Aquatic park visit in Mérida

[Jonna]

We finally went  out yesterday and found the aquatic park we had heard about. It is within the ring road of the city (1 million+ pop) and surrounded by houses.  It is in an old quarry, quite a ways below the surrounding neighborhoods.  What I've heard is that the previous mayor had it developed and spent quite a bit of money on it.  The new mayor (from a different political party) is not funding it as well.  It has good bones though and a natural water supply and it is looking really nice.  I put a marker on it on a Google map that my son set up, it has markers for my house in the city, the RV park where we are staying while it is being renovated, my condo over on the Caribbean coast and now, the water park.  If you want to check it out, here's the link, click on satellite at the top right to have real sat pictures over the streets.  I had a hard time figuring out how to zoom in on a specific place, I think if you click on the acuaparque icon at the left and then just keep clicking the plus sign on the map it works best.  You can zoom pretty close, I was amazed.  The sat picture was taken in the dry season as the canals and ponds at the left look dry.  It's now the rainy season and they are full of water and that is where I took most of the pics of blooming water lilies.

There is a juvenile Heron perched at the top of this mass of lily pads.
















As we were walking the perimeter path, I spotted this huge Pitaya growing down from the yard above.  It had a lot of blooms on it (closed for the day) but no fruit. 


There were several isolated fingers of water filled with blooming Water Hyacinths.


The water was very clear throughout the park.  Lots of small to medium fish, probably anything larger feeds the numerous Herons.




At the other end of the park, they had a large lake and waterfall, bathrooms, playgrounds and a huge slide that landed in the sand. 


Now I know who to go and ask about getting lilies when my pond is finished.  My next assignment is to find the koi gardens that I've heard are here but no one seems to know where.

[perplexed ponder]

Wow, that is incredible! Thanks for posting the pictures.

[Vickie]

I really enjoyed that. Thanks for posting.

[KatFish]

Lovely!  I can't imagine seeing tropicals just growing away in nature 

[Sean]

My good friend Craig Presnel supplied the waterlilies for this new water park.
It is nice to finally see some pictures of the place.

Cheers,
Sean

[Jerry]

Very nice.  Are those Royal Palms?

I love 'em!

[miguynmkoi]

WOW!  A ponders paradise!  So many beautiful lilies.  So nice to know that bit of info Sean! 

Some cool plants around the park.  I like that waterfall too!

[Kat]

Great to see tropicals get a chance to grow natural & looks like a great place to visit.

[Jonna]

Sean, thanks for confirming that.  When I was first talking about ponds down here Craig wrote that he had sent a lot of lilies to a park here.  I was hoping this was the one and it is one reason I've had it on my list to find this place.  I wasn't sure if this was it but I think you are right.  The timing is right too.  Do you recognize any of the lilies names?  There aren't name plaques that I saw, it is just a very natural setting and they all look like they have really found a home that suits them.   From what I read on a local blog, the end of the park where the lilies are dries up to wet mud in the dry season and then floods in the beginning of the rainy season.  It didn't seem to bother them, they all look huge and very healthy. 

I kept looking for a victoria but didn't see anything that large or with cupped leaves.  Once I have more time and a pond, I will go and try and introduce myself to the gardeners there.  Partly because I want to try for some of these gorgeous lilies and partly because I am interested in how it all works in this climate.  Clearly tropicals can naturalize here but I wonder if our particular climate poses any problems for them.  I also want to know of any local pests.  When I found all the wild tropicals down at Rio Dulce in Guatemala, they were in shallow (a foot or so) to fairly deep (5') water in a river flood zone.  I would guess that the area floods very deep at times in the rainy season and when hurricanes in the caribbean send rain bands ashore.  I saw the area in the dry season so it never gets completely dry.  This kind of swing in water depth is probably natural for them and may help to break off pieces and send them to new locales.   It's interesting. 

[Julles]

Man, wish I had a quarry in MY yard!

[cc]

Thank you for sharing your tour of the park, very pretty.

[CoolShades]

Wow, very nice.  WHile more structured it reminds me a bit of Disney's Park with the tree of life, I think Animal Kingdom.  they tried to naturalize the water features around the park, I was told they initially planted 5,000 lilies!

[Jonna]

Jerry, it's probable that they are royal palms.  They are quite common here although these are not very tall.  Also common are the foxtail palms which I'm considering for my house.  I like the fluffy fronds. 

Coolshades, when we were at Rio Dulce in Guatemala all I could think of was some of the jungle rides at Disneyland I loved as a kid.  I think they often try and emulate real scenes at Disney and often they make something that becomes more real in people's minds than the natural ones.   That was confusing,  I guess what I'm trying to say is that Disney has done a really good job of creating these 'snapshots' of real places. 

[Sonny]

How pretty; thanks for the photos!  What is the best time of year to visit Merida?

[Jonna]

It's almost always warm here, most people come in the winter or dry season because it is very nice weather and not too hot.  I like the rainy season myself because everything is green and lush.  It usually rains every 2 or 3 days in the evening, it's sunny and warm the rest of the time.  So, if you can handle temps in the 80's and 90's and fairly high humidity then I'd suggest this time of year.  For a little cooler but still lush come at the end of hurricane season in early November.  The months that are the hottest and least comfortable are April and May, no rain, hot winds, and they burn the fields.  So, outside of those months, most of the year is good and goes from warm to hot.   We are about 4 hours from the Cancun airport and there are luxury buses that will bring you from downtown Cancun to Merida for about .  You can stop at Chichen Itza for a night, it's a little more than half way.  Merida is about 20 miles from the Gulf of Mexico so there are beach towns with rentals there and, of course, there is the Caribbean south of Cancun.   The city has lots of old colonials and haciendas that have been renovated as B&B's and some of the old mansions are now large hotels.  I like the Gran Hotel, it's right in the heart of the centro, was an old mansion that is well preserved and renovated and still has a lot of the original furniture and antiques.  The only complaint I've heard is that there is a square in front of it and they have live salsa and trova music there on the weekends, you can hear it in your room until about midnight.  That wouldn't bother me but it did bother some friends with kids they were trying to get to sleep. I think it is about $80us a night.  There are many less expensive options as well.  The Dolores Alba is well recommended, has a swimming pool and is about half that price.

Hey, once we get our house renovated you can stay at Casa Ixchel for free and give me pond advice