Balnearios (water parks) explores the concept of leisure and recreation for Mexican families during the busiest holiday time of the year, Holy and Easter week. The project span for over two weeks where I visited 6 balnearios in 4 states of Mexico (some of them didn’t make the cut).

Families flock to balnearios to spend their time off and relax. The variety within the water park category is truly amazing, there are large balnearios which you can barely traverse in a single day, and there are small rural balnearios that have only one pool. If we consider the basic unit that makes up the assistance to these water parks to be families, each family unit is made up of at least 10 members, I thought it would be interesting to capture them both individually and as groups. The space of the water park acquires many dimensions for the families that attend them, they become sort of one-stop-shops for their leisure experiences, although it might seem otherwise there is also something extremely harmonious and relaxing about being there, you can tangibly sense the need of exploiting their time there to the fullest, little experiences are packed everywhere you look at and in the bigger context they are part of a more extensive one, this is visible in the images of agglomeration, where you can find little scenes like a woman breastfeeding while she watches her family members play a drowning game. Accessories and infrastructure also play a big role in how families experience balnearios, the amount of stuff they bring with them is no small feat, food is prepared in advance to be consumed at the parks, toys, towels, inflatable mattresses and portable barbecues all compose the scenery at the parks.