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First Time Reader? ......here is the background to this series of blogs:
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lobo/9/1233502800/tpod.html

Mexico: 23 Destinations to Spend the Winter Months

Merida, Yucatan
no. 21 of 23 destinations (this is not a ranking)
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Merida – The Remarkable Paseo de Montejo
Part 3 of 3

Preamble:
 
My thoughts are in Merida but I am actually in Montreal, Quebec. It is a beautiful sunny autumn day (November 5, 2009) with early morning temperatures hovering above the freezing point. It is a good day to write a short blog before I start a long drive to Victoria, BC via Seattle, Washington. On second thought, any day is a good day to write a blog since it brings back such great memories of our trip to Mexico.

As it turned out the blog was not finished in Montreal after all. It is fair to say that there is no such thing as a "short blog" if there are a lot of photos to edit, etc .

It is now November 17, 2009 and I am sitting in Victoria, BC by the inner harbour finally finishing this blog. When I say I am sitting by the inner harbour I don't mean that literally but I can see the inner harbour only 100 meters from where I am sitting in our temporary accommodations. We move into our condo in James Bay, the historic area of Victoria, on December 3. James Bay is as central as one can get and therefore within walking distance of almost all that is interesting in Victoria – downtown, the inner harbour, the Empress Hotel, the museums, the Emily Carr House, the cruise ship harbour, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, to name a few.

The long drive designed to finally get Barbara's car from Montreal to Victoria was a distance of 5,300 kilometers. A stay with my brother in Rochester Hills, Michigan was a welcome interlude. In the end it was more than I would have liked to drive in a 2000 Toyota Corolla but everything went well.

 Now to get to the chase or blog ……… .
 





Buenos Aires is billed as the "Paris of South America". Since Paris is my favorite city that was a comparison I was eager to make during my trip to Argentina in 2004. Buenos Aires did not disappoint as its architecture and beautiful boulevards are very much reminiscent of Paris, especially in such barrios as Palermo or Belgian. But did it have a Champs Elysées? If it does it would be either one of Avenidas 5. de Mayo or 9. de Julio (is there a wider boulevard anywhere?). But even unofficially none make the comparison.

Paseo de Montejo on the other hand is unofficially known as the “Champs Elysées of Merida”. It is a comparison that must have been made when the “avenida” was at its greatest glory in the early 1900’s because despite its beauty it would be a stretch to draw a comparison today .

The “paseo” is however still one of the great surprises of the city as the mansions and museums along this avenue are awe-inspiring. Some of the best architects of Europe must have been let loose along this street to create the various neo-classical French style mansions in this corner of Mexico.

The opulence that existed here begs the question, where did the money come from to construct these examples of opulence?

Simply put, the source of the wealth is found in “henequen”. Henequen, what in the world is henequen? I had never heard of this word until our trip to Merida.

http://www.mexicomike.com/stories/henequen.htm

Construction of the Paseo Montejo, named after Francisco de Montejo who founded Merida in 1542, started in 1880 at the initiative of a group of hacienda owners, industrialists and business people . The first car drove on the paseo in 1904. It was conceived as a boulevard for the wealthy class at the time and was lined with beautiful residences built on the revenue generated by henequen or the so-called “green gold”.

The best part was that we had no idea what we were about to see in walking this avenida. More than once we found ourselves, as the French say –“bouche bée”, or open mouthed in amazement as the former residences before us continued to inspire awe. That was certainly the case when we were in front of the Palacio G. Canton that is now the Museum of Anthropology (Museo de Antropologia). The palace was the former residence of state governors.

Barbara was certainly interested in taking a tour of the museum. On the other hand, I was attracted to the nearby Merida Railway Museum (Museo del Ferrocarille). As an old railway buff I would have liked nothing better than to have a peek into the history of Mexico’s railways.

In the end it was a Mexican standoff as a lack of time did not allow us to visit either of the two museums.

For more information about Merida and the Palacio G. Canton:
http://www.tourbymexico.com/yucatan/merida/merida.htm


Coming Soon: Playa del Carmen - A New Appreciation