A WEEKEND IN MERIDA
Freda Moon
Even as tourism to the Yucatan Peninsula skyrockets, many visitors never travel beyond the so-called Riviera Maya, the heavily developed and wildly crowded coastline between Cancun and Tulum.
For travellers drawn to Mexican culture and history, Merida — founded by the Spanish in the 1500s and constructed using the stones from Mayan ruins — is an antidote to the coast’s wall-to-wall allinclusive resorts.
Beyond colonial architecture and centuriesold traditions, Merida is a young, artsy place best experienced with a free-spirited sensibility. While not a late-night city, it is very safe and comes alive after dark, when there are a few hours of cooler evening air, music calling from seemingly every corner and a general sense that if you wander a few blocks in any direction, you’ll stumble upon something really special.
ITINERARY Friday 3pm | Cool off with flavour
Merida is one of Mexico’s steamiest cities. Icy treats are the answer.
Pola Gelato Shop, in the Santa Lucía neighbourhood of the city centre (Centro), has regionally and seasonally inspired flavours like strawberry with x’catik (a local chilli) and banana with hibiscus. Though the shop has a handful of tables, grab a cone and head down the block to Santa Lucía’s plaza. Drop into Ki’xocolatl, now a small domestic chain, which is a go-to for edible gifts, along with cacao-based soaps. Get a chocolate frappe and sit in one of Yucatan’s distinctive S-shaped sillas confidentes (or confidant chairs) for excellent peoplewatching on the plaza.
4pm | Search for souvenirs
Across the street on Calle 60, Caracol Purpura is a series of galleries set around a courtyard cafe, where you’ll be greeted by chest-high ceramic catrinas (glamorously adorned skeleton figurines) and dizzyingly intricate Tree of Life sculptures from the states of Oaxaca and Puebla. The collective specializes in folk art from around Mexico — an impressive overview of the country’s staggering cultural breadth — along with the works of contemporary Mexican artists.
For elegant souvenirs that benefit local artisans, visit Taller Maya on Parque de Santa Ana, another popular plaza.
5.30pm | Tour an ex-train yard
From Santa Ana, walk east along Calle 47 to Merida’s defunct 1920s train station, which now houses the Yucatan University of the Arts and the new Parque La Plancha, a 20ha urban park in the former train yards with an artificial lake, a wading pool, a raised walkway, playgrounds, a food court and a staggeringly large Mexican flag. The park is at its best in the early evening, when it’s a destination for families drawn to its interactive fountain, where children shriek and drench themselves in the spectacle of water, colour and music. Other on-site attractions include a collection of restored vintage rail cars and Museo de la Luz, which opened in November with exhibits focusing on the science and culture of light.
7pm | Celebrate the char
For a special-occasion dinner, backtrack to Calle 47 and Micaela Mar y Lena, where the dining room pulsates with celebratory energy. The wood-fired grill gets a workout nightly, turning out charred dishes that include beef ribs with mole, and octopus with sweet potato and pickled vegetables. After dinner, stop into La Botillería, a bottle shop selling distinctive Mexican spirits that make great gifts.
9pm | Have a night stroll
Stray from the city’s busiest tourist district and head southwest from the Plaza Grande, the main square, to Parque de San Sebastian, a plaza that is the lively heart of one of Merida’s oldest Mayan neighborhoods and often busy with Zumba classes, carnival games, marching band practice and religious processions. From there, walk back to the adjoining La Ermita neighbourhood to find offbeat tattoo shops, closet-size galleries, vegetarian restaurants and street art.
Stop at Autogiro de la Ermita, a new-school cantina with exposed stone walls, yellowing lucha libre posters, and sometimes a keyboardist playing tropical dance music or a DJ spinning salsa. Mezcal is served the classic way, with orange slices, sal de gusano (salt with dried, ground agave worms and chiles) and a botana — a free pub snack — of whole roasted squash.
Saturday 8am | Shop, then see flamingos
Stop at Merida’s main municipal market, Mercado Lucas de Galvez, for fresh juices and sweet Mexican pastries for the road. Then leave the city (just over an hour via rental car or hired driver) early to get to Ria Celestun Biosphere Reserve before 10am, when bird-watching is at its best. American flamingos, the world’s tallest and pinkest, congregate here by the tens of thousands during the peak season (traditionally November through March, but local guides say the season has become less predictable).
The ecosystem is also home to pale pink spoonbills, Mexican tiger herons, huge Canadian white pelicans, crocodiles and endangered large cats.
This historic city is an antidote to the wall-to-wall resorts of Mexico, writes
11.30am | Chill by the sea
After winding through the mangroves in search of wildlife, head for the Gulf of Mexico side of Celestun — a dusty, charming fishing village between the reserve and the gulf — and its long strip of white sand and seashells, palapa-style restaurants with palm-thatched roofs, and clear, pale-blue sea.
3.30pm | Savour some soul food
Back in the Centro, head for the Mejorada neighbourhood east of the Plaza Grande, where Pancho Maiz’s modest appearance belies its ambition. Open for breakfast and lunch, this welcoming corner restaurant has fans whirring in every corner, a retro-green-andyellow tile floor and a mural of a corn stalk holding a sleeping man — a reference to the restaurant’s mission of preserving the region’s corn varietals, which are sacred to the Maya people and integral to their diet and culture.
5pm | Connect over petanque
Walk around the corner to Patio Petanca, an open-air games room that feels like a secret world built around long, gravel petanque courts with an eclectic, poppy playlist. Later in the evening this spot becomes a party with DJS and groups of friends gathered around buckets of icy beer.
8pm | Watch a Mayan ballgame
At Plaza Grande, grab a marquesita, a crunchy Yucatecan street snack that’s a cross between a waffle and a crepe, rolled while hot and typically stuffed with Edam cheese and chocolate-hazelnut spread. Then watch the weekly reenactment of Pok Ta’ Pok — a ceremonial pre-hispanic Mayan ballgame — in front of the city’s main cathedral. From there, head to Taquería de la Union — a tiny, perpetually packed restaurant a couple of blocks north of the plaza — for tacos stuffed with cochinita pibil (roasted suckling pig marinated in bitter-orange juice, the region’s most famous dish) or longaniza, a sausage from the nearby city of Valladolid.
Sunday 9am | Cruise the paseo
Soco, with only five tables, does a brisk takeout bakery business in decadent croissants and elegant Mexican pastries like sweet, crispy orejas and sugarcrusted concha. From there, walk to the city’s most prestigious boulevard, Paseo de Montejo, to join the weekly promenade of calesas (horse-drawn carriages), bicycling families and souped-up bikes at the closedstreet event known as Biciruta Merida.
Noon | Enjoy a backyard bite
By the early 20th century, Merida was one of the Americas’ richest cities because of its production of henequen, a plant-derived rope fibre. Several of the city’s grand mansions along Paseo de Montejo date from this heyday and have since opened to the public as museums. For a casual lunch, stop at Ramiro Cocina a few blocks west of Paseo de Montejo, with affordable items scrawled on a chalkboard and patio seating beneath the shade of banana and palm trees.