Cenotes, beaches and a familiar face

As I wrote before, one of my best friends, Linda, came down to visit me for her spring break.  I was eager to show another person around the Yucatan and show them all about my life here in Merida.

She arrived late on Friday, but not late enough to miss out on the night life here in the city.  I took her out for a few drinks at a cafe and then we headed to one of the many discos or anthros here in the city.  For her first mexican disco experience I chose Amarantus, a small but fun club thats not too far away from my home.  One of the things that amazes me about the clubs here is that they are all open bar.  You pay about 5 dollars and then drink the rest of the night for free.  (For guys it is a little more expensive to enter.)  They bring bottle after bottle of liquor to your table with various mixers and then you get to do the rest of the work.  No lines, no waiting at the bar, no paying for every drink. 

After a late night out, we woke up on Saturday and headed off to Cuzama, the site of three cenotes.  We road 

on a horse drawn truck to each cenote.  While this trip marked my fourth trip to these cenotes, I am still amazed at their beauty and mystery.  I wonder if I will ever tire of going there.

Saturday night we went out to one of the nice Mexican restaurants in the center of town for dinner and drinks.  After a long day of swimming in the Cenotes we turned in at about midnight, which is pretty early for a Saturday night here in Merida.

On Sunday we headed to Progresso, the nearest beach town.  While it doesn't 

quite compare to the Caribbean beaches, the beach at Progresso is still very pretty.  The water has a blue-green color that is unique to the area.  The palm trees and palapa huts (a small umbrella-like structure with a roof of palm leaves) make the beach atmosphere ideal for relaxing and taking in sun.  We also went out on a banana boat ride, which is tubing on a huge, yellow, banana-shaped raft that can hold up to 12 people.  The waves were decent sized.  I fell off twice, but so did just about everyone else.  It was an exciting end to our day at the beach.

From there we checked out Merida en domigo (on Sunday).  Every sunday the main square of town comes alive with people selling things, shopping, eating, dancing and enjoying the last day of the weekend.  We did some shopping at the small stalls before calling it a day.

My Lesson of the Day(s): Some places only get better the more you visit them.