time forces these farmers to compete with the heavily government-subsidized corn from the US. Because there is no competition, many of these people have lost their land. Some have gone into the tourist business, becoming maids in the hotels in Cancun or other service sector jobs, and many have come to places like Mérida to try and make a better life. Whether they are successful I could not say.

Made it!

After getting up before 2:30 AM EST, I finally made it to Mérida at 9:15 pm CST and was at the hotel a bit before 11. My long layover in the Houston airport turned out to be beneficial as I was able to read half my history textbook. I was glad to get to Mérida, though, and happy to get to bed. 

This morning I explored el Centro for over 45 minutes, which is how long it took me to find the bank that was "1 block over" according to the program hostess. I only have a few minutes until I am supposed to meet the group for a tour of the city and orientation, though, so I had better get going. 

Lucky for me, this hotel has free wi-fi, but I still do not know if I will have any once I get into my homestay tonight. This may be my last post for awhile.

¡Adiós!