Parque de la Mejorada sits in the eastern part of the historic centre, a few blocks from the Plaza Mayor but noticeably quieter — this is the residential city rather than the tourist circuit. The park is shaded by large trees and surrounded by well-preserved colonial buildings, including the Iglesia de la Mejorada, a 17th-century Franciscan church with an attached convent that now houses architecture studios. Local families use the park in the evenings and weekend mornings in ways that the more prominent parks closer to the centre no longer do.
The neighbourhood around the park has several artisan workshops producing the wooden furniture and hammocks that Mérida is known for, and you can watch craftspeople working if you wander the streets to the east and south. The Museo de Arte Popular de Yucatán, dedicated to Yucatecan folk art and crafts, is nearby and worth an hour. This area gives a better sense of what most of the city feels like day-to-day — less polished than the Paseo, less busy than the market district, but architecturally consistent and full of the details that give Mérida its character.