This is the side of a building near our hotel. SO BRIGHT!
This was a sign on the wall for a what I think was a restaurant. Roughly translated it may mean, "The one-eyed pig - cooked in a pit and beer"
My new favorite store in Mexico, Liz Minelli. I also love her singing.
In the marketplace.
My third favorite salon de beauté. You just know you'll be gorgeous when it says Pretty Woman over the door!
My favorite dancer. So elegant and regal.
My second favorite dancer. She had such an expressive face and personality.
I know there are quite a few photos here, but it was all so beautiful I felt like I was walking through a travel brochure.
The women are wearing the traditional Mayan garment called huipil. The huipil is a garment worn as a blouse by Mayan women since ancient times. It is a square or rectangular piece of cloth with a hole in the center. It is generally embroidered around the neck, in the shape of a cross. The garment is then folded in half and the sides stitched up. The stitching stops on the sides to allow for armholes. The huipil is worn over a skirt which is tied with a woven belt.
The neck is elaborately embroidered with designs representing the cosmos, the gods and their helpers. When a Mayan woman puts on her huipil, she becomes the axis of this symbolically represented universe.
It was VERY warm out.
As the dancers finished, the chairs and bleachers that had been focused on them to one side of the street, began to move to face the end of that street. And when we returned after dinner, there was a dance contest being held! First the over 60 crowd, then came the 18-30 group. A whole stage and disco lighting schematic were thrown up in a matter of hours and would just as quickly disappear.
Finally Street Festival Sunday arrives. From the map above I can tell you that the majority of the action is centered around the main square at the bottom of the map. It's nuts. They were setting up tents starting the night before beginning before ten pm. I was prone to thinking, "Isn't it lucky we were here this weekend for all this?" But was corrected that they do this street closure, live band, outdoor shopping, food vending extravaganza EVERY SUNDAY.
There were numerous stalls of local handicrafts.
This one was a sweet crepe that got rolled up, then filled with Parmesan cheese. The cheese melted and the crepe got hard. It tasted like a sweet waffle cone filled with salty cheese. Super yummy.
Fruit for sale.
Corn on the cob, slathered with mayonnaise then a spicy chili sauce, Parmesan cheese and topped with a squeeze of fresh lime to take the chili sting out.
This has a specific name that I can't recall. I dubbed it Pig & Pineapple. Instead of a lamb kebab being spit roasted, this is all pork. Above it is a whole pineapple that is being slow roasted and dripping down through the pork. The pork is shaved off then made into tacos with a little piece of the pineapple thrown on for flavor.
Instead of washing dishes (this is a stall in the middle of the street with no running water), they place a plastic sack over them and throw away the plastic to reuse the plates again and again. These are panuchos because as you can see the corn tortilla is filled with black beans and deep fried.
Lyle said he was ordering 4 tacos. I thought we'd each have 2. Then they came and we had 4 each. Then Lyle ordered 2 more. Yeah they were tasty. Oh, and though I cut out about 6 other logos from the photo do you get the feeling COCA-COLA may be sponsoring this picture? Lyle said he normally doesn't drink Coke in the states, but in Mexico it is stilled made with real sugar (not corn syrup) and it actually tastes good.
That evening we dined at El Convento, a restaurant in a hotel called La Mision de Fray Diego. Since it was street festival Sunday we were the ONLY people in the restaurant. We had great service and great food. 
Lyle had the Palella and we all helped him finish it.
Our hotel had a gracious courtyard with a stellar pool. After a hot day out in the sun plying ourselves with food, it was a delight to come back to the pool and cool off. Right above the pool was a wooden walkway that crossed from our grouping of rooms to the main house where breakfast was served. I was afraid of the catwalk.
Eat your heart out Esther Williams.
After all that food we'd eaten during the day, these round figurines in the gift shop doorway summed up how we were feeling, FULL. But we persevered and took a tour of Merida by night.
I thought I had found the perfect place to get my haircut. Aren't these photos stylish? I so wanted to look like the one in the middle, Ricky Schroeder from the Silver Spoon years.
Then I found the real deal. Escuela De Alta Peluqueria, my friends tell me that translated it means the School of the High Wig. I would have booked my appointment for the tomorrow, but alas, it would be Sunday.
Though we came late to the performance and could not get a seat (all the tables AND row seating were filled!) we stood in the back and cheered her on. When she finally announced she was done for the night, the crowd rose to their feet and demanded, "Un otros! (another!)" and she gladly complied. Four times.
Our first full day in Mexico and we were up bright and early to take a cooking class. What an amazing introduction to our stay in Mexico. We met our instructor who used to live in Manhattan and has since relocated to Merida. He has studied the Mayan people like a food anthropologist with a passion for the flavors and history of the area that is contagious.
Radishes. Though lovingly and beautifully displayed, we weren't having any of those today. Instead we'd be having a whole lotta'....
Peppers.
and spices.
When we got back to class we learned how handmade corn tortillas are made... with our hands.
Our local food artisan gave us the pre-measured amount of corn masa and we rolled it around in our hands then patted it out, then placed it on a piece of plastic and gently continued the pat down as we turned it to create a perfect circle. Or in my case, then gave it to her to put back together and make it right. Then the tortilla is transferred to the hot pan in the upper portion of the photo. Once cooked, a hand made tortilla can be separated (not so with the machine made ones) and filled with a thin layer of refried beans. This would be the base of our panuchos.
All of that is then deep fried. The tortilla's are topped with lettuce, shredded chicken, tomato and red onions that had been pickled in sour orange juice. Voilá! Lunch!
For late lunch, chicken and peppers would be the main ingredients.
Cleaned, rinsed then dried, the roasted peppers were added to an already simmering broth of chicken stock with onions, garlic, butter and wine. After additional cooking, the peppers were pureed and at last...
Delicious Cream was added (to take some of the sting out)
Fire roasted pepper soup. Hey!, I made that!
This is the beginning of the Tamale Colados. Corn masa square base, shredded chicken and sauce then wrapped in a banana leaf (blissfully unscented as I loathe bananas) and tied up to be steamed cooked in a pit. We also made Pollo Pibil which was a chicken breast smothered in a local red sauce, wrapped and tied in a banana leaf then cooked in a pit (that's what pibil means, pit).
Mystery wraps with picked onion.
Chicken and tamales. Do not adjust your monitor's color. It really was that red.
We finished off the meal with Helado de Chocolate Mexicano. This one was easy, just as I know the word for Whipped cream in Portuguese (Chantilly) I know that Helado is Spanish for Ice Cream. We did not make this that day as it takes overnight to create. I really should have asked for seconds.
Featured at the mid point in our day was a spicy habenero sauce: The Fiery Habanero Table Salsa! (You can find the original recipe by following the link to the cooking school)CAUTION: When you remove the lid, step away from the blender and keep face turned. A very potent aroma that can cause you to cough will emanate from the blender.
WOW THAT'S HOT!