Sundays are generally super quiet in Mérida, especially on a hot day like today. But then every day here is a hot day. Sunday is also a day for family. If you haven’t jumped on the AutoProgreso to the coast, like many families do, you may find yourself meandering amongst family groups from shop to shop in Santa Lucia, hugging the shade, or perhaps join families meeting for breakfast or later for a lively lunch in a courtyard restaurant tucking into a cochinita pibil and a couple of cervezas frias, or maybe (if you’re lucky to have one) you stick by the pool. Or… 

…you might want to join in the Bici Ruta Mérida, when between 8am and 12.30pm more than 5ks of city roads are closed off to traffic, allowing cyclists to take over the streets including the gorgeous tree-lined Paseo Montejo. It costs just 70 pesos (A$4) an hour to rent a bike and you can get them all in shapes and sizes – singles, doubles, triples (with or without sunshades) – even souped-up family affairs. There’s a carnival atmosphere to Paseo Montejo with blaring music, pavement artists and packed cafés, restaurants and elegant museums to pop into along the route. 

But, away from the Bici Ruta and the main squares, Mérida is a very sleepy place on Domingo, with hardly any cars about, or people for that matter. Even the horse-drawn carriages are devoid of their usual local passengers. The bells toll solemnly near and far, calling the many believers to prayer (four masses a day in some churches). The green parrots squabble in the trees. The heat rises and the city streets bake. Right, time for a dip!