Motul

Motul, or as the ancient maya called it “Zacmutul” is among other things, the birthplace of both Felipe Carrillo Puerto,

AND huevos motuleños.

Tom and I and friends recently went to Motul for breakfast. 

At about 40km from Merida it's a short drive, about an hour, in which time you get a little conversation going as the sights are typically a bit uninteresting - traffic is light, and the highway is good.  Since we have a car we drive, but you can easily choose to get there by bus/combi, which leave from calle 67x52 in Merida Centro; they make the trip with some degree of regularity and drop you right in Motul Centro at the main square.

We had our huevos motuleños, which were quite tasty and did a little walking around.  I always enjoy the little museum dedicated to Felipe Carrillo Puerto which is just next to the municipal market.  We went to the church, unfortunately it was closed.   There is also a lovely cenote there, lamentably we each had other plans that day and needed to return to Merida so didn't even attempt that sidetrip.  There's always tomorrow!.

The square is lovely - and clean - and look at these fabulous benches -

Motul is a lovely town quite large and rambling.  Quite low key. My cause for posting this breakfast trip is simply to comment a bit on some curiosities...

The other day, here in Merida, as I was attempting to cross a street on a pedestrian crosswalk, which is both elevated and painted bright yellow, a driver nearly ran over my foot, he came that close in his attempt to get by me without respecting either me or the crosswalk.  In Motul, as we crossed on crosswalks, heck even without crossing at a crosswalk, the drivers would slow, motion us across, or stop completely.  Imagine our shock, I mean walking here in Merida, although safe from most human threat, is a deathwish once confronted by drivers behind the wheels of a car which is coming in your direction.

So WHY do the drivers of Merida have neither respect, care, nor caution about pedestrians and drivers in other communities do?   What is up with drivers here?   Can anyone offer a plausible explanation?

Another curiosity upon which we each remarked was the cleanliness of Motul.   Merida is grimy and dirty.  There was a recent article in the Winnipeg FreePress,  where Merida is likened to "...an old, vain Hollywood movie star, best seen in the softer, kinder light of evening."    Oh, I love this phrase!

 The sheer volume of vehicles, their abysmal state of repair which contributes to oil and gas in the streets as well as the plumes of toxic fumes which contribute to the oil and grease all wash up on to the sides of buildings with every rain. Is it just the volume of vehicles????  Aided of course by the canyons created by the tall buildings facing both sides of most streets with no escape for rain water???

Does Motul, for example use some sort of de-greaser????   I remember once, In New Orleans, quite late at night, well it was more like quite early in the morning, returning to our hotel and coming upon huge trucks washing down the streets with a degreaser/clorine bleach combo.  FABULOUS!  By commuter time the streets were clean, and smelled good.

Now there's an idea - Merida has huge trucks that are used to water medians and streetside planted areas; these same trucks could pull double duty - and clean the streets by night while watering the verge during the day.

Just a thought!   It's a curiosity, how much I love Merida, yet how often I wonder about these little oddities.