From A Small Spark, A Fire Grows

The concept of developing an English language library in Valladolid started with a casual comment made by Tey Stiteler to Denis Larsen owner of the Casa Hamaca guesthouse. Stiteler, a visitor from the Pittsburgh area, suggested that it would be nice to have access to a selection of English language books while soaking up the ambience of the quaint colonial atmosphere in Valladolid. This relatively innocuous suggestion provided the initiative for future discussions. The idea caught fire, and a small, but enthusiastic group began to meet sporadically to assess the potential for actually creating a library.

Two major issues evolved from those discussions. First, where would the books be housed and where would a decent collection of volumes be acquired? In addition, it would be necessary to seek outside advice from someone who actually knew how to set up and operate a library.

Meeting the Challenges

The first challenge was quickly solved when Denis Larsen of Casa Hamaca offered free space at his facility adjacent to Parque San Juan for the first one to two years. He also donated more than 200 books from his personal library to encourage others to get involved. An impressive collection of books dealing with Maya history and culture soon followed from Diane Boyle. Many of these books were rare and would be difficult to find today. Other donations followed at a rate that was faster than the founders had expected. Since bookshelves had not been purchased, the local manager of the Chedraui market donated scores of plastic fruit and vegetable containers for temporary storage of the growing number of books.

The second major challenge was answered by a stroke of pure luck. Geoffrey Aronson, an English language teacher at the University of Valladolid Yucatan (UVY), contacted the Merida English Library and solicited help in locating a library consultant. He was provided with the name of Polly Gropen of Bacalar, Quintana Roo. In February of 2011, Polly was invited to Valladolid to assist with plans to create a library. She brought with her 35 years of professional library experience in high school, university, and bookmobile libraries. Over the next nine months, she would return 15 times to help solve problems and provide advice for future tasks.

Important Details

One of her first suggestions was that an official leadership group needed to be formed to conduct the professional business of the library. In early spring, a Board of Directors was formed that included Denis Larsen as President, Ilyana Gutierrez Dulá as the Secretary, Harriet Rich as Treasurer, and Dr. Tom Jones. The board then hired Miguel Angel Diáz Alcocer Jr. as legal council and made him a full member of the board. He began researching and drafting legal papers to create a Mexican non-profit organization. On July 7, 2011, the official papers were signed making the Valladolid English Library an Association Civil (A.C.).

Reaching out to the Community

While the legal work was underway, the board purchased a software program to catalog the growing number of books, assign their Dewey Decimal System identification, and produce the labels that would be applied to the books before shelving. Emily Calvert, an English teacher volunteer from New Zealand, contributed many hours of work to this process.

As the library began to take shape contacts were made with local librarians at municipal libraries, public and private school libraries and university libraries in Valladolid. Their general opinion was that they had "many requests for more books printed in English." This was the response the library board and volunteers were looking for. From the beginning, the Valladolid library founders had as one of their main goals to offer books, materials, and programs that provide assistance for the Spanish and Maya speaking population who desire to expand their knowledge of English.

Employing Local Talent

In September, bookshelf orders were placed with Margarito Jimenez Gómez, a talented local carpenter. By October, beautifully crafted shelves began to arrive at the library. Discussions regarding an opening date were held and plans were initiated to hold the Grand Opening at 5:00 p.m. on November 24th, Thanksgiving Day.

Rush to the Finish

There were less than six weeks left before the Grand Opening and decisions on what days and times the library would be open still had not been made. The library Board of Directors met and announced that they had secured the volunteer services of two local residents to serve as Co-Directors of the new library. Rebecca Augustin, a retired elementary and university level teacher for thirty years and Andrea Lorkowski, a five-year resident of Valladolid and teacher of English classes at the Preparatoria de Valladolid were officially appointed to the leadership positions for the everyday operation of the library.

The Co-Directors met with the Board of Directors and the library consultant to establish library hours and days, as well as the rules for using the library, and program services for members. A decision was made to experiment with a trial program that would be reviewed in January of 2012. During this time span the library would be open on Tuesdays from 5:00 -8:00 p.m., Thursdays from 4:00 to 8:00 PM, and Saturdays from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM.

Library volunteers trained by the Co-Directors were scheduled to staff the library front desk and assist patrons. Three special programs were created to help diversify the normal library services. On the third Thursday and Saturday of each month, the VEL Story and Activity Hour was scheduled for students. On Tuesdays each week, a VEL Language Exchange Hour, like the Merida English Library’s Conversation Hour, was scheduled from 5:00-6:00 PM. Finally on the third Thursday of each month at 8:15 PM, the VEL Lecture Series would continue to be offered. The lecture series, initiated in February of 2011, had been an especially successful program offering stimulating lectures by successful authors, teachers, environmentalists and even a psychologist.

The Grand Opening

On Thursday evening the 24th of November, the Grand Opening of the Valladolid English Library was held. More than 150 people attended the ceremony, including the Mayor of Valladolid, Gonzalo Escalante Alcocer, and his wife Gabriela Vidal Alcocer. Also in attendance were several high ranking municipal officials, university, elementary, and high school students and teachers, local citizens, and the majority of the expatriate community living in Valladolid.

During the ceremonies, Rebecca Augustin and Andrea Lorkowski addressed the audience in English and Spanish. They stated among other things, "Today is a special day in the United States. Today is Thanksgiving Day. We want to thank all of you who have already generously supported VEL through donations and volunteer efforts. We want to thank the people of Valladolid for opening their hearts and the treasures this beautiful city holds to those of us who have chosen to call Valladolid "home." We want to work to give something back to the community. This library is for everyone."

Mayor Gonzalo Escalante Alcocer responded with a sincere and heartfelt address that included the following comments. "Just as you have mentioned that today is a special day in the United States, this past week has been a special week for us as well, as we have celebrated the 101st anniversary of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Just as we have opened our arms to welcome you into our community, you have opened your arms to welcome us into your community through the development of the Valladolid English Library. Your encouragement for us to utilize this facility as equals is an important step in working side by side for the benefit of all Vallisoletanos."

The crowd then moved to the front door, where the Mayor and his wife, the two library Co-Directors, and Denis Larsen jointly cut the ribbons covering the front door and officially opened the library. Immediately following this ceremony the majority of the crowd moved to the palapa of Casa Hamaca for refreshments and the camaraderie of two distinct cultural groups who genuinely enjoy each other.

Come See The Valladolid English Library!

So now, if you are sitting in your hotel room or vacation rental or your very own home in the beautiful colonial city of Valladolid, wondering what you are going to read next, you have a place to go. You can wander down to the Valladolid English Library and browse the stacks, full of English-language titles. If you are looking for something to do, you can attend one of the lectures (which we will continue to list in our Yucatan Living weekly Events pages), or go to the Language Exchange Hour to brush up on your Spanish speaking skills. Or you can go to any of the events or just sit in the library itself to meet other English speakers from the area or local Spanish speakers who want to learn English. If the Valladolid English Library is anything like the Merida English Language Library has been for Merida, it will be a source of community, learning and enjoyment for many years to come.

The Valladolid English Library would like to invite all of our readers to come and see the library if you are visiting this beautiful colonial city. If you are a Valladolid resident, or plan to be, we encourage you to join us as full members of the library. "Viva Valladolid!"

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Additional Information: Membership to the Valladolid English Library requires registration. Membership rates are $50 pesos for students who are elementary and secondary, $100 pesos for university or tecnica students, and teachers. Adult memberships are $150 pesos. All rates are for 1 year memberships.

Merida English Language Library in Merida, Yucatan

Valladolid’s Heroes Park

San Roque Museum in Valladolid

John and Dorianne Venator’s Casa de Los Venados in Valladolid

Valladolid’s Agave (Tequila?) Distillery

Candelaria Fiesta in Valladolid

With all the beautiful sun and rain we have here in the Yucatan, it isn’t unusual that a transplanted norteamericano’s thoughts would turn to gardening. When we first moved here from California, we were amazed at how fast everything grew here… palm trees planted at chest-high size one year were towering over us the next. Our ceiba tree planted when it was six feet tall towers over the two story house only three years later. After enjoying watching the trees, vines and flowers of the Yucatan grow so abundantly, we started to plant seeds… tomato, watermelon, peppers. One year, some of those tomato plants grew almost without any care at all and we daily picked enough cherry tomatoes to put in our salads. A volunteer watermelon grew in the planter upstairs until it was the size of a basketball and it tasted pretty good too.

How Did Our Garden Grow?

With these, we were lucky. We found, however, as we started to plant in earnest (but not really with much planning or forethought), that growing fruits and vegetables in the Yucatan climate is not as easy as one might think. If the nematodes or army ants don’t destroy your plants, the hot midday sun or the caracoles (snails) will. We tried putting a small planter on our rooftop, recognizing the abundance of sun there, but even that didn’t work as well as we had hoped. It was difficult to keep the planter wet enough to arm the plants against that strong sunlight, and though we did get some more cherry tomatoes, there was nothing much else that we were able to coax out of our rooftop experiment. As we didn’t have a lot of time to garden, we became discouraged and resigned to buying all our edibles at the mercados.

A Rooftop Miracle

Then one day, we happened to visit Robert and Tonia Kimsey, friends of our who retired here from Florida. At one point, the conversation turned to gardening and Robert was kind enough to take us up on his roof to show us his vegetable garden. To say we were amazed would be an understatment… we were blown away by the cleverness of his system and the abundance of his plants. Corn, lettuce, okra, tomatoes, multiple herbs… it was all growing in Robert’s planters on his roof.

As it turns out, Robert, a real estate developer, comes from a family of gardeners. He tells the story best:

"During WWII, most families who were patriotic planted a "Victory Garden". My father was one who took that seriously. Even though we lived just off the Emory University campus in a nice neighborhood (in Georgia), every spring he would hire a mule and plow to come turn the soil, getting all the organic material plowed under in preparation for a garden. The whole family would work together to make furrows, put in well-rotted cow and horse manure, and then plant the seeds. The gardens were usually about twenty feet by forty feet, sometimes larger, but seldom smaller."

Robert notes that today’s gardens have changed a lot, and the amount of information at anyone’s fingertips has grown. Have a question about fertilizer? pests? harvesting? Just Google it.

The Merida Climate Challenge

But the type of information that is sorely missing for anyone living in Yucatan is information about how to raise fruits and vegetables in this climate. Because, as anyone who has lived here for very long will tell you, the climate of Merida and the Yucatan Peninsula is tricky. In fact, the climate here is technically called a tropical desert. "What??", you ask. How can that be? Merida in fact has two sets of two seasons: two rainy seasons and two dry seasons. Gardening can be quite tricky in that situation.

Never one to back down from a challenge, Robert spent a few brain cells and some investigative months figuring out how he was going to have a Victory garden at his renovated colonial home in Merida. He realized that while he didn’t have a lot of land, or even a lot of soil for that matter, he did have a large and flat roof. He combined that asset with information his daughter told him about the Earthbox (see link at the end of the article). He tossed in his experience in Italy, visiting Puccini’s home where his rooftop garden was all built at waist height, so he didn’t have to bend down. And with all that composting in his active brain, he came up with what has proven to be a successful and productive roof garden system.

Container Roof Garden

What Robert has devised on his roof is a system of waist-high containers. He has two beds that are 33 cm wide and 3.2 meters long, and four that are 56 cm wide and 2.35 meters long. All of them are at a working height of 90 cm. The depth of the soil is 32 cm, and there is 8 cm of water below the soil, for a total depth of 40 cm. These cement containers have a system of watering and drainage built in, so that Robert has only to turn on some hoses to water all this plants. The containers are empty in the bottom third (where the water is), and the top two thirds of each container is well-composted, dried-in-the-sun (to kill the pests) soil, piled atop a layer of wire mesh. This system allows the plants to grow in the dirt without the dirt getting soggy (a real problem in the rainy seasons), while still receiving adequate water from the reservoir below.

There are, of course, a few things you need to consider to be able to create this type of gardening system. First of all, your roof must be flat and it must be strong. You must carefully construct your planters so that you do not damage the roof when you build or use them. He suggests you do not construct the planters so that they rest on the roof, but instead, elevate them as he has done, both for accessibility and for a smaller footprint on the roof itself. Another thing to ensure is easy roof access. You will be going up and down from the roof with bags of cement, dirt, plants, pots and who knows what else. This will be a lot easier if you have a safe and comfortable stairway to use.

When planning the layout of the beds, you should keep in mind that most vegetables require six to eight hours of sunshine per day. So find the sunny spots on your roof and build your planters there. Most of these also need good ventilation in order to support the pollination process. The light breezes that are fairly constant in Merida above the first story are perfect, so just be sure to build where those breezes are not blocked.

For six constructed beds of concrete and concrete block, with a manual watering system, you will need the following materials:

• Concrete materials (concrete, block)
• Reinforcing steel
• Gravel/sand and cement
• Labor for the concrete
• Labor for the plumbing
• Materials for the plumbing
• Labor for paint and waterproofing
• Paint and waterproofing materials
• Dirt, Lime and compost
• Fertilizer

As you can see, Robert is suggesting that with a simple design and instructions, you can have a local albañil construct these planters. The cost will be minimum, you will be supporting a local family and the work will get done with a minimum of backbreaking effort on your part.

This article is not meant to be a do-it-yourself guide to building these planters. Suffice it to say, it can be done with materials and labor easily available to you here in Merida. Once the planters are created, the plumbing is installed, the dirt is in and the seeds are planted, you can then begin the activity that got you started with all this… you can be a gardener! Yes, even here in Merida, with this system you can grow onions, carrots, eggplant, tomatoes, spinach, lettuce, corn, okra, broccoli, a multitude of herbs and probably other things that Robert has not yet attempted. All those vegetables listed are ones that Robert has grown on his roof during one year, with plenty left over to pass around to friends. When you go up on that roof and look around, it seems like nothing short of a miracle.

Conversations on Merida Gardening

As it turns out, there are a lot of people in Merida interested in this kind of gardening. So interested, in fact, that twenty six people gathered at Robert’s house on October 15, 2011 to start a club to discuss "Merida’s gardening problems". For now, Robert’s wife Tonia is calling it ‘Conversations on Merida Gardening’ and from all accounts, it is an intelligent and impassioned conversation. Robert says that this group is far from a typical garden club and since we looked carefully at the photos and didn’t see any crustless cucumber-and-creamcheese sandwiches, we would have to agree. We know a lot of the participants, and we’re sure that they are there because they mean business.

The first discussion with this illustrious group included some of the following subjects:

• Soil problems, including the lack of quantity and quality, with the soil being full of weeds and insects
• Where to find Epsom salts, boric acid, compost and other gardening requirements
• Composting with various materials, including henequen, neem oil and neem tea leaves (all available locally)
• The deterrent properties of henequen on nematodes
• Henequen and coconut husk fibers for use in composting
• Possibilities of a community composting project
• Seeds: Sources, germination problems, growing seedlings for the club, and cooperative
  purchasing
• Insect problems, making home insecticides
• PH gardening and the importance of knowing and getting the right PH for production of fruit

As you can see, the conversation is already wide-ranging and full of good information. The next meeting is scheduled for Saturday, October 29. The group hopes to begin putting together a list of plants that the group wants to grow in order to create a supply chain of seeds, seedlings and other required materials.

Join the Conversation

Whether you are here in Merida, or just planning to be here, you can join in the conversation. Robert’s contact information is below and you can contact him directly if you would like to join the club. If there is enough interest, we will in fact work with Robert to publish more detailed instructions on how to build these planters, so let us know by commenting below. We look forward to hearing from you and we look forward to a proliferation of homegrown rooftop vegetables in Merida!

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Robert Kimsey can be reached at rkimsey33 [at] gmail [dot] com.

Want to know where he got his ingenious idea for the planters? Go to www.earthbox.com

Editor’s Note:We originally published this article in 2005… three and a half years after we moved to Merida from Central California. Now, due to a death and a birth in our family, we are spending time on the Central Coast (San Luis Obispo County, to be exact) as well as in Merida. You could say we have one foot in each city, emphasizing even more our bi-cultural experiences, and certainly our divided hearts. We love both places and we have family and friends in both places. When we reread this article recently, we were amazed at how so much of what we wrote originally was still true (we still love California and we still love the colors of Mexico… some things never change!). We also noted that some things have definitely changed (we have lost track of how many Starbucks’ are now in Merida… let alone the rest of the Yucatan). So we updated the article a bit… and we hope you enjoy it! Please feel free to add your comments… what do you like about Gringolandia? And what do you like about the Yucatan?

Gringolandia

That’s what they call the United States (and to some extent, Canada… but we’re sticking with the "USA" definition for purposes of this article)… Gringolandia. It is really one of our favorite Spanglish words… it mixes gringo, already a Spanglish word from *way* back and Disneyland, an American concept if there ever was one. And then there’s that little Spanish ending to make it sing… as with many of the best Spanglish words, it has layers of meaning.

We have in the past called Gringolandia the Land of the Fearful. This is a very general observation that sadly has not changed in ten years. From the minute you step foot in an American airport, everything from toilet seat covers to newspaper headlines to airport screenings lets you know that people in the USA are just more afraid. We think it’s been sneaking up on norteamericanos for so long they don’t notice it much. But coming from the *real* Land of the Free, we notice it right away.

Gringolandia also has the connotation of, well… Disneyland. From the Mexican point of view, everything seems so perfect in the United States… maybe too perfect. Maybe life in the United States is a dream come true, and maybe it has a touch of fantasy about it and isn’t exactly real.

Of course, Gringolandia is where the gringos live. And we think it is as much a state of mind as anything, because of course, wherever you go, there you are! You can bring gringolandia with you to Mexico, though we would encourage you not to.

To enjoy and appreciate the differences, we think it helps to acknowledge them. It allows us to appreciate each land for what it has to offer, and enjoy what we love about them both.

What We Love About California, USA

Here’s what we love about the United States and our original home state of California:

Nature. The rolling green hills, the smell of familiar plants like sage and eucalyptus, the way the sun sets over the ocean, the way the birds sound, the dry grasses blowing in the breeze. Oak trees, eucalyptus trees, jacaranda trees… ceiba trees? (yes, we have seen a lot of ceiba trees planted in California lately), mountains, Big Sur, all those wineries and vineyards and all that great wine, Farmer’s markets, organic everything. Let’s face it… we’re in love with Coastal California… who wouldn’t be?

Family. We have three daughters and a son-in-law, one grandson, multiple parents and siblings and an extended family that seems to go on forever. There’s just no substitute for family… and ironically, this is something we learned on a much deeper level living in Mexico. No question. There’s no amount of money, culture, history or good times that substitute for family. Mexicans know this… and when living in Merida, it makes missing ours all the more difficult.

Clean streets. Mayans for some reason haven’t quite figured out that plastic bags and coke bottles don’t disintegrate like banana leaves. They need a “Pick up your litter” campaign like we had in the States in the 50′s and 60′s (Remember Woodsie Owl? – Give a hoot, don’t pollute!). We’ve seen intimations of this kind of progress and we are eagerly awaiting it. In the meantime, we love and appreciate the guys with the orange trash cans who periodically clean up the streets in the centro.

Movies. We’ve got great movie theatres in Merida and around the Yucatan Peninsula now. We have VIP lounges where you can lie back and eat and drink in comfort while watching the big screen. We have iTunes and other internet sites, which allow for a lot of downloading of media when in Mexico. Some people get movies and TV through illegal satellite setups. Still, in Merida, we miss things like Netflix and Hulu and other internet-based channels whose lawyers don’t allow them to show their products in Mexico.

Slow mosquitoes. The mosquitoes in California are lazy and completely pathetic. Killing a mosquito in California takes no dexterity at all. The California mosquitoes really ought to take lessons from their Yucatecan cousins. They are no match for our Yucatan-honed mosquito-slapping skills.

Happy, well-cared-for animals. Seeing a scared, starving, sick or thirsty dog wandering the streets ruins our day. Listening to a tied-up, barking, unhappy dog has a similar effect. Over the years, we have gotten so much more used to it, sadly. We used to want to rescue every dog we saw on the street. Now we limit ourselves to ones that are hurt or obviously starving. If we can’t see their ribs, we can now acknowledge that they are probably getting enough food and may even be “owned” by someone who just lets them run the streets. We support additional education for everyone in Mexico about taking care of animals and do what we can. We are happy to see more and more Yucatecans walking their dogs on leashes and treating their pets well. In the United States, we revel in the happy dogs we see playing at the beach, hanging out at the dog parks. It is a relief to be in a culture that even might be said to go overboard in their concern about the health and well-being of animals. We probably won’t be the ones saying it.

What We Love About Merida, Mexico

And here’s what we love about our other home, Merida, and Mexico in general:

Mexicans and Yucatecans in particular. Almost everyone says “Buenos dias” when you walk by. People smile back if you smile at them, almost without exception. People in general really do seem happier and more gracious here.

Our adopted Yucatecan family. Over ten years we have gained at least three Yucatecan “children”, numerous friends and their families. They may not be blood relatives, but they have become family.

The mix of indigenous people and us modernos. It seems to help keep the soul of the country intact and makes life so much more interesting. We’re sad to see young Mayans wearing t-shirts instead of huipiles, but happy to see the revival of the Mayan language and the support it is getting from the government and the young people re-learning the language.

Free Entertainment. Noche Mexicana. Tuesdays at Santiago. Juanes. Shakira. We don’t know any city of a million people in the USA where there is so much free quality entertainment, or where international stars like these give concerts for free. It may be a result of political posturing that we are not going to even try to understand or get involved with, but we love the free, world class entertainment available to everyone, despite their wealth or lack of it.

Free Enterprise. Mercados, street vendors and the spirit of entrepreneurship. You don’t need a business license to sell vegetables here. Any enterprising person can sell everything from homemade brooms to bags of dirt to fresh garden vegetables… and they do! The guy in the picture is selling bags of dirt off of his handmade cart, pulled by a horse through the city streets. He, and others like him, ride around yelling Tierra! and sell the bags for a few pesos each. Is it great dirt? Not usually. But we totally support his right to sell it.

History. It’s everywhere here! We know this is also true in the more eastern parts of the United States, though not so much in California. The layers of life that have been lived on each city block, in each little town in the Yucatan… it is fascinating, awe-inspiring and humbling.

COLOR! People paint their houses purple, orange, blue… whatever! Color could be said to be the extravagance of the poor in Mexico. But a love of bright and different colors seems to be embedded in the Mexican psyche… and we love it. Cities, streets and houses in the United States look so drab in comparison to us now.

Street People. Practically no one lives on the street in Merida. There’s a lot of poverty in Mexico, but everyone here in Merida has some family or seems to have found a home to live in. In our almost ten years in Merida, we’ve seen less than ten people sleeping on the street in this city of over a million people. Back in California, in cities like Santa Barbara or Los Angeles or even our hometown of San Luis Obispo, the number of street people is alarming to us. It does not escape our irony detector that while there are no homeless dogs running the streets, there seem to be plenty of homeless people.

State-owned gas stations. No worries about whether you are getting the right price or not. You never have to pump your own gas. There are clean bathrooms and full service at just about every station. And after driving the length, if not the breadth, of Mexico, we can attest that there is usually a Pemex station everywhere you need one, and sometimes more than you need. Go Pemex!

Less expensive real estate and low property taxes. You can buy a lovely home here for $200K and still pay $100 a year in property taxes. Where can you do that in the USA or Canada or Europe? And yes, we still have reasonably-priced water, a-bit-more-expensive electricity and unbelievably-cheap trash service. Maybe the streets are not paved as beautifully… but maybe they are! The infrastructure in California is not what it used to be.

The Heat. You may not believe this, but though living in the heat can be difficult, we miss it when we are away from it. After ten years, we learned to live with the heat (yes, air conditioners and a swimming pool definitely help!). We swear our bodies have adapted, and now we’re like Yucatecans when it comes to cold. When the temperature dips below 65 degrees Fahrenheit, we put on coats and shiver like everyone else in Merida who has lived here for any length of time.

Wherever We Go in Gringolandia, There is Mexico

Now that we are spending more time in Gringolandia, we have noticed something else. We are still using our Spanish because there are a lot of people from Mexico here. Our closest neighbors in California are an entire family originally from Oaxaca. We can practice our Spanish with the guy taking our money at the restaurant or the family having a BBQ next to ours at the lake. Or, what is really even more surprising, sometimes we cannot practice our Spanish with that family at the lake. They look Mexican, have Mexican names but are born and raised here and can’t speak Spanish. Are they Mexican? Are we? The integration of the two cultures has been accelerating more and more quickly it seems.

And we are a part of all that.

To quote a young lady who found herself in an unfamiliar land with a funny-painted road: “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore!” Remembering Dorothy’s quick analysis of her situation will save you untold grief, headaches and time when navigating Merida’s bus system. No, we are not in Kansas. Nor are we in Texas, Montana or Canada. We are in the magical, mystifying maze of motion and maneuvering that is Merida.

We called the office of Transporte Municipal to ask them about the bus system, but as anyone who has ever attempted to conduct business with Mexican government officials knows, we were given the classic runaround. We were told we’d have to ask the questions in person, and when we did that, we were then directed to submit the questions in writing, and told they would be answered at the earliest opportunity. Who knows when early might be, so we decided to do our own unofficial investigating.

Not to worry. Thousands of Meridanos use the buses daily with an efficiency that doesn’t cause them ulcers or permanent frown lines, so we thought we could forgo the government’s input and hop on the bus. The ruby slippers at Gran Plaza are going fast, we hear…

See How The Buses of Merida Run

The city of Merida doesn’t operate a bus line. Instead, the bevy of bus companies which serve the city are licensed by the state of Yucatan. While they operate under the auspices of the state government’s Direccíon de Transporte, each of them runs their own business with guidelines that are independent of the competition. Consequently, there isn’t a number you can call where an informed employee on the other end will give you instructions on how to get from Point A to Point B.

Don’t think they’ve left you out in the cold, though. The Gobierno Municipal de Mérida does provide a basic route directory information with maps of stops and routes on their web page (see the end of this article for all relevant links to other web pages). A link on that page also takes you to a map of the free (for qualifying passengers) Circuito Enlace van service in el Centro (more about this below… keep reading!).

We mentioned in the previous article that a map of the bus routes, Plano de la Ciudad y Guía de Transporte Urbano, is available at news kiosks around the Plaza Grande for $50 pesos. For both the online listing and the hard copy of the map, please note that four or more lines may operate from the same city block. The buses do not park randomly, but in a regular order known to everyone on the block except you. Before waiting at one end of a block for a bus new to you, ask fellow passengers or the often-present line supervisor where to wait for your bus. Going to Altabrisa? Just politely ask, “Altabrisa?” while pointing to where a bus could pull up.

Navigating Merida

Compared to other Mexican cities, Merida is easily navigated. It is easier to memorize numbered streets than it is to remember dozens of foreign and sometimes unpronounceable names like Avenida Vasconcelos or Calle Juan Escutia. In Merida, odd-numbered streets run east-west, and even-numbered streets run north-south. For streets that run diagonally, the ones that run from southeast to northwest are even, the rest are odd — usually. Many of the diagonal streets have the letter “D” following the numbered street name.

Street addresses are usually but not always consistent, because this is, well… Mexico! Number 499 might be three or four blocks from 498. Because of this, addresses are usually given as a street number and a cross street, such as Calle 69 x 58 (for corner addresses) or a street number and the two cross streets between which the address lies, such as Calle 69 x Calle 58 y Calle 60. If the address is written correctly, you will be able to tell which direction you can drive on the one-way street in question. For instance, the address Calle 55 #555 x 60 y 58 indicates that the place you are looking for is on Calle 55, and you drive from Calle 60 towards Calle 58 (therefore, Calle 55 is an east-west street and you drive on it towards the east).

An additional, major complication is that a street straddling colonias (most of which were independent villages or towns once upon a time) and/or fraccionamientos (a development formerly part of a colonia) typically have two street names, depending on which side of the street is in which subdivision.

Then again, some principal streets out of el Centro may have a number for a name, often the original designation, as well as a non-numerical name which came along later. An example of this is Calle 60, which turns into Avenida Tecnológico north of the Circuito. As one travels along the street, both the number and the name may change, together or independently.

Ahhh, Mexico!

That’s why we love Mexico. Rules are made to be broken, and we can always unwind with a wonderful lunch when it gets too confusing.

So now that you understand you’re not in Kansas anymore and have a working knowledge of how the street numbering system works, you’re ready to board one of the city’s buses. Just remember, tranquilo! So what if it is hot and humid and your bus has no air conditioning? Big deal! In what other country are you going to find a place where it’s almost the law that you must rock gently in your hammock for a midday siesta? Learning the bus system is a small price to pay for such a luxury. We continue…

Main Bus Routes

The first trick is to find the bus that goes where you want to go. As noted in our first article, the bus map often available at the kiosks on the north side of the Plaza Grande (aka Plaza Principal, zocalo, or, properly, Plaza de la Independencia) only indicates the outbound routes of the buses departing from el Centro. We are told that the current 2009/2010 map (G-2 edition) will be supplanted by a newer version, perhaps as early as September 2011. The map is most clear in communicating the four circular bus routes, the 63-km long Circuito Metropolitanol; the Circuito Colonias, which follows the patchwork of streets forming that circuit; the Circuito Confort; and the Circuito Poniente, which visits many close-in shopping plazas and hospitals.

If you are handicapped, officially in your tercera edad (over 60), or a young mother carrying a small child, there is a free 19-passenger Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van that runs on the Circuito Enlace (see link to map at end of the article). Perhaps three or four vans travel during mercado shopping hours around el Centro, making eight stops currently between Calle 54 on the east, roughly Calle 69 on the south, Calle 64 on the west, and Calle 59 on the north. The service was originally intended for the physically handicapped, but now has been extended to women with accompanying small children and senior citizens.

Many of the companies have extended their coverage as the city has expanded. Two lines that prominently display their initial concession destinations as Itzimná now extend to the Star Medica Hospital and the Altabrisa shopping center. And some buses that formerly zipped through fairly undeveloped areas now find their route areas more built up, such as the Cholul buses, which also transit Itzimná, but also now has Altabrisa along its route.

Within the past year, new concessions have been granted for service to Caucel, the rapidly expanding western suburb, which also serves the new Animaya zoological park. There are many bus lines and we are not going to cover them all… just mention some of the well-traveled ones. Once you start figuring out your own routes, you’ll start to know which is which.

How do I recognize the bus I want?

Unless you hop on your bus at its point of origin, it can be challenging to identify your bus along its route. Some buses make it easy with brightly-lit final destination signs. Like the combis (collectivos or van services), most urban buses have cardboard signs or windows marked up with hand-written or printed destinations. They are hard to decipher during the day, and really difficult to see at night.

Instead, like most Meridanos, you will probably learn to identify your favorite routes by the distinctive colors of the bus companies. All Circuito Metropolitano buses have a distinctive multi-colored design featuring orange and cream. Color is no aid for all the Minis2000 and MdM buses (same company), the first being all old yellow buses and the second all old dark green units. These travel north along much of Avenida Tecnologico/Calle 60 before scattering off to many different destinations.

You might board a bus based on its principal destination sign, only to discover that scribbled somewhere on the window was an “R1″ or “R2″ notation. That means there are two nearly similar routes from the same company coming out of el Centro which diverge greatly towards the last quarter or half of the route. A good sense of geography and walking legs can prove to be quite helpful in such circumstances, and you probably will not make that same mistake twice.

Also, when figuring out which bus you want, it pays to know your Merida geography AND history. Many buses which go to the general vicinity of the cemetery are marked Cementerio. It helps to know that this is also where you’ll find a Bodega Aurrera, Avenida Itzaes and other important destinations. Or you might find a bus that includes the destination Correos, and then it helps to know that the Museo de la Ciudad (where you want to go) used to be the old Post Office, and is just north of Merida’s main municipal market. (There is still a small post office there, too, in case that is what you are looking for!)

What about the combis?

The combi ( or collectivo) fleet in and around Merida ranges from beat-up, exhaust-belching old vans to fairly recent units. Typically charging the same rates as the buses, the combis travel many of the principal routes served by the buses in town as well as many smaller towns near metro Merida. Throughout the Yucatan, they compete with inter-urban services like the independent Autobuses del Noreste or Centro inter-urban lines, or ADO’s Oriente company, but they also serve towns or ejidos barely or not even serviced by the extensive bus network. On most of the metro Merida routes, and many state routes, the combis are operated by owner-members of the FUTV (Frente Unico de Trabajadores del Volante, the taxi union). If you don’t mind cramped quarters and can bear the heat, you will survive a combi journey. Many of the vans have the pop-out windows that, even if open, provide scant ventilation. Supposedly some units have air conditioning, though few drivers who turn it on, citing fuel costs.

So what are the combis advantages? Well, they can usually get you to your destination much faster than the buses. The combis fill up with passengers, and like the buses, they need not stop again until someone disembarks. A sample time comparison: A combi can zip from el Centro to Izamal in 45 minutes to one hour. The bus easily takes 1.5 hours, or more. The combi departures to Izamal, for instance, are also more frequent.

Bus Fares

All of Merida’s urban buses currently charge $6 pesos, as do most of the collectivos (vans). Collectivos (aka combis) traveling outside of the metropolitan area charge the market rate, which is different for each route. Students with currently valid CITUR cards, and senior citizens (60 and over) and the handicapped with CITUR cards are charged $3 pesos on most routes.

To the left of the bus door you will see a sticker indicating the $6 peso charge or the “social’ rate of $3 pesos. If you have a CITUR card (see our first article on the Bus System), to the left or right as you enter, before reaching the driver, is an “intelligent reader” device. Place your card against the active zone of the reader. A green light will shine if your card is valid. Pay your driver with coins or bills no greater than a $20 peso note. Drivers have told us they don’t have to accept larger denominations, but may do so for $50 and $100 peso notes.

Certain routes that have modern, air-conditioned equipment have a unico (single) price of $6 pesos. No “social” fare. Some routes, such as the Gran Plaza/Monte Ame route runs both buses with and without air conditioning, but charge the $6 peso-only price on the buses with air-conditioning even when the air-conditioning is not turned on. Go figure.

Transfers?

Do not bother asking for a transfer. There are no transfers, not even between buses operated by the same company.

In fact, there are four base stations for the Circuito Metropolitano route, for example. If you hop on one of those buses and the base station is before your stop, you will need to pay another fare to continue on in the same or a separate bus. The base stations are clearly painted on the top of the front windshield. First authorized in 2005, the Circuito Metropolitano line serves Macroplaza, Plaza Fiesta, the southern edge of Altabrisa and Star Medica, Gran Plaza, Chuburna, Clinica Mérida, and other shopping and medical centers. It was hailed at the time as a great step forward in “decentralization”, as up to then all buses had their terminal in el Centro. Indeed, some travel reports still claim all the urban buses do so, but this line is an exception.

You might be tempted to think the little paper you get from the bus driver is a bus transfer. No, it is a receipt. Do retain the receipt the driver hands you for the duration of your trip on that bus. At random times, inspectors board the buses to check that each passenger has his receipt. The driver can get into difficulties with the inspector if all the passengers do not have receipts indicating that they paid. If you do not have your receipt, the driver will be fined and you will have to pay the fare again.

Safety is YOUR responsibility!

One of the first things a visitor to Merida will realize is that they need to be careful of the buses that speed down the narrow city streets. The buses in Merida do not seem to have the same regard for the safety and comfort of their passengers as buses we might be used to in other parts of the world. We have never encountered a local bus that accommodates a handicapped rider or a frail senior. In Merida, there are no kneeling buses. No wide, elevated entries for wheelchairs. Indeed, with bus owners pressing their drivers to make as many trips as possible in as short a time as possible, few drivers even allow sufficient time for slower passengers to board the bus or disembark safely.

So take responsibility for your own safety. Be nimble, not only when entering or leaving buses, but when walking on the narrow streets in el Centro. Judging from newspaper accounts, some bus company owners have a less than distinguished record when paying compensation, even medical bills, for pedestrians run over by buses jumping curbs. Being hit by a bus must not be any fun, and can be avoided the majority of the time by taking responsibility for your own safety.

While many different firms have been involved in accidents, local press accounts have been particularly critical of Minis 2000. See for example Por Esto’s article of July 8, 2010 or of Dec. 24, 2009.
In 2009, is it coincidental that, after many riders’ complaints of poor service and public anger at uncompensated injuries, some Minis2000 route buses were painted red and renamed MdM (Minibuses de Mérida)?

Finding Your Way Back Home

Unless you know the route or have seen that route’s buses coming in the return direction, it is a good idea to ask the driver, or fellow passengers, where the bus stop is for the return trip. “Para regressar, donde esta el paradero?” Hopefully, between your Spanish and some gestures, you will find out where to go. But you might need to ask. As an example, the return trip on the Gran Plaza route is off a side road behind the Gran Plaza, and not on the north side of the mall as you might expect.

When to catch a bus

How about timing? Most routes run from about 5 AM from their point of origin until about 11:30 PM or midnight. From about 9 PM on, many lines that still run will drop to a 30-minute schedule until as late as 12:30 AM. On the other hand, some routes stop running as early as 9:30 PM, particularly on Sundays. Buses also tend to be scarcer on Sundays and national holidays.

And drivers cannot avoid bunching up when they experience major traffic congestion. If two buses on the same route come up and the first passes you, don’t panic. The first one is just trying to make up for lost time, and the second will pick you up. Or, sometimes drivers will alternate with their colleagues in stopping for passengers.

On those national holidays with parades, or during Carnaval, the local press prints maps identifying bus stop and route changes in el Centro.

You will also quickly learn when students are heading to and from school, with the accompanying congestion. For folks used to rowdy students aboard U.S. urban bus routes, the Yucatecan kids are a real contrast, a real pleasure. Still, if you can avoid peak usage times, all the better.

Let’s travel to the beach

It is worth noting the year-round, frequent service that AutoProgreso provides between Merida and the beach destination of Progreso. Many Yucatecos shun the beach areas except during July and particularly August. Those who can afford it have homes along the coastal area that many only use during those two months and an occasional weekend — unless the home has been rented out of the summer season to a happy sun-loving Canadian or American. So for many people, year round, Progreso and the cities along the coast are a desired destination.

From its terminal on Calle 62 between 65 and 67, the firm runs modern, air-conditioned, limited-stop buses to Progreso, traversing Avenida Tecnológico/Calle 60 after leaving el Centro. AutoProgreso also offers small buses that make more stops and travel through intermediate towns. These buses traverse Prolongación Montejo after leaving el Centro. Cruise visitors to Progreso will know AutoProgreso as the service that takes them, without charge, from their liners to land.

Properly speaking, the routes to Progreso are inter-city lines, and not part of a Metro Merida urban line. AutoProgreso has its own reasonable fare structure, which comes to about $34 pesos one way. Development is proceeding rapidly along the Merida-Progreso corridor… in a decade or less it may be hard to see where one municipality ends and the other begins, and then there may be more bus options along that route as well.

Once you get to Progreso, there are local buses and combis out of Progreso that ply the coastal route. It is good to note that most of them unhelpfully list their destinations as Centro, by which they mean downtown Progreso.

Where there’s a taxi, there’s always hope

Remember, if worst comes to worst, you can usually find and catch a taxi. The Merida taxis with the Taximetro signs have meters, and are, by expat standards, quite reasonably priced. Even for taxis without the meters, most of the drivers we have met provide good service at fair prices.

Do remember that you need to tell the driver the colonia as well as the full street address of your destination. As you get outside of Merida proper and into the small villages, (many of them are part of ex-haciendas and are their own entities, known as comisarías but still within the municipality of Merida), directions may be “s/n” which means "without house number" (sin numero). Indeed, in some towns, you are lucky if the street has a name or a sign.

You can also just tell the taxi driver the nearest landmark to your destination if you know it. This manner of telling directions using landmarks instead of street names is a time-honored Yucatecan tradition. But you’ll need pretty good Spanish skills to do that. Lacking those, the address is the surest way to get to your intended destination.

When calling for a radio-dispatched taxi, the companies we talked to told us that their computer programs require an exact address for a pick up. One expat we know found himself at the Las Brisas post office, which had just closed, trying to call for a cab. The dispatcher said her computer would not accept an intersection as an exact direction. With some of the postal employees heading off for home, the expat obtained the exact address and passed it along to the dispatcher. Clever expat! We hesitate to add that the cab never appeared, and twenty minutes later, he saw and hailed a cab that was driving by. Somehow it all works out!

What Comes Next?

In December of 2010, to some publicity, Volvo showed off several units of its modern, articulated buses, heralding them as a modern answer to the old, belching diesels that currently dominate bus service in Merida. The Volvo buses also accomodated the physically handicapped. Minis 2000 tried out such a "green" Volvo bus on its Montes de Ame route in July 2010. However, drivers complained that the buses were hard to maneuver in narrow, car-clogged streets, and nothing more was heard of the bus. Likewise, in 2011 Grupo Dina showed off its articulated buses that were also considered candidates for a future route around the present Periferico (and the planned further out Metropolitan Periferico) for a BRT (Buses Rapid Transit) service, much like the current three BRT MetroBus lines in Mexico City (with a fourth, circular line in preparation there for the historic city center and airport).

The interest of the bus vendors was perhaps whetted by an Inter-American Bank (IDB)-funded study on transportation planning for the Yucatan, a study presented to the Yucatan State Congress. However charmed by the buses, the local companies declared them too expensive unless their governmental subsidies and/or fares were increased.

We only find two apparently relevant public documents available through the IDB that even mention Merida transit issues. One is a World Bank document from 2009 that proposes BRT systems in every Mexican city with a population of at least 750,000, as well as various areas of bus service optimization.
The IDB added this document to its Web site in February 2011 as a supporting document. A late 2010 IDB document invited "expressions of interest and consulting services" by January 8, 2011 for developing a project on a Red Integrada (Integrated Network) de Transporte Público (RITP)", possibly including BRT service, for the Merida metropolitan zone.

Otherwise, truly state of the art buses are not seen in urban service here. There are no natural-gas-fueled local buses in the Yucatan, as far as we know. And even modern diesel buses have to contend with the fact the PEMEX does not sell low-sulfur diesel in the peninsula. Some low-sulfur diesel is sold near the USA border, and a refinery in Veracruz state is scheduled to produce 34,000 bbls/daily starting this August.

The city and state are tossing about different plans for "reforming" or restructuring bus service, in large part to relieve traffic congestion in el Centro, but they have indeed been comtemplating this for years. One approach is to move the originating/terminating Centro bus stops out of the inner part of Centro. We have not confirmed that some Caucel buses now go no further into town than the Parque de la Paz, across from the Centenario Zoo. This sounds like a reform the operating firms would love, if it means that passengers have to deboard their buses at relatively remote points and then pay to get on a route that would go around el Centro. What with there being no transfers between buses, bus fare already is a significant household expense for most passengers. Opposition to this same idea was apparent about six or seven years ago, when the city changed the bus routes and the citizens stormed the Plaza Grande and the Governor’s Palace, armed with machetes, sticks and stones. The demonstration was heated, but peaceful (as we recall, there were no injuries), but the bus routes were changed back just days later.

Now, don’t even get us started on the latest transportation controversy, the underpass on Paseo de Montejo. For now, it has nothing to do with buses, so we are not talking about it here. (but you can check our Facebook page for updates)

Ready, Set, Explore!

Now you’re ready to embark upon Merida’s bus routes with the confidence of a Meridano. Don’t be afraid to ask other passengers and the drivers for information. Soon, you’ll be among the ones answering questions and directing newcomers to the buses that will take them to all the wonderful destinations in and around Merida. As you gain that experience, we’d like to hear your stories. Enjoy!!

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The first Taking the Bus in Merida article (in case you didn’t read it already)

Basic Merida Bus Route directory published by the City of Merida

Circuito Enlace bus route map for elderly, physically handicapped and mothers with small children.

World Bank document from 2009 that proposes BRT systems in every Mexican city, page 67.

Late 2010 IDB document about an integrated public transportation network in Merida

English-language AutoProgreso website

Editor’s Note: Michael Ramos is a new writer for Yucatan Living. After 20 years as a journalist writing about everything from family reunions gone awry to the war in Iraq (yes, he was on the ground…), he has moved to Merida and hopes to become a regular contributor. We hope so too!

Buses in Merida

They dominate the city streets, moving in and around traffic with the dexterity of hummingbirds.  They are as indispensable to Merida’s economic and social life as chocolate is to mole sauce. Merida’s vast inventory of buses will get you to just about any place you need or want to be in the city. This article is intended to give you the basic information you need to navigate the system, a system that runs almost flawlessly without the use of designated bus stops or easy-to-follow maps of the routes.

Perfectly Ordered Chaos

“Instead you’re going to find a perfectly ordered chaos that works for most Meridanos who use the bus service every day,” says Beatriz Echeverría, who, like most locals, learned the bus routes as a child.

Merida’s centro is the main staging area for the buses. But you can take a bus to almost anywhere in the city, and many places beyond. From the central bus stops, buses deliver their passengers to all areas of the city either directly or through transfers. Despite how it might first appear, it is not difficult to navigate the White City. And believe it or not, often the best way to find out what bus will get you to your destination is by asking someone on the street. Not very organized and methodical, we know, but this is Merida… and it works.

No one around to ask? Just asking the bus driver if his bus goes to your destination is the easiest approach in this culture where word-of-mouth is valued more than official publications. The city of Merida publishes a map of the routes, but the locals we showed it to for pointers declared it understandable only by engineers and people who hold doctorates in topography.

“I’d never be able to understand that map,” Echeverría says when we show it to her. “There are just too many buses and too many routes. That map is trying to explain the theory of relativity in one paragraph.”We thought perhaps she made it sound too complicated, so we tried it ourselves and after much confusion, began to think that maybe she was right. Maybe asking, talking and just feeling our way around was a better approach.

Where To Find A Bus Stop

So if there aren’t designated bus stops, how do you get the bus to stop? In typical informal Merida fashion, Echeverría reminds us.

“You just wave your arm so the bus driver can see you. It’s better to wait on a far corner, so he has time to see you and stop. Then you pay your fare and enjoy the trip, listening to cumbia music, ranchera or Mexican pop, usually at a very loud volume.”

The buses have their routes written in large letters on their windshields, but like most things in Mexico, the routes aren’t written in stone. In fact, sometimes they might be nicely printed signs on their front windshield, and sometimes you’ll be reading just a handwritten scrawl.

Travel In Comfort… Sometimes!

The comfort level of Merida’s buses varies. It is, remember, a country of extremes and a city of traditions. Some of the buses have probably been in operation for decades and are smoke-belching behemoths… nightmares for the environmentally conscious, but they have probably seen a lot of interesting history. If only they could talk! Other buses  are newer, and some even have air conditioning.

“Compared to the buses in the United States, the ones here aren’t going to have all the comforts,” says Maria Sanchez, another resident who rides the bus every day. “But what I like about our bus system is that we don’t have to wait very long for a bus.”

Sanchez is referring to the succession of buses that arrive at the stops regularly. Riders rarely have to wait more than 15 minutes for a commute in Merida. In the states, however, buses usually arrive at hourly intervals, and sometimes even less often. The short wait time for a bus is due largely to the number of bus lines operating in the city. According to the Catastro Municipal de Merida, 26 companies offer city transportation services, and all of them are licensed to operate by the Municipio.

Bus Etiquette

“And I think we’re more polite here,” Sanchez adds. “In Merida, people get in line to board the bus. There is almost never any pushing or shoving. You’ll see people in a well-formed line at the stop waiting for their bus. I’ve ridden the buses in the United States, and people were pushing each other to get on.”

While that information might seem trivial, it is an important courtesy to remember in this culture where politeness is valued and people still smile on the street when you walk by. Be polite and do not jump to the front of the line. Instead take your place behind the last person and wait like a well-mannered Meridano.

A combination of vans and buses traverse the city, all charging $6 pesos a person for regular fare and some charging a discount to students and INAPAM members (senior citizens).

If you are a student at a local school or university, a bus ride will only cost you $3 pesos, as long as you flash the driver your student ID card. Senior citizens over 65 also ride for only $3 pesos, as long as they can show their INAPAM card.

Best Times of Day to Travel on the Bus

The number of students using the buses can cause a snarl at certain times of the day, however, so you need to consider that when making your city bus travel plans.

“You want to avoid using the buses when students are leaving the schools,” says Roberto Bustamante, a vendor near the Centro. “There are so many of them, and the buses will be full. You will probably have to wait longer for a bus during that time.”

Echeverría agrees.

“Expect buses to be really packed during rush hours,” she says. “Some buses will have a huge line of people waiting to board.”

The peak times for bus riders are 6 AM  to 9 AM, noon to 2 PM and 7 PM to 9 PM. Bus service in Merida usually begins about 5 AM and ends at midnight.

While On The Bus

Once you’re on the bus, things start to get interesting. If you are lucky, be sure to enjoy the singers, clowns or other entertainers who board the buses to divert your attention from the driver who just careened around that slow-moving car. Try not to think about those lightpoles you’ve seen with big bus-sized dents in them as you listen to sweet trova music. If there are no on-board entertainers, you can surely entertain yourself watching  the world go by outside your window. When you near your destination, you’ll probably start wondering how to make the driver stop long enough to get off the bus.

Getting Off the Bus

“About a block before your destination, just say baja! (pronounced “BA-ha” and Spanish for “getting down!”) and the driver will stop,” Echeverría says. “If you don’t know where you’re supposed to get off, just tell the driver when you get on where you’re going, and he’ll let you know when it’s time for you to get off.”

Sometimes, even if you are totally on top of the situation, your bus driver might skip a stop to make up for lost time, stop to patronize his favorite taco stand or veer off on an alternate route to avoid a traffic problem. Or you might fall asleep or get deeply into your book and miss your stop. Don’t worry, though!

“No problem,” Echeverría jokes.

“You get a tour of the city as the bus completes its route, and then the driver will let you off on his way back to the centro.”

When you finally do get off the bus, don’t forget to tip the entertainers – and thank the driver as you get off. He might have just given you a rollercoaster ride, but he did get you to your destination!

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Next, read Part Two of Taking the Bus in Merida which breaks down the routes in an easy-to-follow format. It delves into routes, how to navigate them, how to use combis and taxis, and answers other pressing navigational questions. For the traveler who insists on a map, or if you want to be prepared to follow along next week, you might be able to find a map at the newsstands around the Merida Zócalo for $50 pesos, which occasionally have a few in stock. Otherwise, use the Force, Luca!