Parque Rufino Tamayo
This section of Parque Rufino Tamayo is a small short cut on my way to work
so I've been passing this intriguing entrance almost forever
as well as the second one.
The third is on the other side by the canal.
Last Sunday, after years of postponements, I finally stepped inside.
I love the concrete slides built into the hill. I want to ride them some day when no one else is around. Wheee!
While not exactly a maze, there are countless trails and connections. You could pick different routes for months.
I took the first left.
And up.
Keep going.
First landing. Up or down?
Several of these landings offer barbecue grilles.
Sadly, they don't always get the love they deserve. Eventually, the Fonatur maintenance crew will pick the trash up but it's a big park.
Second entrance. Walking by this entrance on my lunch break one afternoon, pressed for time, I considered taking an experimental short cut but remembered a student telling me she had been lost inside for two hours. I'm so glad I passed on that plan. I would have been late for work for sure.
I've been told there are some great views of town from the higher points of the park during dry season but we've received some good rain recently and everything is green. This was the most that could be seen.
I didn't encounter too many people on my hike. The isolation made me feel vulnerable. It felt like a good place to get mugged. If you ran into the wrong person on some of these trails, there would be no witnesses so I felt a bit wary when I heard the occasional person approaching from around a bend.
This is the boundary of the Cocoa industrial park.
The only dead end I came across.
At what is probably the highest point in the park is this interesting structure that has seen better days.
I scared a young couple coming up a different stairway as I walked the perimeter. They startled me too so fair is fair. They immediately turned around for a quick retreat but settled down when they decided I didn't look threatening and smoked the reefer they'd brought to enjoy in isolation.
At least now it serves as a reminder that the park can be a haven for vagrants at night. All of my pictures turned out blurry but this video shows the place pretty well.
If you can imagine what this place looked like before nature and vandals trashed it, it's clear that the original designer had big plans for a picturesque sanctuary for the community. I like to picture it the way it was planned; bustling with carefree picnickers and joggers; everybody carrying out their own trash at the end of a happy day, enjoying the shade, maybe holding special community events. The cost of maintenance and security would be huge. It would have to be patrolled by police and double at night. This poor old bathroom is proof of that. Just imagine if the city budget had no bottom.
The park is locked up at night but very easy to break into. Friends were walking their dogs there one night and found themselves locked in. It wasn't a huge problem. The dogs squeezed through some gaps and their owners just jumped the fence.
This eyesore is the worst of the place and the park is really quite beautiful and otherwise well-maintained. I'd recommend a visit some day if you felt like breaking up the beach routine but go with friends if you plan on exploring the trails beyond the wide open entrance areas.
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