Adventures in Yucatan, Mexico

This morning we took a trip to the general cemetery of Merida.  Heading in for a morning walk around the cemetery Years ago, people who died in the city would be buried in the church floor or on the grounds. Because of the spread of diseases, this practice was banned and burial grounds were required to be outside of city limits. Today, the general cemetery is located in the southwest part of the downtown area; the city has grown around it.  It was common for neighborhoods to have their own mausoleums Before it was a cemetery, the land belonged to a wealthy family that had a henequen plantation. There is a mausoleum dedicated to the workers who spent their whole lives there. The section reserved for members of the Masonic Lodge Wandering around  Exploring the monument dedicated to the Carillo Puerto family  One of the largest monuments in the cemetery is dedicated to a former governor of Yucatan who was assassinated in this very cemetery...

 This morning we had the opportunity to visit one of the oldest newspapers in Mexico. The Diario de Yucatan  is currently celebrating it's 90th year of searching for and sharing "the truth, justice and patriotism" with the people of Yucatan and surrounding areas. We got to hear a little bit about the tumultuous history of the newspaper, whose founder was jailed various times because of his critical take on governmental issues. The Diario  is also consistently ahead of the game, creating an online version in 1995, 4 months before even the New York Times had its site up and running! The visit ended with a look at common orthographic errors as well as interesting facts about Spanish words. For example, the longest word in the Spanish language is "electroencefalografistas." We had a great time exploring the historic building and learning about different aspects of the newspaper business! Ready to head out Gaspar Lopez sharing with us a brief history...