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Today, I visited what is probably Mérida’s best-kept secret, and which I’ve known about for a long time but just couldn’t get to, the Parque Eco Arqueológico de Xoclán del Poniente, a huge nature preserve with ruins located in the heart of the southwest quadrant of the city.

I’ll skip ahead for a minute and mention that I met a really nice guy near the end of my visit who confirmed something I’ve long suspected — it’s not part of the culture here to go seeking nature so it’s not my imagination that even long-time residents of the city have no idea where the green pockets are. Here’s a case in point. He showed me photos and video of the giant lake behind Walmart Pensiones. Wait, what? There’s a giant lake behind Walmart Pensiones? You’d never know by looking at a map!

We had such a lovely chat. His Spanish was perfect for my ear and it was like conversing with someone in English and French, it was that fluent. He showed me videos of the park at different times of the years and also of some animals he’s spotted, including a huge snake!

So the Parque Xoclán (what I’ll call it for short) is not next-door to me at all. It was a full 30-minute Uber ride in pretty heavy traffic. My Pilates teacher is away for a week so I fit my adventuring in the slot for class this morning, figuring even just a one-hour hike in nature would be better than no workout at all.

I would have loved to have brought Bonita as dogs are allowed on leashes, but taking her in an Uber is such a crapshoot and I was afraid we’d get stranded.

The outer edges of the park have flat well-groomed trails, but the deeper in you get, the more you get proper hiking trails that even have challenging bits. I was so happy!

The heart of the park is the lake. The water was very low right now as we are technically in a drought. The levels will be much higher by the autumn.

See, proper hiking trails!

I met the guy at the northern tip of the park. After our chat, I walked a couple of blocks over to the Paseo Verde, a nearly 10KM stretch of walking and bike bike paths that are mostly tree-lined.

It was as I expected not very “naturey,” but boy do I wish I had something like this much, much closer to me! The park has both these concrete walkways as well as asphalt bike paths.

The city has been adding bike paths all over and is starting to slowly create a connected network that is making me think that I might start biking again now that Pilates has worked miracles on my bad leg. There’s no way I’d be using a bike as a way to actually get around — the roads, traffic, and lack of bike parking make that a very bad idea unless you have absolutely no way to afford a better option — but if getting to pleasant areas to bike, like the Paseo Verde or the Biciruta on the Paseo de Montejo Sunday mornings, becomes easier and safer, then taking up biking for fun and exercise again would be such a joy. I’ve biked so much in my life and it was sometimes my only means of transportation. I’m not quite ready to give it up!

What a lovely morning this was. I’ll definitely be back to explore the other side of Parque Xoclán!