The Plaza Mayor is the natural starting point: four of the most historically significant buildings in Mérida face it, including the oldest functioning cathedral on the American mainland and the Casa Montejo, built from stones of the Maya city it replaced. A few blocks north, the Paseo de Montejo is the grand avenue of the henequen-boom era, lined with French-influenced mansions and the excellent Regional Anthropology Museum in the Palacio Cantón. The central market (Mercado Lucas de Gálvez) is the best place to hear Maya spoken, eat Yucatecan food at counter stalls, and buy hammocks — the one souvenir you can actually use. The henequen haciendas south of the city, many now restored, explain the source of the extraordinary wealth that built the Paseo. Sunday mornings on the Paseo are car-free, with cycles and pedestrians taking over the boulevard.