Merida, Yucatan, Mexico: The perfect gateway for first-time travellers to Mexico

One minute, we were idly watching a clown entertain a crowd of about 150 people crammed into a sunny square in the old colonial city of Merida, in Mexico's Yucatan. The next, we were the stars of the show.

I'd been too slow translating the clown's Spanish when he'd instructed his volunteer kiddie helpers to go find, and bring back, two foreigners to his spot centre stage. By the time I'd understood and looked around for his targets, the crowd had surged to push us forward, and I realised we were.

The next 10 minutes were a whirl of confusion as we struggled to understand our part in his obviously well-loved routine of making his victims go around the crowd, trying to snatch off their shoes and, if victorious, piling them in the centre of the plaza. As a value-added for the locals, he then had the dumb Australians repeat complicated Spanish phrases – obviously badly – to their roars of delight.

Our audience seemed to love it and, for us, on our first day in Mexico, it was a strange, but hugely good-humoured, introduction to the country. "You have great holiday!" our clown tormentor yelled after us when we finally managed to escape. "Viva Mexico! Viva kangaroo!"

Mexico is such a huge country, crammed with so many sights, both ancient and new, and a feast of things for tourists to do (and eat), it can be baffling to work out where to start. But Merida is the perfect gateway to the country, a charming old city that offers a relatively relaxed, laidback – clowns excepted – introduction to Mexico, especially with some of its most stunning Mayan ruins all around in the Yucatan. In addition, there are plenty of direct flights straight from Mexico City, and the coast isn't far, with the coastal town of Cancun a handy exit point.

The city itself is fascinating. As the oldest continually occupied city in the Americas, the Mayan hub was conquered by the Spanish conquistadores in the 1540s, who disassembled many of the temples to build their own monuments, like the majestic cathedral on one side of the leafy, tree-dappled main square, Plaza Grande.

Also around the plaza – full of locals passing the time of day, playing chess and eating exotically flavoured ice-cream – are the museum of contemporary art, the stunning 1549 merchant's house Casa de Montejo, Merida's Palacio Municipal, or city hall, and its government palace, replete with magnificent murals and art.