As much as we have loved our time in Central America so far... there is one thing that lets it down. The Cities suck!! Ranging from uninteresting to downright dangerous, there is little to encourage you to spend any time in them... especially considering the wonders of the coast lines and mountain ranges! However, we love a good city. Wondering around cobbled streets or huge boulevards, checking out the local architecture and finding the hidden gems in a town are some of our favourite things to do while travelling! Merida was the first really nice city (with the exception of Antigua… but it's really more of a town…) we've visited since we've been away. After our first (of many, we expect) overnight bus journey we arrived ahead of schedule… at 3am rather than the 7am we were told! Being the sensible backpackers we are, we weighed up our options… do we venture out into this unknown city, to the hostel we had booked for the following night & did not know if it had space, let alone whether the reception would be open at this ungodly hour…. Or do we stay for the rest of the night in the posh long distance bus station with the armed guards? Needless to say, we opted for a comfy night on metal benches by the glow of headlights.

At around 7am the bus station started to get busy and we figured this was a reasonable time to turn up at the hostel, so we hailed a cab and made our way over. The hostel was situated on one of the main Plazas, overlooking a beautiful park. We checked in and walked into the carnage that is…. Breakfast! The hostel's included breakfast was the most elaborate meal we've seen while backpacking! Multiple types of cereal, 5 different types of fruit, yoghurt, bread… and made to order pancakes or omelets! It looked like heaven after settling for a $2 Chinese in Belize City the night before!

I tucked into breakfast while Steve caught up on his sleep and had a chat with the friendly hostel manager. Turned out that Carnival started the following day! Our timing couldn't be any better! He referred me to the schedule, which detailed the following week and a half's celebrations and parades! Sweet!

The first two days parades were the local school's parades. No, we didn't stick around for them! We explored the town (when Steve eventually woke up!), booked our room for the nights of the big parades and the following morning headed to our place's sister hostel, supposedly a white mansion right on the beach. Too good to be true, right?

It was.

After spending an hour wondering around trying to find the hostel (the name of which none of the locals recognised - should have been our first hint!), we found it. It was a building site!

The friendly chap stood on the porch ushered us in and made us feel very welcome… but we couldn't help looking around at all the building tools and ripped up floor boards. He showed us to our room, which in their defense, was a beautiful 5* suite. It turns out that the hostel is having renovations and is due to become one of the fanciest places in town… and for the time being, they're allowing backpackers to stay while they complete the work.

Great, except we had arrived expecting an entire hostel! Having walked around for over an hour in the scorching heat, we were exhausted so retired to our room for a nap. When we awoke, we decided that we would stay the night, but we weren't prepared to pay the same room price as in the hostel which we stayed in the night before. Drawing the short straw, Steve went to go talk to the owner.

He explained that it's already a discount rate as the place will be mega expensive when it's finished, but agreed to let us pay a reduced rate. I think we made him feel a bit bad, as from then on they couldn't do enough for us. They told us we could use any food that was in the kitchen, bought us cups of hot chocolate (one of the best we've tasted!) and made us a huge 4 course breakfast in the morning.

We ended up paying the full rate. We couldn't not, could we! The owner had made us feel so welcome… and although it wasn't the nicest place we've ever stayed… the bed was probably the most comfortable!

The following day, after a peaceful night amidst the rubble, we returned to Merida for the Carnival. We weren't really sure what to expect, but like the well trained tourists we are we headed out, cameras & all, in time for the start of the parade. Over an hour later, still awaiting the start of the parade & trying to figure out what was going on we suddenly heard a commotion approaching (almost poetic!) Expecting to see Mexican style entertainment we were slightly perplexed by the arrival of Superman, Batman & various other crime busters apparently ably supported in their fight against crime by Coca Cola sponsorship?!! The rest of the parade followed, a truly amazing mix of local dancers, street acts & bizarre corporate floats all beautifully soundtracked by salsa & for some reason Gloria Estefan & the Black Eyed Peas! When the entertainment finally died down we did the only sensible thing, grabbed a chocolate covered Churro to go with our rum & headed home.

The following evening, keen to experience a different view of the parade, we opted to view it from our balcony (private room overlooking the plaza & parade route gained on account of an admin c*** up……nice!) It seemed like a very civilized option right up to the point one of the guys with us suggested tequila! Well it is Mexico! One bottle later (approximately 45 minutes I think) & the parade suddenly seemed awesome. The tequila definitely distracted us from the fact that it was strangely similar to the previous night just bigger & louder. We also managed to achieve the frankly astounding feat of attracting the attention of one of the guys in the parade (paradeers?) who was throwing freebies into the crowd & got him to hit the 2nd floor balcony with a chocolate bar! Good arm! After all the fun & games we managed to resist the tempting lure of (& I quote) "a club that's not that bad & probably open" & retired all carnivaled out.