36 Hours in Mérida, Mexico

Mérida is one of Mexico’s steamiest cities. Icy treats are the answer. Pola Gelato Shop, in the Santa Lucía neighborhood of the historic city center (Centro), has regionally and seasonally inspired flavors like strawberry with x’catik (a local chile) and banana with hibiscus. Though the shop has a handful of tables, grab a cone (from 55 pesos, or about $3) 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 frappé (64 pesos) and sit in one of Yucatán’s distinctive S-shaped sillas confidentes (or confidant chairs) for excellent people watching on the plaza (there are also free traditional dance performances with live music — held weekly since 1965 — here on Thursdays at 9 p.m.).

From Santa Ana, walk east along Calle 47 to Mérida’s defunct, 1920s-era train station, which now houses the Yucatán University of the Arts and the new Parque La Plancha, a 50-acre urban park in the former train yards with an artificial lake, a wading pool, a High Line-esque raised walkway, themed playgrounds, a sprawling 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, color and music. Other on-site attractions include a scattered collection of restored vintage rail cars and the small but worthwhile Museo de la Luz (admission, 100 pesos), which opened in November with exhibits (many interactive, many in English) focusing on the science and culture of light.

Stray from the city’s busiest tourist district and head southwest from the Plaza Grande, the main square, to Parque de San Sebastián, a plaza that is the lively heart of one of Mérida’s oldest Maya neighborhoods and often busy with Zumba classes, carnival games, marching band practice and religious processions. From there, walk back to the adjoining La Ermita neighborhood to find offbeat tattoo shops, closet-size galleries, vegetarian restaurants and street art. Stop into 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 D.J. 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. Try the “sorpresa,” or bartender’s choice (140 pesos), if you’re feeling adventurous.

Stop at Mérida’s main municipal market, Mercado Lucas de Gálvez, 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 Celestún Biosphere Reserve before 10 a.m., 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. Lanchas (small covered boats; 3,000 pesos, one- to two-hour tour) can be shared with other visitors bringing the cost to about 500 pesos per person (young children, free).

Back in the Centro, head for the Mejorada neighborhood east of the Plaza Grande, where Pancho Maíz’s modest appearance belies its ambition. Open for breakfast and lunch, this welcoming corner restaurant has fans whirring in every corner, a retro-green-and-yellow 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. Everything here, from the pinole (a traditional drink made from ground corn, cinnamon and toasted cacao, 45 pesos) to its jumbo sope — an oversized disk of native corn masa — topped with chicharrón (fried pork rind or belly), pickled onions and chiles, and locally made fresh cheese (135 pesos), is quintessential Yucatecan soul food.

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 (from about 50 pesos). Then watch the weekly re-enactment of Pok Ta’ Pok — a ceremonial pre-Hispanic Maya ball game — in front of the city’s main cathedral (free, 8 p.m.), before heading to Taquería de la Unión, a tiny, unpretentious and perpetually packed taqueria, a couple blocks north of the plaza for tacos (28 pesos each) 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.

Soco, with only five tables, does a brisk takeout bakery business in decadent croissants (traditional and seasonal flavors, 110 pesos) and elegant Mexican pastries like sweet, crispy orejas and sugar-crusted concha. If you can, stay for a hot breakfast — a pork-belly torta ahogada (a sandwich drowned in a flavorful pork broth with ribbons of red cabbage, pickled onions and translucent watermelon-radish slices, 210 pesos) or a luxuriously thick slice of French toast artfully topped with fresh fruit (205 pesos). Then walk to the city’s most prestigious boulevard, Paseo de Montejo, to join the weekly promenade of fairy-tale-esque calesas (horse-drawn carriages, 500 pesos for 45 minutes), bicycling families and souped-up lowrider bikes at the closed-street event known as Biciruta Mérida.

By the early 20th century, Mérida was one of the Americas’ richest cities because of its production of henequen, a plant-derived rope fiber. Several of the city’s grand mansions along Paseo de Montejo date from this heyday and have since opened to the public as museums (including Quinta Montes Molina and, most recently, Montejo 495 Casa Museo). Pop in, or simply gawk from the street. (Or even better, visit one of the region’s remaining, magnificently restored henequen haciendas on your way out of town.) Then 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. Look for the unusual and uncommonly delicious charred zucchini quesadilla with griddled cheese on an earthy, handmade corn tortilla.