Merida, Yucatan state, Mexico

Goodbye Oaxaca and onto Merida.

We departed for Merida from Oaxaca to fly to Mexico City which took 50mins, then from Mexico City to Merida, 1 hr 35min later, we flew to avoid the 12 hrs bus trips, we arrived into Merida, the resort costal town of Yucatan State. After checking into our fabulous hotel De Fray Diego, we went for a short walk to the centre of town, to explore and discover what this town has to offer.

Our hotel in the historical district! I will say that the namesake of our hotel was responsible for destroying 95% of the Mayan history and Mayan buildings, he was Spanish!

Staying at this hotel which was originally a mission appeals to my fascination of religious icons.

The namesake!

Our room, I loved that they had marcel's for bed covers.

Merida is obviously designed for tourists, lots of shops and eating places, the population is 1,000,000.

The next day we did the city tour, covering a wide preiminater of the city in a very old bus.

This monument is a dedication to the early Mayans that settled in this area.

One of the entires into the park area, the park has four entries.

Another entry.

The main Cathederal in Merida, it has the largest cross that I have seen so far and not very ornate.

One of the oldest churches in the city.

Great rustic art.

We also visited the rich area of Merida, very interesting designs of houses, moorish, baroque and French provincial, the house sell for about 4,000,000 USD

This ended our city tour, we then walked around the square in town and visited a handicraft shop where, quilts, rugs, scarves and embroideries clothes are made. The quilts are Mayan and all handmade.

This is a collection of embroidered squares sewn together the overall effect is quite stunning,the price of one of these quilts are about 3,000pesos=$300 roughly.

These quilts are very rustic!

DH and I discovered a great little cafe just down from our hotel, all things Frida so I was very happy to just sit and have a meal and admire all the memoriabilla, of Frida and her life. 

I struck up a limited conversation with the owner to see if anything was for sale, in my limited Spanish and her limited English, and great hand gestures, the owner produced a card, where she got the table runner and fabric from. On return to our hotel where the concierge could speak English, a phone call was made and my long suffering husband was dragged into a taxi to find the place. 

On arrival we looked at the facade and thought what do we have here......inside we go and lol and behold it is a printing shop, where images are printed onto fabric the of your choice and no..... They could not have it ready in 2 days, after some persistence and limited English out comes a delightful teenager who can speak English and that is when the magic happened, out came a ready made table runner, other items as well, I picked some images and while we waited, they were printed. The young teenager organised us a taxi back to our hotel and we were on our way.

Some of the of my purchases!

Saturday we had a full day tour to Uxmal and Kabah, visiting more Mayan temples, a very hot day, but the wildlife was great.

Mayan temple in Uxmal, this is where De Fray Diego discovered and invaded.

Loved the iguanas

Another visit to a chocolate factory, Mexican  chocolate does not taste like Cadbury.

This ends our tour for Saturday, a very hot day 40 degrees, back to the hotel for a swim.

On Sunday we were on another tour to Celestun, This tour was on the coast and we got a boat ride to visit the flamingoes, had a seafood lunch on the beach and was quite a pleasant day with good company.

Our boat!

The flamingos were interesting to watch.

There was an opportunity to have a swim as well.

Interesting bird life.

After lunch we travelled to 1 1/2 hr back to Merida, for a swim and relax.

Sunday concludes  our time in Merida, Monday we leave to visit Chitken Itza, then onto Can Caun.

"ADIOS " amigo for now.

Turkey travels, culture, food, handicrafts and a great time!.

OMG, Turkey is such a delight! the ruins after our Egypt trip, it has been a delight to see how ancient cities are looked after and maintained in Turkey.

Below is a couple of Turkish men twirling ice cream, very good ice cream.

All over Turkey are these evil eye trees.

We had lunch in a gorgeous restaurant in Cappodocia Cultural house and below was the most amazing framed embroideries, silk fabric and silk cotton.

All satin stitched and hand embroidered.

Next stop was a visit to a pottery place that creates the most gorgeous plates, containers and wine decanters, such a shame they are all breakable and we still have a few weeks left of our trip.

And of course, I had to have a go!

In Konya we visited the Rumi museum, this was where the whirling dervishes were trained.

On arrival into Ayvalik where we stayed in a pansion, a restored ottoman mansion. The front door.

Entry foyer

Kitchen for food prep.

Our bedroom.

Quite charming with many folk art designs and collectables, the pansion consisted of 3 floors with 2 bathrooms on each floor and about 12 bedrooms, the group contributed to a mezze night and much fun was had by all, dinner was finished off with a game of cards.

We also had the opportunity to meet a Canadian woman, name forgotten, who came to Turkey 25 yrs ago and loved Turkey so much she stayed. She is responsible for running a shop front, teaching the local Turkish women on how to make goods out of recyclable materials, such as Nescafé packets, liptons tea, ring pull tops, etc.The shop front allows the  local ladies to learn some arts and crafts and a little money can be earned on the side and donated to the local population.

Above one of the Turkish women, sewing materials on the machine.

Food has been a big part of our tour, in every town that we have stopped at, our tour guide has suggested a local delicacy to the area, in Ayvalik, it was recommended to have a panini and stuffed mussels with lemon, we tried both, very enjoyable.

In Pammukkake we visited the white travertines and the ancient city, (Hierapolis of Phyrgia), just as we were finished visiting the city and walked to the travertines, we had torrential rain, we waited for awhile but then decided to brave the wind and rain and walked back to the hotel via the travertines. 

Wild poppies are growing all over Turkey.

Gateway to Hierapolis.

What a wonderful thing to do, the rain added to the delight of walking on the travertines,  the water was so warm, to walk on a world heritage site while still raining was awesome.

The white travertines.

One if the many art works in the city of Selcuk

Ephesus temple and library 

Troy in Troya.

Ferry ride to get to Gallipoli 

Gallipoli

ANZAC Cove

Lone Pine

New Zealand memorial.

Look what you find in toilets!

When in Pamukkali, we had the opportunity to see the Whirling dervishes.

The whirling dervishes performing.

The horse from the movie, "Troy"

We travelled 3,300 KM's over western Turkey.

R Egypt tour, it is great to see how the 

In Cannakle is the horse used in the movie "Troy" the Turkish government purchased it after the movie was completed, it is situated along the wharf area, where we had our last meal as tomorrowwe leave early to catch the ferry and drive back to Instanbul, farewell Turkey and onto Greece.