Every year, as October winds down, Mérida prepares for visitors from the other side. Hanal Pixán, the Yucatec Maya “food of the souls,” fills homes with altars, candles and pib, the big tamale baked in an underground pit. The city’s Festival de las Ánimas turns the old streets around the General Cemetery into a nighttime procession of painted faces and embroidered huipiles.
This year, public transit is getting in on the act.
The Yucatán Transportation Agency, known by its Spanish initials ATY, announced Wednesday a special schedule for the Va y Ven bus network and its Ie-Tram line. The plan adds late-night service, temporary stops and detours around the festival’s biggest nights. It also sends buses straight into a city cemetery on the days families visit their dead.
Late buses after the Paseo
The main change comes Friday, Oct. 30, the night of the Paseo de las Ánimas. Va y Ven buses will run until about 1 a.m. Saturday, with the last departures from downtown Mérida as late as 1:18 a.m., depending on the route. Overnight routes keep their regular schedules.
On Oct. 30 and 31, some stops will move and some routes will shift to work around street closures for the Paseo and the Desfile de Catrinas, the parade of elegantly dressed skeleton figures. ATY urged riders to plan ahead and check the temporary stop locations before heading out.
The Catrinas parade is one of the festival’s biggest draws. Organizers expect more than 55,000 people along a 1.7-kilometer (about 1-mile) route that starts at the Plaza Grande at 8 p.m. Saturday and heads up Paseo de Montejo toward Parque de La Plancha.
Ie-Tram detours on Halloween night
Four Ie-Tram routes will follow temporary paths Saturday, Oct. 31, and return to normal once the events wrap up. They are R902 (La Plancha–Kanasín), R903 (La Plancha–Facultad de Ingeniería), R905 (Centro–Umán–Tren Maya station) and R906 (La Plancha–Centro–Umán).
Travelers should note one more detail. Route R907, which links La Plancha with the airport and downtown hotels, will temporarily run on the R908 route. Riders will need to look for it under R908 in the Va y Ven app while the change is in effect.
Straight to Xoclán Cemetery
On Sunday, Nov. 1, and Monday, Nov. 2, three Va y Ven routes will pull directly into Xoclán Cemetery: R105 (69-Poniente-Xoclán), R106 (69-Opichén) and R109 (69-Diamante). Those are the days many families clean and decorate graves, bring flowers and spend time with relatives who have died.
City crews have spent recent weeks cleaning and repairing Mérida’s 38 cemeteries ahead of the holiday. The timing also lines up with a long weekend. Public schools in Yucatán have no classes from Friday, Oct. 30, through Monday, Nov. 2, so expect more families on the move.
A young festival with old roots
Hanal Pixán is an ancestral Maya ritual. The Paseo de las Ánimas is much newer. It began in 2008 as a neighborhood “Corredor de las Ánimas,” took its current name in 2009 and grew into a full festival in 2018 to mark its 10th anniversary.
This year’s edition, themed “Recuerdos de corazón” (“Memories of the heart”), runs Oct. 24 through Nov. 2. It opens with the lighting of more than 15 giant illuminated figures in Parque de San Juan, which stay lit through Nov. 20. The pib gets its own moment, too, at Mérida’s mucbipollo fair. For a wider look at how the region marks the season, El Universal has a primer on Hanal Pixán traditions.
ATY said it will post updated schedules, maps and temporary stop locations on its official social media channels.
Fast Facts
- Late service: Friday, Oct. 30, until about 1 a.m.
- Last downtown departures: up to 1:18 a.m., depending on route
- Temporary stops and detours: Oct. 30–31
- Ie-Tram changes: Saturday, Oct. 31, on R902, R903, R905 and R906
- Airport line: R907 appears as R908 in the Va y Ven app
- Cemetery service: Nov. 1–2, R105, R106 and R109 enter Xoclán
- Desfile de Catrinas: 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31, from the Plaza Grande
- Festival de las Ánimas: Oct. 24–Nov. 2
- No school: Oct. 30–Nov. 2
- Updates: Agencia de Transporte de Yucatán (ATY) social media
With reporting from Por Esto! and Diario de Yucatán
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