I felt as though I'd dragged my friend through the back door of a disorganized garage, rather than through the welcoming gates of Merida. Having driven through fire for hours, then getting lost in what felt like an unsafe area, we were quite happy to be at our hotel.
Carlos at the front desk told us we'd have a wonderful time in the shops the next day, and that the markets are usually open until midnight. As the sun sets early in Mexico, and we'd had such an exhausting day, we decided to have a simple evening. We left with only enough money to purchase dinner and some drinks to bring back to our room.
At the first corner, a man was pointing us towards the market. "Only another hour, and then the market is closed!" We thanked him, and said we'd come back tomorrow. He kept insisting "No, the market is closed tomorrow for Cinqo de Mayo, you must come now." I didn't have a map with me, and wasn't sure where the market was - and as we'd brought little cash, we decided it best to just head for the restaurant.
Silly me got us lost, having forgotten where Parque Hidalgo was. I was trying to avoid the salesmen, so when we saw a childrens sports team, thought they'd be safe to approach for directions. A man in a uniform came forward, and instead of giving us direction, insisted on taking us to his favorite restaurant. His name was Jose. Ironically, it was the Cafeteria El Meson, which was where I was hoping for - only, much to our horror he said: "I'll just wait here while you eat, then I take you to my brothers store."
Didn't see that coming!
While we were eating, a waiter served Jose drinks, while he worked the restaurant, taking different groups down the road, and returning. We were trying to time our meal so we could run off while he was gone, but ended up going to his brothers store.
If one could compare an art gallery to a can of sardines, this place is it. One could spend days in this place, and still not see the entire inventory. We loved a lot of art that we saw, but as we had no money on us, came back downstairs and explained that we'd be back the next day.
The man in charge said, "No, no. We closed tomorrow for Cinqo de Mayo, but if you want, we stay here and you go get money. We can stay open late tonight for you." I thought about Carlos, who'd said we'd have a wonderful time in the shops tomorrow, and felt convinced that surely he would have mentioned that the entire city would be closed the next day, if it were true. Then again, we'd been told this more than once, so I was perplexed. I asked him, "So, during Carnaval, only parts of the city were closed in the morning, but were open in the afternoon, so why is everything closed on May 4th, when Cinqo de Mayo isn't until May 5th." He told us that they had to close on the 4th, to get ready for the 5th. At this point, we were both feeling like it was a bit of a tall tale, so we said our thanks, and told them to have a nice evening.
Across the street, the young man told us "the store you were in, they don't have as good quality as we have here." He then handed us an old edition of the Lonely Planet, and showed us that his store had a good review. He likely had good quality, but Lonely Planet does warn about this sales pitch. He also told us that everything would be closed the next day for Cinqo de Mayo. At this point, I was feeling really bad, as Leanne hadn't been to Merida before, and the whole reason we'd come here was to shop. Not only had we had an exhausting day driving through fire, but I'd also gotten us lost in a sketchy area, then again on our way for dinner - and now it looked like our chances for shopping were shot.
Guess what? Everything was open the next day. We also smiled about the fact that everything was also open on May 5th, which was the day we left.
We found this lovely shop of Chiapas handicrafts, and ended up doing quite a bit of our shopping here because not only were the prices very reasonable, but when we didn't barter, she simply shook her head at us and said "No barter?" - then subtracted 40% from our bill! This meant a blouse that would have cost me $40-$50 in Canada only cost me $6.
After wandering all over Merida, we found the rest of our money was spent at this shop, called Casa de los Artesanias. It's a government-supported business, and the quality was much better than most of what we saw in other shops, and the prices were much cheaper than what we could barter for elsewhere. The other benefit to Casa de los Artesanias, is that they packaged our pottery very well.
Alas...guess who we ran into on our way back to our hotel?! This is Jose scolding me for not shopping at his brothers store!! I explained to him that we would come back to his brothers store later, but that "In Canada, honesty is best policy." It's uneasy shopping somewhere where people are putting on pressure and actually lying to get money out of you.
And for the record - we highly doubt it was really his brothers store...but that part we consider a harmless fib that seems to be used a lot in Mexico...
This artesans market is behind Lucas de Galves market - and was being renovated in 2007. All the shops here sell pottery and trinkets, though we found the prices were still higher than the Casa de los Artesanias, and the quality was not as good. Perhaps this will be different in future...they were still fun shops to look through.
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