Casa Mexilio In Merida Mexico Is A Treasure Of A Hotel
Mérida México Temple
Merida’s Full History is Worth the Trip
Merida is an ancient colonial city and the capital of the Yucatan state situated to the west of Quintana Roo, abundant with historical churches, architecturally distinctive buildings, scrumptious flavors, music, night life, shopping and more. Every night, the Historic Center hosts customary folk dancers, right in front of City Hall, dancing to live music, in traditional costume. On Sunday nights, salsa and cumbia dance liven up the streets. Restaurants and street vendors are abundant, as is the shopping. Staying near the Main Square is recommended.
My wife and I had the joy of staying at Casa Mexilio, in Merida, over the first weekend in August, 2009 and it was one of the most distinctive places we have ever stayed. Located next to the town center, almost 4 blocks from the main square, you will discover Casa Mexilio squeezed in amongst homes and merchants along one of the mainly urban sections of Merida. All of the buildings in this segment of town have no spaces between them and the only way to quickly separate where one ends and the next one begins is the difference in color. Each block is decorated with unique colors and window boxes, signs, and benches.
The main entry to Casa Mexilio, a Merida hotel, is relatively non-descript, with a few iron gates fronting wood doors right on the street. Don’t be fooled by the plain look of the outside this fine small hotel. Once inside, the hotel is more museum than hotel with antique furnishings, artifacts, books and photographs throughout. It genuinely is like stepping back in time. The hotel is a transformed home dating back to the late 19th century and is detailed in its own interesting history as are the structures and city of Merida that surround it.
The central patio of the hotel is situated directly behind the front desk and service area where you will find a lush garden and “grotto” like pool with a Jacuzzi. It always stays pleasant and cool due to the shade of the gardens and secluded location, a wonderful place to cool off anytime and very romantic. We went for a swim to cool off before bed one night and the burning smell of copal was a good affect (this is a regional herb and incense well-known for its purification properties). This area with the trees and plants almost reminds you of being in a jungle cenote apart from there are stairs and balconies just about everywhere you glance. There is even an elevated catwalk that connects one of the top sections of the hotel. There are patios, landings and secret garden nooks everywhere; the place begs to be explored.
Our room was astonishing with very high ceilings and very clean with a comfortable king sized bed, extra pillows, ceiling fan and AC, though we only used the AC for a few hours at night, the ceiling fan was fantastic for air circulation. The furnishings, like everything else we saw while we were there were traditional, antique couches, chairs, dressers, bed and wardrobes, really nice touches. Our room also had eclectic tiled floors. I don’t know the name of our room, but each room has its own unique appeal with similar furnishings from what we could see, one of the nicest Merida hotels.
Our only disappointment was missing a great breakfast! We got out of bed exceptionally early…too early for breakfast seemingly as we looked around and didn’t catch a glimpse of anybody(this was nearly 7am) so we walked a few blocks to one of the local cafes. Upon our return to the lodge one of the waiters stopped by our room wanting to know if we wanted breakfast. We’ll without doubt enjoy that on our next visit! We will be back to Merida in pursuit of further attractive sites, sounds and flavors and recommend this hotel to anyone, as it is sincerely a magical space.