Travels in the Yucatán: Mérida, Part 3.
But wait! There's more (antique typewriters and architecture and flowers)!
As part of my research for my current novel, I traveled the Yucatán on a tour of ancient Maya sites led by the Archaeological Institute of America. You can read my last post about the trip here.
Sunday, January 21, 2024: Yes, we’re still in Mérida.
After lunch, we attempted once again to visit El Gran Museo del Mundo Maya. Alas, it was not to be. Not only had the museum closed for the governor’s state-of-the-state speech at the convention center next door—the staff had said “meh” to the hassle and closed the museum for the day.
Our stalwart tour guide Alfonso immediately suggested Plan C: a visit to La Quinta Montes Molina Museum. It’s neoclassical mansion built on the Paseo de Montejo in 1902 and bought in 1915 by the Montes Molina family, which lived there for four generations. Alfonso assured us that we’d visit the museum the next morning on our way to Ek Balam and Chichén Itzá. (If you’re ever interested in touring the Yucatán, I highly recommend Alfonso and his company Ecoturismo Yucatán.)
The house is the only one of its kind in Mérida that’s been kept in its original state, with furniture from the Porfiriato and “Oro Verde” (Green Gold") henequén eras. In other words, it’s swank.
Here’s the dining room, with its beautiful stained glass windows and crazy elaborate chandelier that I would never be able to clean.
And here’s a view of the study. Note the floor tiles—they’re patterned to resemble rugs, which would have been impractical in the Yucatán heat. I coveted this chess set, despite the fact that I suck at playing chess.
But I coveted the antique Remington typewriter in the adjoining bedroom even more.
But wait! There were even more typewriters downstairs in the area where the staff worked, which you can see in the photo at the top of this post. Typewriter aficionado Tom Hanks would love this place. As he said in a 2017 interview, “What thrills me about typewriters is that they are meant to do one thing and one thing only.” Yup.
And for you architecture buffs—which, coming from a family with three generations of architects, I’m required to be—La Quinta Montes Molina isn’t just an old house. In 2015, Gustavo Carmona of architecture firm Materia designed a modern pavilion behind the house for social and cultural events. In 2016, the plan expanded to add a cultural center, which houses a cafe and a bookstore, two of my favorite things.
You can find much cooler pictures of the cultural center here and here.
We exited the house through the gift shop, as one does, where I was unable to resist adding to my massive collection of notebooks by buying this little handmade one from by Mayan Paper.
We headed back to the hotel for downtime, dinner, and a lecture on the ancient Maya by our AIA lecturer/host Dr. Jeff Karl Kowalski.
I’ll leave you with a selection of beautiful flower photos taken at La Quinta Montes Molina by my friend and fellow tour participant Helen, who has an eye for nature photos and is a much better photographer than I am.
And in the next post, I’ll show you some actual Mayan ruins! Promise.
I am absolutely coveting the chess set but, like you, I covet the typewriters far more. I can't tell you how viscerally happy they make me. And that museum is STUNNING.