Yesterday was the Day Trip at Debconf, an opportunity for folks to step away from their computers (usually), and leave the venue (always) for some sort of group activity or tourism.
When the organizers first started talking about this years Day Trip there were two candidates, Valle del Jerte and Teatro romano de Merida, or “Roman theater of Merida”. I’m kind of a history junkie and generally get pretty excited at the idea of touring ruins so I was heartbroken when Merida lost out. The closer it got to the scheduled day the lower my enthusiasm sank, until eventually I just opted out entirely. The obvious by-product of skipping the Day Trip though was a need to find something else to do, and the obvious choice seemed like a trip to Merida. Michael was pretty keen on the idea too.
The entire thing was thrown together very last minute (we barely made it to the bus station), but luckily there was enough time to spot a generous offer via IRC from itais (a Merida local) for transportation from the bus stop to the theater.
As promised, itais was waiting for us at the bus station and took us on a quick tour to see, among other things, a Roman acquaduct and The Arch of Trajan. He then dropped us off in front of the theater with a recommendation for a place to eat.
After an awesome meal we walked the ruins for a couple of hours, tracked down The Temple of Diana, and then settled into the main square for a couple of beers before catching a cab back to the bus station.
Much fun.
A few of the pictures I took can be seen here, and I’ll get the rest up eventually.