Merry Merida

It´s high noon and I´m sitting in a marvelously local restaurant in Progreso. It´s in a wonderful old building with high ceilings and 12 foot high wooden doors that are all open to let in the breeze. It´s about 90 degrees and quite humid but the breeze and the cold Coke help cool things off. I think I consume several gallons of liquid a day, made up of equal parts of water, Coke, and beer.
Progreso really is a nice little town and Chixculub (where I´m staying) is even better because it´s even smaller. I am a houseguest of A & M, two Swiss friends of mine who have rented this spectacular house right smack on the beach.
The little old lady who sells newspapers in Chixculub is a delight. She thoroughly enjoys interacting with strange foreigners like me. I have bought a newspaper from her two times, so I am now a recognized regular customer. The first time I asked her how much the paper cost. It costs 70 cents. EVERYONE knows that, except of course dumb gringos like me. So she grinned this huge grin at me and said "Seven pesos (long pause) or three dolluh!" I gave her seven pesos, trying to match her grin and said "Keep the change." She burst into a cackling laugh. Today I wore my "Chivas" (a soccer team) jersey. She is an "America" fan (another Mexican team) so she let me know rightaway her low opinion of Chivas.
Yesterday I finally had the chance to visit the nearby big city of Merida. I had arrived at the airport there last week and just traveled through it on my way to the beach. The guide book speaks glowingly of Merida, so I had some relatively high expectations. Unfortunately, those expectations were not met.
Merida is first and foremost a big city. I have to face the fact that I have a built-in bias against big cities in general, with some notable exceptions like San Francisco. By and large, the traffic is unpleasant, the sheer size is frequently daunting, etc. Merida does have a nice central plaza and one or two museums that might be worth seeing. In addition, the guidebook talks about lots of entertainment possibilities in the evening.
However, overriding all that is the stifling heat and humidity. It is HOT! and it is MUGGY! Probably if you stay in Merida, the thing to do would be to go sightseeing in the morning, take a long afternoon siesta in an air conditioned hotel room, and then venture out again in the evening to go to some sort of fiesta or dancing occasion or whatever.
In the locally produced guidebook, they desribe a "Seven day stay in Merida." The first day they suggest visiting a museum of handicrafts, and the other six days they recommend you take tours to other places near to Merida, such as Chichen Itza.
Here in Chixculub, I´m a 45 minute air conditioned colectivo ride away from Merida. After "seeing the sights of Merida," how wonderful it is to return to the beach where A/C is provided by Mother Nature and the prevailing breezes off the Gulf of Mexico! At night the ceiling fan and the large open window facing the beach is all I need!
Hasta luego!