What to do in Mérida when it rains (and what gets cancelled)

Short answer: almost everything downtown puts on at night happens in the open air, so a wet afternoon takes out exactly the plan you came for. What's left standing are the indoor places — and downtown they sit a few blocks from each other — plus the official forecast, which is the only thing that knows whether it will still be raining at nine.

When it rains in Mérida

The rainy season runs from June to October. September is the wettest month, averaging 183 mm, and the year comes to about 1,037 mm. Outside that window there is very little: March and April sit around 22 and 24 mm.

That's the climate, which is an average of many years. It isn't the day you got. To find out whether this afternoon clears up, the source is the municipal forecast from Mexico's national weather service.

Municipal forecast from the Servicio Meteorológico Nacional

And it's worth not confusing an afternoon downpour with the other thing: the Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30. Most of the rain in those months has nothing to do with it, but when it does, the people who tell you are the Servicio Meteorológico Nacional — not a forwarded voice note.

The street programme is the first thing to go

The city council puts something on almost every night, and it's one of the best things about Mérida. It is also almost entirely under open sky: the Serenata de Santa Lucía is in the park, the video mapping is projected onto the Cathedral's façade, the Noche Mexicana is at the top of Paseo de Montejo. When it rains, that is the first thing to move or be called off.

Of that whole list, what happens under a roof is a short list. Tuesday's Trova is in the auditorium of the Centro Cultural Olimpo, an enclosed building with an auditorium, halls and galleries. And Monday's Vaquería Yucateca, the Pok Ta Pok — the Maya ball game — on Friday and Saturday, and Mérida en Domingo all take place at the Bajos del Palacio Municipal: the building went up in 1735 with corridors and arcading, and it is those arcades that give the ground floor its shade, and its roof.

Even so, this table decides nothing. A council programme shifts with rain, building work and the season, and before you head out the council's own page is what counts.

Official programme from the Mérida city council

The full week, night by night

What's indoors downtown

Three indoor places, a few blocks from the Parque de Santa Lucía. We deliberately don't print opening times or ticket prices: they change, and publishing them here would hand you a stale fact without you noticing. Each one's official page is linked at the foot of this article, and that's where you check on the day you go.

• Museo Casa Montejo, on Calle 63, right on the Plaza Grande. The house was built a few years after the city was founded in 1542 and keeps its plateresque façade; inside there are period rooms and exhibitions that rotate.
• Centro Cultural Olimpo, on Calle 62, next door to the Palacio Municipal. Auditorium, video room, galleries and a planetarium. It's where Tuesday's Trova happens.
• Museo Regional de Antropología, Palacio Cantón, at Paseo de Montejo #485 by Calle 43. Run by INAH, in a mansion from the Porfiriato.

Watch out for the two «Montejo» museums, which get mixed up constantly: the Museo Casa Montejo is on the Plaza Grande, while the Casa-Museo Montejo 495 is a different place — the Casas Gemelas on Paseo de Montejo, open to the public since 2021. Not the same building, not the same street.

Downtown is still walkable

Downtown was laid out in 1542 and the grid hasn't changed: short blocks, everything close. In the rain that works in your favour, because the walks are two or three streets long. What works against you is the car — programme nights are already the ones with most people hunting for a space, and with rain on top they're the worst of the lot.

Where to park downtown

We're at Calle 62 #443, between 51 and 53, a couple of blocks from the Parque de Santa Lucía. There's a roofed room inside; the terrace, the one with umbrellas hanging from the tree, is the part that gets wet.

What you eat when it rains

In Colombia rain has a menu of its own, and it isn't a marketing idea: it's what people order when the air cools down. A caldo de costilla, beef rib simmered for hours until it falls off the bone. An ajiaco santafereño, with Colombian potatoes and guascas. A sancocho de gallina, which is already a long-table dish.

The Caldo de Costilla is $180 and it's the lightest of the three.

The Ajiaco santafereño, $250 — the guascas are what make it an ajiaco and not just another chicken soup.

And afterwards, once it has cleared and nobody's in a hurry to leave, there's the Colombian habit of crossing sweet with savoury.

The Chocolate con queso is $75 and it sounds strange right up until you try it.

See the menu

And if the afternoon isn't even fit for walking to the corner, we deliver anywhere in Mérida with our own riders. You build the order on the menu page and the delivery fee is worked out before you send it, so you know the price from the start and not at the door.