I have my own personal chef in Merida…

…and you can too!

The regional cuisine in Merida and the Yucatan is unique. Flavors here are savory, subtle and complex and Chef Andy is a pro in preparing them.

Probably one of the nicest, more affordable luxuries of staying in Merida and at Casa La Barenda is having Chef Andy cook and prepare Yucatecan comfort foods like frijol con puerco, a spicy pork and black bean stew, and pan de cazón, a shark and tortilla pie. Andy will surprise and dazzle with some of her own culinary favorite’s too. Andy’s friendly demeanor, her love of life and natural talents for cooking are infused into her dishes—what could be better! With Chef Andy, you don’t just get the food; you get a technicolor feel for local living and life in Merida. You can cook along side Andy while she shows you her secrets, or order up your favorites for home delivery—it’s your choice and you’ll be glad you did.

You can contact Chef Andy for your own personal in-house culinary experience at: andycookingyucatan@yahoo.com.mx.

Also see our video post by renowned chef and Television personality, Rick Bayless. In the episode “Eat, Drink and be Mérida” Rick does an excellent job of providing a comprehensive overview of Merida and her cuisine at: http://casalabarenda.com/videos/MeridabyBayless.html

Merida and the Yucatan from Space

Check out these cool photo images taken from a satellite over the Yucatan peninsula!

A Typical Day at Casa La Barenda

Retreat to La Barenda after a day of exploring… blend up a Margarita and melt away the afternoon in the plunge pool under the waterfall as you enjoy the garden and reflect on the day. After your siesta, walk to any of the nearby parks of Santiago, Hildalgo Square, Plaza Grande or Santa Lucia where at dusk, birdsongs are the featured performance of the day.

On Saturday and Sunday nights, hear live Latin sounds and dance to the rhythms or just celebrate the night where streets are closed to traffic for pedestrians in El Centro. Enjoy the many fine outdoor restaurants that spill into the cobblestone streets. Taste Yucatecan comfort food like frijol con puerco, a spicy pork and black bean stew, and pan de cazón, a shark and tortilla pie. Feast on delicacies from the Mediterranean, Lebanon, and other regions from around the world. Mérida is a melting pot of cultures that proudly retains its own.

Browse the offerings of local artisans from gorgeous hand-painted pottery to Jewelry, clothing and antiques. Return to La Barenda after the night and lull yourself to sleep by the sound of the waterfall just outside your air conditioned rooms as you anticipate the new day.

Traveler ‘To-Do’ Tips from Cancun to Merida

I frequently get asked about how to best to travel from Cancun to Merida. Depending on what part of the world you are coming from and what airlines you have miles with, flights into Cancun may be more reasonable than those into Merida. Travelers landing in Cancun will have the option to take a tour bus, hire a taxi or rent a car. The best way to get to Merida of course depends on your length of stay, what time of day or night you arrive, your connecting plans and a myriad of other variables. I’ll cover the basic travel options and To-Do’s here:

BUSES: Taking a tour bus will be a low stress and comfortable 4-hour ride with no stops directly to Merida. The downside is that day time travelers will only be doing windshield sightseeing along the way. ADO Platinum provides luxury buses with the most affordable rates compared to a taxi or renting a car. If you have a late arrival and need to overnight in Cancun, check your airline for hotel hook-ups and credited miles. Best Western hotel is conveniently located across the street from the ADO Platinum Bus Station. Best Western is clean and has a restaurant. Once in Merida at the Fiesta Americana hotel bus station, you can either take a 10 minute taxi ride to Casa La Barenda or arrange pick up by our local management team.

TAXI: Just say no. It will be too expensive.

CAR RENTAL: You can rent a car right at the Airport where most of the major providers are represented. Check your airline travel benefits for best deals first. It’s about 208 Miles or 336 Km from Cancun to Merida. Be sure to get a map from your car rental agency and a copy of Yucatan Today—a very informative ‘local happenings’ magazine that has good maps inside. Oh, and bring a small compass too—I’m not kidding! If you are not used to the flat, but nearly featureless jungle wilderness of the Yucatan, it can be both memorizing and disorienting at the same time.

Below are just a few of highlights to consider seeing along the way.

First up—The city of Valladolid. Worth a longer look than you likely have time for on a day trip. Valladolid is a terrific colonial city about 1 hour out of Cancun with a beautiful central square and notable architectural features. Valladolid has an old-world feel with an intrinsic charm–just what I look for in my travels through Mexico. Highlights of the town also include two Cenotes (say-NOH-tay) or sink holes. One in an unlikely location at the center of town is Cenote Bolonchojool. You can walk to the bottom on a path where you’ll find swimmers, or just hang out at the restaurant above that nearly overhangs for terrific views. And there is another spectacular one just a few kilometers outside of town to the southeast too–Cenote Dzinup or X’kekén. This Cenote is probably the quintessential Cenote of the Yucatan. Breathtaking natural beauty!

Next stop—the legendary Chichen Itza. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988 and recently named one of the ‘New 7 World Wonders’. Chichen Itza is nearly half way between Cancun and Merida, and you could easily spend a day here, but day-trippers to Merida will only have a few hours. Try to squeeze in time for a favorite beverage next door at the Mayaland Hotel. Walk the manicured gardens and check out the bungalows. This place was interesting enough for us to stay a night or two and forget about the race to Merida. It gave us the time we needed to decompress and thoroughly investigate Chichen Itza too.

Bottom line: With everything I just mentioned it will be a packed day and likely include some night driving into Merida. So you might find yourself deleting sights to make up time or improve the quality of your trip. And if that’s the case, the priorities might be Chichen Itza and Cenote Dzinup or just Chichen Itza.

Alternatively, you can always catch the Cenotes at Cuzama. (See my blog on the web page “Indiana Jones Day Trip” for more on this). http://casalabarenda.com/blog.html

Once you get Merida, the city forms a grid using the cardinal directions and there are several one-way streets. Streets are called ‘Calle’ with even numbers running north to south and odd numbers running east to west. Overshooting a street will just require a trip around a block or two. If you become disoriented in locating the casa you can call our local management team to guide you in.

The maps on the web page can be helpful too: http://www.casalabarenda.com/maps/Yucatan-state.jpg

Local Economy, Goodwill and Culture–Know before You Go

Most seasoned globe-trekkers will likely agree they have experienced helpful, compassionate, kind and gentle people in their travels—local people that are willing to give what might seem like an enormous amount of their time. People that provide something you need, that can’t be found at the local store. Or even volunteer a place in their home for you to sleep because your plans somehow changed. There are countless other examples that likely occur every day all over the world—all without expecting compensation.

Remember too that you find what you bring. Attitude is important!

To some, this abundance of goodwill might seem shocking and hard to handle. A typical first reaction is to get their wallet out and pay for it. Even worse—to overpay for it!

Recently I was reading a story from a publication who periodically publishes notes from traveler’s and their experiences. Most are informative and enjoyable to read. This one story however generated some thoughts about how a local might see a traveler.

In apparent amazement of the low costs at their destination, the writer of this story was feeling magnanimous… He “took a taxi from the hotel to dinner one night and the fare was $1. He offered the driver $2 and the driver refused. Only after the passenger insisted that he understood the price and that the extra dollar was a tip, did the driver take it”.

The writer continued… “In a small pharmacy, we asked for a needle to sew on a button. They didn’t sell them but the proprietor gave us one from her own sewing basket and refused to accept payment”.

What’s wrong with this you might ask? One of the quickest ways I know to spoil a culture is to import your own value system. At home something might cost 10 Euro or 8 usd, and where you are visiting might cost a fraction of that. Your culture might show appreciation by giving money; theirs might be how you treat someone.

Think about what you might do if you saw someone from ‘out of town’ struggling with directions, language or accommodations. Would you help? My guess is you would, and then afterward they offered you money. How would you feel? Insulted perhaps? You helped because you could—and it made you feel good. Instead of creating some puzzling, uncomfortable moment that ended awkwardly, you might have made a new friend or two!

But more importantly, and I hesitate to say this, the quickest way I know to ruin a local economy and watch things get more and more expensive is to do things like offer to pay double the cab ride for a ‘tip’. Imagine you are in New York City and your cab ride is $50.00 usd and you pay the driver $100.00. He’s going to think many things about you and few are likely to be favorable. Over the long term, if this occurs with any increasing regularity, it might have the strange and insidious effect of causing disdain and disrespect for the visiting culture. And fare’s might also increase more rapidly than they otherwise would.

There’s a better way to show appreciation than by just giving money.

So how might a person better handle this abundance of goodwill; this benevolent demonstration of humanity? In a word…graciously!…warmly, with a smile, a thank you in their language, and perhaps a handshake in the local style or friendly touch.

However some cultures simply cannot receive without giving. And in the case above, that person might have bought something at the Pharmacy since the giver was also the store owner. Another idea is to carry small items for ‘trade’ when these wonderful moments occur—and with any luck they will. Try pens or pencils, they are easy to pack, needed and can be personalized with a message in the local language too. Your message might say ‘Viva Mexico, greetings from (name), (country) with contact info if you wish. Who knows, you might just develop your own international network this way.

So please keep in mind that when traveling, you are an ambassador of sorts to your country. And money is no replacement for grace and appreciation. Read up before you go and lead with your heart not your wallet.

P.S. A fun link to get a feel for local currency differences is the Big Mac Index, check it out here:

http://www.economywatch.com/economies-in-top/big-mac-index-big-mac-ppp.html

A Meteor in Mérida

One of the most well known debates in science is over what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. At the time of the extinction about 65 million years ago, dinosaurs weren’t the only creatures to perish: scientists estimate that over 70% of all life on earth came to an end. Explanations for the extinction were for many years provided by two competing theories: One; that the global affects of either increased volcanism, or two; the effects of a large object impact created conditions too harsh for most life on earth.

The Chicxulub Crater
In 1978, a geophysicist working for Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX, the Mexican state-owned oil company) discovered a huge underwater “arc” with its ends pointing south, in the Caribbean Sea off the Yucatan. When the geophysicist compared this finding with an earlier survey of the Yucatan that had been made in the 1960s he found another arc, but this one was on the Yucatan itself, and its ends pointed north. He matched up the two maps and found that the two arcs joined up in a neat circle, 180 kilometers (112 miles) wide, with its center at Puerto Chicxulub (Chicxulub), which is a small coastal village about an hour north of Mérida. This underground ‘circle’ was in fact the perimeter of a giant crater that had been formed millions of years earlier.

Travelers to Merida will get to explore Cenotes, part of the remnant geological formations leftover from the Chicxulub impact crater.

See the full story here: http://www.casalabarenda.com/nationalgeographic.html

Chicxulub Crater

Merida, Mexico Named by UNESCO as a Cultural Capital

And if you come here you’ll see why. Merida is celebrating by instituting traditional events in the Centro Historico on a regular basis…

…And it’s all within a 4 block walking distance from Casa La Barenda.

On Mondays, La Vaqueria takes place, a Yucatecan fiesta and folk dance with many professional dancers in traditional dress. On Tuesday nights, you can dance to live big band music in Santiago Park just a block away from Casa La Barenda! Or on Thursdays, take part in the famous Serenata de Santa Lucia, live Yucatecan trova music (boleros, baladas) and dance are presented. And on the weekends, Corazón de Mérida (Heart of Merida). This is when Calle 60 is closed off to traffic from the Main Plaza up to Calle 55 from 9 pm to 2 am and the restaurants and bars put their tables and chairs in the street. This is literally an open-air fiesta as there are bands on every block and dancing in the streets.

Merida offers a rich history with many cultural and geological places of interest. On the Activities page, we brought together various links that provide a good example of the many discoveries you’ll find in and around Merida. http://www.casalabarenda.com/activities.html

*UNESCO.org is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. An organization whose worldwide mission is to safeguard world cultural heritage, rescue sites and monuments in danger. It is also an organization promote a culture of peace and tolerance through music and oral traditions, linguistic diversity, women’s rights and education; and protect and promote indigenous culture and the environment.

C’mon down…the weather is perfect this time of year and we would love to have you at Casa La Barenda…

Succulent Barbecued Pulled Pork…

Aside from the fact that I am trying to do my part to minimize media hype on H1N1, about the only place I have found so far where they have mastered the fine art of slow-cook—the mouth wateringly succulent method of preparing the little piggy—is a little hole-in-the-wall in Itzimna. The restaurant is “La Faja Atabacada”…which loosely translates to “The Brown Belt, or Big Macho Belt”. Of course that title has its own story, and it is one I’ll leave you to discover.

Use your fork to pull off tender strips for your Tortilla, or just be bad and dig in—this is the original finger food! La Faja Atabacada is a terrific choice for Take-Out just before a day-trip, or casual street side dining where you can take in the local scene. I’ll add that it’s also a good idea to purposely over-order for take-home. Either way you will enjoy this local favorite while you are doing your part to minimize the Swine Flu. Of course I’m kidding when I say that. But you’ll be happy to learn that the cost per kilo (2.2 Lbs) is around $165.00 pesos (about $12.65 usd) and includes salsa tortillas, etc.

For Coffee lovers…while you are there, head across the street to pick up some of the best locally roasted java at Cafe Latte. Local expat owner Rosario May Pech has been roasting organic coffees from Chiapas and Vera Cruz, Mexico for 14 years. Café Latte is located at 18 Avenida Perez Ponce 96 C. Café Latte is WiFi enabled and is a great place to hang out, or grab and go.

Cafe Latte’s rich, dark, oily, aromatic blends saved my coffee-dependant soul in Merida.

Feel free to write a comment…Do you know of other good places where they serve barbequed pulled-pork in Merida?

Last Word on the Infamous Little Swine (Flu)

This just in from CBS News correspondent and investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson: “Sharyl Attkisson is the investigative reporter behind the groundbreaking CBS News study that found H1N1 flu cases are NOT as prevalent as feared. In fact, they’re barely on the radar screen”.

No kiddin’…Heh, better late that never….But this is a time of year to celebrate…and to be thankful. And there is no better way to show our appreciation for the news media Swine Flu debacle than by having some BBQ Pork. Anybody hungry? See my article on ‘Succulent BBQ Pulled Pork’.

Enjoy!

Source info on above:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/11/24/Superstar-CBS-Reporter-Blows-the-Lid-Off-the-Swine-Flu-Media-Hype-and-Hysteria.aspx

Swine Flu Reprise

A few weeks ago in this Blog I talked about my personal experience with the HINI Virus. In the Blog I likened this experience to having a Cold. Here’s another view you might be interested in regarding the vaccine …

In the November 14, 2009 Weekend Edition of the S&A Digest, natural resource expert, Matt Badiali said “a dozen members asked me: Would you take the swine vaccine or give it to your kids?”

His answer: “No way. Last time we had a vaccine push like this in 1976, hundreds of people died from complications. Worse, the vaccine’s preservative contains small amounts of mercury” (a deadly toxin).

He says further that “Truthfully, swine flu is not that common. The CDC stopped testing for swine flu in July 2009. Since halting testing, it still reported pandemic levels of swine flu from states and doctors, but this was all ONE BIG LIE. Several states’ tests showed more than 80% of the originally alleged cases are NOT EVEN INFLUENZA (likely just a cold). Yet the government agencies continue to hype every sniffle and cold as swine flu. Worse, it says nearly everyone should get a vaccine. Absurd”.

Here’s some good Q & A advice from the BBC News media: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8021958.stm

All this talk about pork is starting to get me hungry. I think it’s time for some barbecue and I know just the place. I’ll report in a little later about this favorite little hole-in-the-wall where they have mastered the fine art of slow-cook, the mouth wateringly succulent method of preparing the infamous little swine.

Cheers!