The Corners of Mérida

When founding their cities around the Yucatán, the Spanish were nothing if not organized. Mérida is laid out on a perfectly square grid, with a street naming convention that is logical almost to a fault. North-south streets have even numbers which increase as you head west, and east-west streets have odd numbers increasing as you head south. So, the street to the east of Calle 54 is Calle 52. If you’re on 44/73, and go north one block and west one block, you’ll be on 42/71.

The numbering syste...