Things to Do in Merida

The average annual temperature in the capital of the State of Yucatan is of 28 degrees Celsius, although thermometers rise up to 40º Celsius between January and May. On the other hand, the humidity is of 72 percent due the sea breeze and wind.

Mérida, the “White City” invites you to explore it. Today, Merida is a mestizo city that sings outdoors in the evenings, provides hailstorms at midday and offers a horse-drawn carriage tour of its Paseo Montejo in the afternoons. Its colonial and Frenchified architecture, Mayan language, Caribbean atmosphere and original cuisine make this a unique resort.

Mérida is the gateway to Uxmal and the Puuc Zone that still bears traces of its pre-Hispanic history and the extravagance of the henequen haciendas. It offers sports in the open sea in Yucalpetén, as well as a magnificent example of environmental preservation in Celestún, with its large flamingo population.

The majority of these people are descended from the Mayans, the builders of Uxmal and Chichén Itzá. Although these cities had already been abandoned by the time the Spaniards arrived, the Conquest was delayed until 1542 here, when Governor Francisco Montejo founded Mérida, nearly twenty years after the fall of Teotihuacan. The revolts that followed were compounded by pirate raids and in 1847, the Indians launched a “War of the Castes” against the whites that lasted until 1912. During the last third of the 19th century, the henequen industry dominated everything, creating immense fortunes and fostering backwardness, as a result of which the Revolution soon acquired a powerful social component in Yucatán. Following the henequen crisis, the state was diversified and nowadays tourism is one of its main activities.

The capital of Yucatán, the state that once occupied the entire peninsula separating the Caribbean from the Gulf of Mexico, lies 36 km south of Puerto Progreso and is an hour and a half’s flight from Mexico and an hour’s flight from Miami. It has a hot, humid climate, with a maximum of 35ºC in May and a season of short, sharp rains between June and September. The city is built on a large plain that vanishes into the horizon, without ever rising above 10 m above sea level, which enabled it to grow into an almost perfect square that is currently inhabited by half a million people.