Our return to Mérida, exactly a year on, feels in many ways like coming home to our home away from home. It’s so very familiar, especially our colourful ‘hood’, Santiago, where familiar faces walk the streets and you’d swear nothing has changed. The characterful ladies at the local Tortillería in Mercado Santiago still acknowledge with a nod and a cheeky wink when ordering our daily half kilo of freshly made tortillas for A$1 (best in the world in my opinion). Our local grocery store, Super Akí still has the same familiar packing ladies awaiting their bagging tip. And our favourite restaurant, La Chaya Maya is still doing a roaring trade with all day dining and the best Cochinita Pibil in town, even with eggs for breakfast! The only thing missing one year later is the mask wearing, even in shops and in the street! I’m so glad to see the back of that given that every day here at this time of the year is 35-38 degrees. It seems all COVID restrictions have gone from Mérida (Yucatan State), unlike other states that we’ve recently visited, so it looks and feels thriving. There are actually loads of foreigners here – tourists discovering the delights of Mérida for the first time but also an increasing number of ex pats from the US, UK, Canada and even Australia who have chosen to live the Mérida lifestyle. There’s a roaring trade in buying up renovated and unrenovated Casas, particularly in the barrios of Santiago, Santa Ana and Santa Lucia and all for a relative song, compared to house prices in Sydney. It’s oh so tempting….

This year we’re in Casa de Los Abuelos (House of the Grandfathers – is it trying to tell us something?), an enormous, sprawling, shabby chic, 100+ year old house with 18-foot-high ceilings and large whirring fans in every room – and there’s a lot of room: three living rooms, dining room, rustic kitchen and three ensuite bedrooms (the master with a lounge suite), and one of the bedrooms occupying a separate pavilion at the far end of the pool. The tropical garden goes on forever with said pool (gorgeous) surrounded by palms and a huge Sapote tree with its ripe delicious fruit dangling tantalisingly close. 

We’re here for two glorious months as Ants is writing his much-researched film, so he’s settling into his daily routine – an early morning walk, swim in the pool in the relative cool of the morning, breakfast on the garden terrace, work till mid-afternoon then loads of pool and reading time. I know, it’s a tough life…