Merida is very much a Mexican city but offers many services to make Americans feel right at home.

Merida's International Women's Club started the Merida English Library in 1994. It is a nonprofit, English-language lending library, open to the public through a nominal paying membership. It is based on the model of the classic, local public library, which is the centerpiece of every community in the U.S. and Canada. MEL's mission is to provide English-language material in all formats to meet the information, educational and recreational needs of English-speaking people of all ages in the diverse communities that make up Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.

Eating out in Merida offers endless possibilities. There is tradional Mexican and Yucatecan food, fresh seafood, fine dining in old haciendas, natural and vegetarian resturants, and international cuisine including Italian, Leabanese and Spanish. And if you want to learn to cook at home with the local flavors, Chef David Sterling runs the first cooking school devoted exclusively to Yucatecan cooking.

Merida has an ever-expanding infrastructure including hospitals, clinics and individual doctors' offices, all with modern equipment.

If for some unfortunate reason you need emergency healthcare in Merida, you can feel comfortable knowing that you will receive first class care. And all at a reasonable price. The Centro Medico de Las Americas (Calle 54 two blocks from the Hotel Fiesta Americana and one block from Wal-Mart) is a full-service hospital affiliated with the Mercy Hospital in Miami, Florida. Another hospital in Merida is affiliated with Houston's Anderson Hospital. For those of you along the coast, the Centro Medico Americano in Progreso, just half a block from the Main Plaza, is a small hospital affiliated with some of the best hospitals in Merida just 25 miles away.

If you are interested in alternative healthcare, Merida has a healthy contingent of acupuncturists, chiropractors and other types of practitioners. And like all of Mexico, there is a long tradition of homeopathic medicine here. Homeopathic doctors are well attended here and the medicines are easy to obtain.

Pharmacies are called farmacias (far-MA-see-ahs) and they can also be helpful. If you know what you need, or have an empty bottle of your customary medicine, you can take it to a pharmacy and they will give you what you need without a prescription.

Many medicines in Mexico have slightly different names but are essentially the same thing and often cheaper. A certain number of pharmacies in each district are open 24 hours a day. There is a 24-hour pharmacy on the south side of the zocalo and one across from the Hyatt Regency on Calle 60 (which is affiliated with the very competent hospital in the same location).