Blake and Deborah in Mexico: Merida

Mérida is considered the cultural and financial capital of the Yucatán Peninsula. It's a big, sprawling, low-rise city of a million or so people with a huge historical center and lots of local flavor. It's inland rather than coastal – some 35 km (22 mi) from the Gulf of Mexico – built on the site of a centuries old Maya city. In the typical symbolic manner of conquerors, the Spanish dismantled the Maya pyramids and used the carved stones to build their cathedral and other colonial buildings. Mérida had a brief boom time around the turn of the 20th century as an exporter of henequen – an agave fiber with properties similar to sisal and used in the manufacture of rope and twine – which gave rise to a wealthy merchant class that built many of the large and stately homes. Street after street are filled with more modest colonial homes in various states of repair: some renovated to high standard, some abandoned and left to decay. And one type can be right next door to the other. Barrios, or neighborhoods, center around a church and an adjacent park, the gathering place for the local community, with many businesses concentrated around these central locations.

Getting from one place to another is in one way straightforward due to the grid pattern of numbered streets, with all even numbered streets running north-south and all odd numbered streets running east-west. So for instance an address might read Calle 72 no. 376 X 57 Y 59. Although that looks like a math-phobe's nightmare it simply means number 376 on Calle 72 between Calles 57 and 59. Driving is made a little more challenging because most streets (at least here in the historical district) are one-way.

Walking is made a little more challenging because the sidewalks have been cobbled together over the centuries to no common standard or logic. They vary greatly in width, height and construction and an even, level surface is the exception rather than the rule. In some places the sidewalks are wide enough for Deborah and I to walk hand-in-hand, other places we must travel single file. In some instances you almost have to turn sideways to negotiate the sidewalk without stepping into the street. And the heights of the sidewalks can vary from a couple of inches to (I'm not making this up) nearly two feet, the latter presumably to deal with the intense tropical rains in the summer months. But even if you successfully plant your feet safely on the ever-changing sidewalk landscape, you still have to beware of the telephone poles and guy wires and odd bit of rebar jutting upward – often from the middle of the sidewalk – and the electrical meters and air conditioning units protruding outward from the buildings, quite possibly at eye level. (Republicans should love it here: no regulations). Needless to say, attempting to see the sights while negotiating this municipal obstacle course is a true test of our multitasking abilities.