Mexicans Wait All Night to Skate in Zocalo Rink
 Catherine Bremer - Reuters
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| | People ice skate on a rink installed in Mexico City's main Zocalo Plaza, Sunday, Dec. 2, 2007. The rink, designed to withstand Mexico City's warm climate, opened Saturday night to curious onlookers as part of Mayor Marcelo Ebrard's Christmas celebration plans. (AP/Eduardo Verdugo) |
Mexico City A group of Mexicans queued all night to be first to skate on a giant ice rink in Mexico City's historic Zocalo square, and hundreds more lined up from dawn in a country where ice and snow are a rare novelty.
The 34,400 square foot rink, built to accomodate 1,200 skaters and free of charge, was inaugurated on Saturday night with fireworks, Christmas lights and a musical skating show viewed by thousands of curious city residents.
We're going to keep coming until the ice melts, Mario Huerta, 17, arriving as the rink opened early Saturday after chickening out of joining 15 people who slept out all night in the Zocalo square, told local media.
The rink is the latest effort by the left-wing city government to put Mexico City on a par with cosmopolitan cities like Paris, Brussels and New York, which for years have set up outdoor skating rinks for the year-end holiday period.
It also marks the first time the Zocalo a massive and imposing square which was at the center of the ancient Aztec empire and is most often used for political rallies or open-air rock concerts has been filled with ice.
It's as if we were in Paris or New York, except it's prettier, said Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard as the rink, hailed as one of the biggest in the world, was being built in the glare of the hot year-round sun.
Earlier this year, Ebrard set up artificial sandy beaches for the summer in Mexico City, in the style of France's popular Paris Plage. He also started shutting a central boulevard to cars on Sundays to encourage cycling and inline skating.
Most people in Mexico, where half the population lives on less than $5 a day, have never seen natural ice or snow and even in big cities few have tried ice-skating.
The city government, which has laid on 1,600 pairs of skates, also free of charge, expects some 12,000 visitors per day at the rink, which will stay open until Jan. 7.
The rink has drawn criticism for its high cost, even though it has been largely funded by sponsors.
(Additional reporting by Miguel Gutierrez, editing by Todd Eastham) |
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News Around the Republic of Mexico | December 2007 
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