Merida Day 12 - Palacio de Gobierno

Have to do laundry even on holiday so that was the first order of the day. While waiting for it, I took a couple of shots from our roof top patio. It is on top of the kitchen and we never use it as there are no chairs up there, but it does give a nice view of the back part of the patio and the pool. On the left is a bathroom and on the right the pool shed which has the washing machine in it.

We headed down town and booked a tour to Uxmal (pronounced ushmaal) for tomorrow, with the same company we used before. We then took a look at the huge paintings in the Governor's Palace. There are two downstairs, three on the staircase, 5 around the top balcony and a hall of them upstairs.

This one depicts the importance of maize to the Mayan, among other things

They have been painted by Fernando Castro Patheco and are quite magnificent, not only for their size. He has a powerful style and depicts the history of the Yucatan, Mayan and Spaniards. Its not a pretty history, quite brutal.

This is the last one we looked at, showing the eagle (good) fighting the serpent (bad) against the colours of the Mexican flag. Aside from the paintings it is a lovely building and has great views from

the second story over the Plaza Grande and the Cathedral. We continued south of the plaza, trying to find Marys, the restaurant where we ate on Saturday. However we could`t find it and just came home to spend the heat of the day in the pool and shade. The weather forcast proved correct and we had a thunderstorm and torrential rain. George watched a movie on the computer and I started experimenting with the watercolours I bought with me for just such an occasion.

This is my attempt at painting B`alam (Mayan for jaguar). He is was our first souvenir. There is one like him in the house, but bigger and we saw a lot in the stalls at Chichen Itza, but we actually bought him in Progreso.
I will finish today by posting a couple of pictures from what has become a hobby here. In France last year George took pictures of all the different kinds of doorknobs. Here there was a tradition of naming intersections based on a landmark or event. As the landmarks etc disappeared the names were depicted at the corners on red and white tiles. I have taken pictures of them when I see them.

I don`t like to think about how this corner got its name.