14/10/04- 15/10/04 Mérida, Mexico

We arrived back in Cancun for the third time utterly exhausted and determined not to stay another night in this rather unpleasant place so we headed straight off to the bus station and took the next bus to Mérida. We arrived quite late at night in the pouring rain and went straight to bed.

The next morning the weather had improved slightly so we took to wandering the streets and reaquainting ourselves with western ways, namely buying stuff we didn't need.

Mérida is quite pleasant, it boasts the oldest church in Latin America, but then quite a few towns that we have passed through on this trip have boasted that.

One thing it does have that I believe is an orginal is a "Blistering Jesus". Now I have seen a blinking Jesus but never one that blistered so I was quite intrigued and made Roger sit around the square in the rain (it had started again) until the Cathedral opened at 4pm. As I understand it some time ago a tree was hit by lightening and burnt all night. That's not that usual I hear you say, but in this instance the tree remained intact. In order to celebrate this amazing immortal tree the locals decided to cut it down and make a statue from it. Lovely. Not surprisingly they chose an image of Jesus and placed it inside a church. To show his pleasure at these activities the good Lord decided to burn down the church (I have no evidence by the way that he had a hand in the aforementioned arson), but low and behold the statue once again survived, albeit slightly charred. Unfortunately the church did not far so well and such the statue was again moved to another church, presumably because nobody wanted it in their home. Remarkable.



By the way I am very aware that Roger´s sarcasm is starting to have an effect on me.

I found the town of Mérida pleasant though unfortunately the weather was inclement- contemporary art gallery contained some fine pieces.

Fiona's getting terribly rude isn't she?