Mexico, Merida

Merida is a great place to spend a few days.
We were luckily here during the Mexican Independence Day (16 September) Festival.
Walk around the Plaza Grande and see inside the Catedral de San Ildefonso.
Go inside the Palacio del Gobierno and see the murals.
On Sunday lots of people gather here to walk around the square and there is often salsa dancing. The streets around the square are sometimes closed and there is music, dancing and shopping to be done.
Take a bus or walk down Paseo de Montejo north of the center, a wide boulevard with interesting buildings said to be Merida's Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City or the Champs Elysees in Paris.
The Mayan ruin of Uxmal is an easy day trip from Merida.
There are two options.
You can buy a return ATS bus ticket to Uxmal which leaves Merida's 2nd class bus station on Calle 69 between Calle 68 and 70 at 8am and returns leaving Uxmal at 14:30. This costs US$7.50.
The other option is to take the same bus but after dropping off the people just going to Uxmal takes a tour to see the other ruins of Kabah, Sayil, Xlapak and Labna (they're quite small and you don't have to see each one) before returning for 2 hours at Uxmal. You need to pay the entrances separately (about US$2-3 for the small ruins, US$8.80 plus US$3 for video(they didn't check) for Uxmal. This costs US$12. We did this one by mistake as we didn't realise there was a return bus but we went to see Labna and could see most of Kabah from the entrance. We had enough time to see Uxmal. The time the others had at Uxmal was far too long.
We also booked a good tour to see the cenotes (caves) that are everywhere in Yucutan. We booked this through the reception at Nomads Hostel. A do-it-yourself coffee and toast breakfast is available at the hostel. We then visited and snorkelled at two cenote which was great. The visibility is amazing. We then went for lunch in a Mayan home and then stopped at a Hacienda on the way back to Merida. This cost US$21.50.
For eating, there's a great place on Calle 60 about half a block north of Plaza Grande on the left which has cheap meals with big portions.