When we first discovered the Yucatan, we thought it was all about Merida, the colonial city that was the center of all commerce and culture for hundreds of miles. Like many first-time travelers, we knew about the Mayan Riviera, of course, the Peninsula’s ringside seat to our idea of the perfect sea. And we thought we knew all about the ruins, as we had been to Chichen Itza and Uxmal. What we knew nothing about and were totally unprepared for was the beauty and magic of the smaller colonial cities in the interior of the Yucatan Peninsula.

Who had ever heard of Izamal? or Tecoh? Tekax? Peto? Muna? Mani? Mama? and really, even these days, ten years later, who still has heard of these places? Maybe our readers have, and others who care to delve into the details of life in this tiny little corner of the globe, but on a worldwide scale, these places are not even a blip on the radar screen.

To which we can say, gracias a Dios!

We Visit Izamal… and So Can You

Recently, we took a video camera, a local business owner and ourselves on a day trip to Izamal. We had in mind a video for our readers that would be a combination pueblo-tour and house-tour video. The houses we toured turned out to be small hotels (one empty, one a thriving business) and the tour of Izamal was mostly a morning tour and was called to a halt when the temperature gauge went through our personal definitions of the roof. We went to Izamal in the depth of summer, August, on a particular hot and humid day. The sky was bright and deep blue, with very few clouds, all the better to contrast with those famous yellow walls.

Izamal, La Ciudad Amarilla

Though it is the Yucatan Peninsula’s ciudad amarilla (yellow city), in contrast to Merida’s ciudad blanca (white city), Izamal is mostly referred to nowadays as a pueblo magico, a magical town, and one of the forty-two such towns designated by SECTUR, Mexico’s Secretary of Tourism. Izamal was the tenth such town, designated in 2002. Since then, both private and public money has been pouring into the town. Izamal, whose public walls have always been painted yellow, has been more consistently and vividly yellow since then. Town signs have been spruced up, buildings have been renovated, parks have been cleaned and painted, and Izamal today looks better than it ever has.

Since 2002, Izamal has steadily turned its face toward tourism. Ten years ago, there were maybe two places to stay in town, and only one place a tourist might be inclined to eat a meal. Now, there are multiple hotels, nearby renovated hacienda hotels, multiple restaurants (although that original one, Kinich, is still the best one, we think) and more for a tourist to do than ever before.

Start in the Center and Work Your Way Out

As in most colonial cities, in the Yucatan and elsewhere, life in Izamal revolves around the center of town, and at the center is the Catholic convent. In pre-Columbian times, Izamal was a center of Maya culture, and the town is built on five recognizable and huge pyramids. The pyramid in the town center is actually more of an acropolis (flat on the top) and it is topped by a large Franciscan convent named after San Antonio de Padua. But the real object of worship here is La Virgen de Izamal, who makes miracles happen in this part of the world. You can visit her likeness in a room at the very back of the church and up a flight of stairs. You’ll be charged these days to make that visit, but the small fee (which also provides access into a mini-museum) is worth it for both the room and La Virgen within, and the view along the way. The church is a beautiful behemoth of stone and arches, painted yellow so that it glows in the sun. In the inner courtyard (the size of two football fields or so), stands a statue commemorating the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1993, serving as a focal point for tourist’s photographs and perching birds. While we appreciate the drama of the convent’s façade and the courtyard that faces the town center, we love the back of the church: naked stone unclothed by yellow paint, revealing flying buttresses and other architectural features created to provide the perfect setting up front. The convent should be circled completely to appreciate its features.

We have never found the inside of the convent in Izamal particularly fascinating. It has a beautiful altar, but there are ones more beautiful in other towns close by. But the football-field-sized lawn in front of the church is breathtaking, and there is something about sitting under the arches of the surrounding portico, watching the sun set or the world go by that invokes ancient collective memories of monks, nuns, monastic vows and simpler times.

From the vantage point of the portico, you can see Izamal’s mercado on one side, the main square on the second side and the second main square, the one where the calesas (horse-drawn carriages) wait, on the third side. Beyond the line of calesas, if you lift your gaze to the not-too-distant horizon, you can see the tallest of the Izamal pyramids, Kinich Kak Mo.

But before you go there, take a minute to walk down to the main square because there are two or three places there you will want to know about. The first, as seen in the video below, is the store Hecho a Mano. In 2002 when we moved to Merida, Hecho a Mano was owned by one of the more fascinating characters we have met down here. Hector Garza traveled the country, looked more Mexican and indigenous than most indigenous Mexicans he met along the way, and always returned with the most wonderful items and stories to go with them. He loved to talk, and it used to be that a trip to Izamal was half spent in the cluttered recesses of his store, exploring Mexico in our minds through his wares and his conversation. Hector has passed away, but Jean, his wife, continues to run the store and buys from the same artisans that Hector made friends with all those years ago. If you love Mexican handmade art, Hecho a Mano needs to be on your Izamal itinerary.

Another place to see is the town Ayuntamiento building, just across the park from the convent. A beautiful structure in itself, it also is the setting for a small artisan’s market which is often held in its shaded passageway. The day we were there, we were particularly enchanted by the handmade toys we found (yes, we bought some!) and the hammocks were some of the best we’ve seen anywhere. Guayaberas and embroidered blouses are for sale there as well, and there was even a man selling some lovely silver jewelry that was also locally made.

The other important place to visit is the Artisan’s Museum, set up by Cultura Banamex to show the products made by local and other Mexican artisans. Some of what you can see in this museum comes from other parts of Mexico, and some of it is made right there in town. More on that in a minute!

Kinich Kak Mo: Climb and then Eat

A few blocks from the main square (close enough to walk) is the street-level entrance to the stairway that climbs all the way to the top of the pyramid. The steps are wide and tall, and this is one of the easiest pyramids to climb in the whole Yucatan Peninsula. It is also one of the tallest, though it may not seem so, because it is also one of the widest. Kinich Kak Mo takes up the entire city block in which it stands. A climb to the top reveals the entire city of Izamal laid out below you, as well as miles and miles of the Yucatan Peninsula in all directions. If it is hot in Izamal, like it was the day we were there, you will always be able to catch a breeze at the top of Kinich Kak Mo. If you do not want to climb all the way up to the top, even going halfway is interesting. From there you can clearly see that this is not a hill, but a man-made pile of stones. The entire surface of the middle level is loose stones, over which some grass and trees have grown. How did they do it? How long did this take? What might still be hiding underneath this pile of stones? These are the questions you cannot help but ponder while standing on the back of this ancient structure.

At the base of the pyramid, one block from the entrance, is the Restaurant Kinich. You will see that in the video as well, as we went there for lunch. We always do. In ten years, the restaurant has grown larger and become more sophisticated. Now the bathrooms are cleaner, the front room has a little store, the service is more professional and the crowd is bigger. But there are still a few Maya women in the back, patting out handmade tortillas to accompany your favorite Yucatecan meal. You can get anything here… cochinita, pollo pibil, relleno negro and more and it is all good.

Empty Bed and Breakfast

Just down the street a few blocks, still within the center of town where all the walls are painted yellow, is the first place we visit on video. You enter into a front room that is the original building, at least one hundred years old, with beamed ceilings and large wood-shuttered windows that open to the street, and to the garden behind. Behind that room, a completely new building houses five bedrooms, a great room, a kitchen and a few terraces.

What’s lovely about this house, and it was apparent the day we were there, is that it stands away from the property walls, allowing air to circulate all around it. Even on the hottest of days, there is a breeze throughout the house. When it is as hot as it can get in the Yucatan sometimes, that counts for something! Of course, when you just can’t find it anywhere else, there is almost always a breeze on the roof though not when we were there, at the height of the sun (pictured to the right).

Calesa Ride

Now, if this had not been a working day in Izamal, and if we had been there entertaining a guest as we often do, we would have gone back to the square by the church and gotten into the first available calesa. These calesas and their drivers can just take you for a little ride around town, but what they are trained to do and what you probably want them to do is take you to visit a smattering of the local artesanias’ workshops.

In the past, we have visited the workshop of the man who makes miniatures, the embroidery workshop (lots to choose from… we bought some lovely embroidered linen pillow cases there), the butterfly workshop (a family makes butterflies and mayan dolls from papier maché), the jewelry maker (who makes necklaces, earrings and other jewelry from cocoyol seeds and coconut shells), and our favorites, the woodcarver (who makes the most beautifully detailed wood animals, calaveras (skeletons), walking sticks and santos (saints) and the tin man, who makes things like watering cans, lanterns and tortilla-warmers out of tin. Only the most dedicated shoppers can do all that in one day, and even they will probably be thwarted by an absent artisan who took the day off to go fishing or shopping in Merida.

Stay Awhile

Which leads us to our next point: you really cannot enjoy Izamal in one day. If you live in Merida, you can drive out there in about an hour and you can visit multiple times. But you will miss the night time and the very early morning, magical times in any Mayan pueblo. If you are just visiting the Yucatan, you may not get to come back to Izamal for awhile, so do not disappoint yourself by budgeting too little time there. Instead, consider spending the night at our final video destination, Hotel Macan che.

We have a soft spot in our hearts for Hotel Macan che because we have been going there for years. And it is just the kind of laid back, comfortable place that invites relaxation from your mind, your body and to the depths of your soul. There is everything there to allow you to relax, and nothing there to intrude on that relaxation. The rooms are modest, but comfortable, uniquely decorated and all nestled within one of the most lush tropical gardens we have had the pleasure of spending time in. The pool is rock-lined and cool, an antidote for a hot day spent in the streets. And the hosts and employees are peaceful, kind, efficient and also relaxed. If you want to take that aforementioned calesa ride, it is a great idea to have the Macan che staff set it up for you. They will pay the calesa driver and put it on your bill, and they will have the calesa pick you up at the Macan che front door.

You might be lucky enough to be at Macan che for a yoga retreat, but even if you are not, you can enjoy the garden gazebo for a yoga stretch or hang in a hammock for a special session of Maya meditation, otherwise known as a siesta. The gardens there must be seen and walked in to be appreciated.

Hotel Macan che is close enough to town to walk and hear the church bells, but far enough that a town fiesta will not keep you awake at night. If you like to roam around, just walk outside the front door and head off in any direction… you’ll be safe and you’ll be able to share in the special privilege of life in a Yucatan pueblo… the real thing.

When the sun sets, you might consider taking a stroll to downtown and sitting in the plaza on a park bench with a paleta (popsicle) or a Coke. Just sit. Just look around at the architecture of this sleepy colonial town. Breathe in the fresh air, the smell of roasting corn from a vendor, the scent of horses. Calm the restless urge you brought with you from the big city and stay on that bench, like that old man across from you in the white hat, who has been sitting there for an hour, occasionally talking to a friend that walks by. Sit longer and watch the lights come out as the sky grows dark. Watch the stars, for you can see them here. And then, when you’re tired, stroll safely home under the invisible blanket of peace and tranquility that lays over Izamal and the rest of the Yucatan.

This is what life used to be like almost everywhere once upon a time. Lucky for us, it is still like that in Izamal.

See more about Hotel Macan che on their website

Read more about Izamal (we only touched the surface) on Wikipedia

Jen, from the video, is the owner of Tierra Yucatan Real Estate

On the Edge of the Centro

On Calle 81, the southernmost edge of the historic centro, this house sits behind a traditional colonial facade. The first two rooms, an office and the garage, are original construction, with vaulted and beamed high ceilings. Everything built beyond those rooms was designed to be original and built from the ground up.The result is a new home with colonial style… a house that has the look and feel of history, but works like a modern home.

Read All About It

Another rather unique feature of this house is that the construction process was completely documented by the owners, the Working Gringos. From the first set of cement columns to the final touches, the processes that went into making this house can be read about in detail in the following article:

• Building Our House
• Building Our House II
• Building Our House III
• Building Our House IV
• Building Our House V
• Building Our House VI
• Building Our House VII
• Building Our House VIII
  

There is more written about this house than probably any house in Merida or the Yucatan. And these articles have been the most widely read of all the articles on this website.

The House Today

In spring of 2011, the house has been standing and lived in now for three years. As owners and co-designers with our architects, we are happy to report that the house has been a pleasure to inhabit. The room layout, designed for increased air-flow, really does work. We spend a lot of time in the living room, which is right next to the pool. So close, in fact, that we’ve been known to stand in the pool with a glass of wine or an evening snack while watching television. There are hammocks hung in four different spots in the house… and each one is perfect for a different time of day… two of them are in bedrooms, for air-conditioned comfort. One looks over the garden and is perfect for a late morning nap. A fourth hangs by the central patio, allowing its occupant to lounge on the hammock while still being part of the kitchen-BBQ conversation. The house is spacious and airy but still somehow intimate and comfortable.

More expats are moving into this area, where houses are less expensive than in the northern centro, but life is just as safe and quiet. San Sebastian Park, four blocks away, is the venue for a lot of live music, baseball games and church activities and is the location for some of the best outdoor authentic Yucatecan restaurants in the city. L’Ermita, also four blocks away, has a new playground since we moved in. The gardens behind the church have been host to an art exhibit that was one of the most interesting we’ve seen in years, and the school for learning the Mayan Language has been growing in attendance and stature. There are new cafes and cocina economicas in the area, a great dry-cleaning service and two grocery stores are just five minutes away and the Merida international airport is just eight minutes away. The bus to the mercado stops right in front of our house. Houses in this neighborhood continue to be bought and renovated… one has just finished a month or so ago a block away on Calle 70.

Over the last three years, the Dia de Los Muertos celebrations in Merida have become a serious affair, attended by and contributed to by the families in the surrounding neighborhood. And all of that happens only two blocks from this house.

Enjoy the Video

We asked our friends at Bulldog Productions to produce this video for us, with our tried-and-true host, Eric Partney. Since many of you have read about the building of the house, we hope you will enjoy the video, showing the house in its completely built and final glory! We certainly enjoy living in it!

Feedback Please!

We continue to welcome your comments and questions. Please let us know how we’re doing and what you want to see more of, what other information would be useful and interesting to you. As always, the video says more than we ever can… so please click below and enjoy Yucatan Living’s next episode of The Houses of Merida!

If you would like to share your house with the readers of Yucatan Living in a video, contact us at info [at] yucatanliving [dot] com.

If you would like to be notified of just-published articles and videos on Yucatan Living, send us your email address at info [at] yucatanliving [dot] com or enter it in the Subscribe button that is always hovering on the left side of your screen.

Some of the most popular articles on Yucatan Living’s website are the Building Our House articles, where we chronicled in sometimes painful but always interesting detail, the process of renovating and building our home in Merida. In those seven articles, our readers were treated to a blow-by-blow account of what it takes to build a new colonial-style house, using traditional materials and methods.

In our Houses of Merida video series, we have taken our readers on tours of a number of restored colonial homes and haciendas. We have all appreciated the beauty of these hand-crafted architectural wonders.

But to really understand both the innate beauty that you can find in an old home here, and the effort and vision it takes to rescue one, we’ve decided to show you something different this time: a totally unrestored home, typical of what you can still find in Merida and some of the surrounding colonial towns. Not only will this give you a feel for the beauty that was once here a hundred years ago, but it will also give you an idea of what to expect the next time you go house-hunting with a Yucatan real estate agent.

The house in this video is not located in Merida, but in Motul, a colonial city just a half hour outside of Merida. Motul is a self-contained city that has its own central mercado (market), its own cathedral, and its own industry consisting of large maquiladoras (manufacturing plants) located in the countryside surrounding the city. Of course, many of Motul’s residents also commute to and work in Merida. Motul has a colorful history of its own, having started as a Mayan city in the 11th Century, and more recently being the birthplace of Yucatan’s famous governor, Felipe Carrillo Puerto, where his former residence is now a museum and library. With all that history, it’s no surprise that Motul has a number of unrestored colonial homes in the downtown area, one of which is featured in this latest Houses of Merida video.

Jen Lytle, from Tierra Yucatan Real Estate, takes us on a tour of this dilapidated but once incredibly grand edifice. We don’t know about you, but we find such beauty in these structures that once represented the ultimate in taste and grandeur, still struggling to maintain that grandeur amidst the elements and neglect. As you follow Jen through the video, walking through the rooms, maybe you will find yourself marveling at the beauty of the dusty pasta tiles, the rotting but beautifully carved wooden doors, the frescos painted on walls footed by weeds and trash, the graceful arches framing a courtyard filled with farm animals… the juxtaposition of elegance and decay is poignant and arresting.

Many of us have experienced the deep satisfaction of rescuing this kind of beauty and bringing it to light by renovating and restoring these homes. Some of us like it so much, we become serial renovators, buying and selling homes just so we can experience it again and again… that wouldn’t be the Working Gringos, mind you. But we know people like that… Some of our best friends are serial renovators.

It’s hard not to be seduced into buying a house like this. There are not many places in the world where you can find such neglected beauty that is so accessible. We know many will enjoy Jen’s informative explanations of how to look at the various elements of the house with a nod to history and an eye to what it would take to restore things to their original splendor.

You can contact Jen Lytle of Tierra Yucatan Real Estate at jen [at] tierrayucatan [dot] com or visit www.tierrayucatan.com.

Unexpected Facade

On a nondescript side street just off the main artery of Calle 59, one of the facades seems a bit out of place. We’ve lived in Merida for over eight years now, so we expect the rundown colonial facade with the peeling paint and the faint remembrance of rotulos (painted signs) past. We also expect the freshly painted colonial facade and glassed-in windows that signal "Look! A gringo lives here!". We even have come to expect the slightly rundown and sometimes weirdly configured cement block home a la Yucatan… a home with a lot of white-washed wrought iron, pastel-colored facade, low roof, louvered windows looking out to the street and maybe even, can you believe it? a lawn, possibly with a few green plaster frogs.

What we don’t expect but found for this video is a facade that looks like this one: modern and sleek… a facade that could just as easily be on the upper East side of Manhattan or downtown Los Angeles. This facade has slate stone walls, wooden-slatted doors and sleek, stainless steel street numbers, setting it apart from just about every other facade in Merida, but certainly from all the others on its street.

And yet, this house is just a few blocks from both the Parque Centennario Zoo and Santiago Park. The owners took a typical mid-century modern home built here in the Fifties or Sixties (and painted pink, no less!) and turned it into something completely updated, modern and beautiful. And the best part of all of this is that they did it using local materials, local craftsmen and mostly local furniture.

MidCentury Modern Design

Another way this house sets itself apart is in its unique floor plan. The house is a duplex, designed from the beginning to have an upstairs one-bedroom apartment, and a downstairs two-bedroom house. Once you have closed that door behind you, you could be in Palm Springs or Miami but for a few clues here and there.

Most of the clues are in the furniture and some of the decorations (as well as, of course, the view of those old colonial buildings across the street…). We love how the owners took typical Yucatecan furniture and either recovered it with an unexpected fabric to look completely different or just put it in this environment, causing it to take on a whole new look. Here are a few examples.

The wooden chair to the left is a very typical design for this part of Mexico. You can see these wooden chairs in almost every used furniture store you go into, usually covered in some unattractive material or designed with rattan seating. By staining the wood dark and covering the upholstery with white leather, this chair (and its twin… there are two) suddenly became modern and charming. Other examples include the headboard in the guest bedroom and the bookshelf in the upstairs apartment, which are a typical bamboo design around here. Painting them stark white gave them a whole new look, and pairing them with modern sheet designs (in the case of the headboard) and a big Apple monitor (in the case of the bookshelf) made them look trés chic. The orange chair which is placed strategically in the foyer by the kitchen is the kind of plastic chair you might see in any cafeteria around the world, but here the color and shape provide a perfect counterpoint to the orange-painted recess in the wall and the grey cement and tiled kitchen beyond.

The outdoor chairs in the garden are a very typical Yucatecan type of chair, and nothing has been changed here. But surrounded by the modern furnishings of the home, and kept impeccably clean and neat, you would never know they are the same chairs that you can see parked out on a sidewalk somewhere in south Merida.

As you can see from the "before" photos above, the house was originally two-stories, but it was a one-family home. The new owners added a garage and a staircase in the front, creating separate entrances so that the upstairs is now a completely separate one-bedroom apartment that can be given to visitors or rented out as a vacation rental.

The building downstairs is divided into the main house and the casita, which contains the master bedroom and bath. The original casita looks nothing like the glass-walled modern building that we can see now, and is a testament to the imagination and skill of the owners. Separated from the main house by a covered patio, pool and garden, the master suite has both privacy and a lovely view of the greenery in the center. Can you believe those two photos (above and to the left) are of the same space?

From a rather small lot and an uninspiring cement-block house, the owners have created an incredibly liveable home for at least four people. They have also created an income-producing property, included a pool and a garage, and have completely updated the look to be something that you might easily find in an interior design magazine. Most of what was done was accomplished with local traditional materials, making creative use of colors and forms. They have made the most of the space that they had, strategically placing windows and doors for the maximum flow of light and air. They have paid attention to privacy needs, views and convenience, and ended up with a very comfortable living space in a great location at an affordable price. What more can we say? We were duly impressed!

Feedback Please!

We continue to welcome your comments and questions. Please let us know how we’re doing and what you want to see more of, what other information would be useful and interesting to you. As always, the video says more than we ever can… so please click below and enjoy Yucatan Living’s next episode of The Houses of Merida!

If you would like to share your house with the readers of Yucatan Living in a video, contact us at info [at] yucatanliving [dot] com.

If you would like to be notified of just-published articles and videos on Yucatan Living, send us your email address at info [at] yucatanliving [dot] com or enter it in the Subscribe button that is always hovering on the left side of your screen.

You can contact our host, Eric Partney of Mexico International Real Estate, at eric [at] mexintl [dot] com

Neighbors

When we first moved to Merida in 2002, the house next door to us was empty. We lived in Casa Panadero, and the house next door was called Casa Pocito. We rented Casa Pocito for awhile as an office, but soon moved into our own building a few blocks away. A few months later, new owners moved in and we considered ourselves very fortunate to have such friendly and fun neighbors.

Our new neighbors had retired from their jobs in Charleston, South Carolina, and had moved to Merida to relax. We enjoyed living next to them, sharing our experiences of this new adventure called "moving to Merida"… but most of all, we loved seeing how they decorated their house, which had a floor plan that was a mirror image of ours. They always had colorful art, beautiful flower arrangements, a glass of something cold with ice and of course, they had Max, the regal black standard poodle, who lent an air of elegance to any room he graced with his presence.

Imagine our surprise and dismay, then, when they announced that they had sold Casa Pocito and were going to build a new home in south Merida. They were one of the first gringos we knew who ventured down south of the zocalo (soon to be followed by hundreds of others, including ourselves…). They found a large colonial building that was mostly facade, backed by a huge piece of land. They designed the house they built there for lots of cool shaded space inside, and a big garden to plant and tend in the back. And, of course, room for guests and a swimming pool.

Working with Manuel Kuk, a local contractor, and their own design, they were able to finish the house in about five months for less than $200,000 USD. Even taking into consideration that this was before the costs of materials (especially cement and block) went up a few years ago, this was an impressive accomplishment. They built a very large and luxurious home for a reasonable price in record time.

How did they do it? Well, first, by doing it a few years ago. Also, by being their own architects. And by being there every day, day after day, and making it their top priority. By reusing the rocks they cleared out of the dirt, keeping things simple and being creative with humble materials. Their local contractor, Manuel Kuk, was well known to them, and was pleasant and easy to work with, and his workers were efficient. And the house, while large, is a simple layout, which made for few misunderstandings.

A Great Room

The front part of the house is the original structure, with two guest rooms, one on either side of the wide entryway. The facade sports those old-fashioned windows with the straight old iron protectores that just say "Mexico" and inspire window-envy… until you step inside the foyer, look up and are consumed with old-wooden-beamed-ceiling envy. Such is life in Merida. If you visit other people’s houses, be prepared for house envy. It’s rampant here.

Everything behind those three front rooms was built new, but by now (four years later), you really can’t tell the difference. The central patio with a gurgling stone fountain is reminiscent of the courtyard in the Frida Kahlo movie, minus the peacocks and parrots. While we’re on the subject of animals, when we shot this video, the whole house was very obviously minus Max, the stately dog, on our visit, as he just passed away a few weeks before we were there. We missed his presence, but we’re happy to see that the owners are looking at this as an opportunity to travel without guilt, which seems like a good way to deal with a sad event.

Moving past the sorrow and the patio, you walk through a screen door into what seems to be the largest room in a private home in Merida. We’re here to tell you that it is NOT the largest room in Merida. There are some amazing homes here with cavernous rooms.

When you walk into this house, though, it is almost as if the house flings open its architectural arms in exuberance, inviting you to revel in all the space that it has to offer and you have to enjoy. This coral-colored room is quite large… large enough to hold string quartets and audiences of 100 comfortably. Though unplanned, this room has wonderful acoustics and has been the site of more than a few musical events since it was built. The elegant floor tiles from Mosaicos Peninsular (very Versace-esque!), the white-lined arches that march down each side and the beautiful flower arrangements add to the grandeur that is this Great Room.

The Rest of the Rooms

The main house only has one bedroom… a very large bedroom at the back, facing the garden. The bedroom and the bathroom are set apart from the rest of the house by color… soft swaths of violet and pink cal paint that surprisingly go perfectly with the colonial red zocalo tiles that provide footings to all the walls and with the grey slate tiles in the bathroom. On the same side of the house is an inviting kitchen with a warm Moroccan chandelier that hangs low over an island, and a talavera tile backsplash against the kitchen counter. In the middle on that side of the house is a den with an impressive bookshelf and all the media accoutrements needed in the 21st Century.

On the other side of the Great Room is another big room, running the length of the house and painted in a soft ochre color, where dining and visiting are the main events. The dark wood oversized dining room furniture would probably overwhelm in most homes, but here it looks perfect. And the modern art, including the modern sconces and other works by Katrin Schikora, is a great counterpoint for the mostly traditional furniture. And all the rooms are topped off with very high ceilings, and strategically placed tragaluces (skylights).

A screened-in porch area at the back of the house looks into the garden. Four years ago, the owners planted this garden and the plants have grown so prodigiously that they had to remove trees and other plants to keep from recreating an Amazonian jungle. What we especially love is the formal layout… four quadrants of planting, surrounded by stone walkways, and in the center, a large fountain that adds the sound of water. Each of the four quadrants now has a thriving orchid tree, with its butterfly-shaped leaves and pink orchid-like blooms.

Beyond that, away from the house, is a large swimming pool with plenty of places to sit in the sun, though frankly, we don’t do that much here. Sitting in the sun during most of the year is a bit like stepping into a big broiler, so it is important to have ample shade. This garden has shade under an open-air poolhouse with a red-tiled roof, with seating for lounging and dining and enjoying the view.

Life is Good

Life seems good in this house. Everywhere you look, there are beautiful and interesting things. Everything you need is well within reach. There is air and space in this house in good measure… two luxuries that are much appreciated in this climate. By walking around, we can tell that the people who live in this house are enjoying their time here… and besides staying warm and staying out of the rain, isn’t that what a house is all about? Here, once again, is La Buena Vida… the Good Life, in Merida!

Feedback Please!

We continue to welcome your comments and questions. Please let us know how we’re doing and what you want to see more of, what other information would be useful and interesting to you. As always, the video says more than we ever can… so please click below and enjoy Yucatan Living’s next episode of The Houses of Merida!

If you would like to share your house with the readers of Yucatan Living in a video, contact us at info [at] yucatanliving [dot] com.

If you would like to be notified of just-published articles and videos on Yucatan Living, send us your email address at info [at] yucatanliving [dot] com or enter it in the Subscribe button that is always hovering on the left side of your screen.

You can contact our host, Jen Lytle of Tierra Yucatan Real Estate, at jen [at] tierrayucatan [dot] com