Monday, June 30, 2025

Ice-free skating rink draws a crowd to the zócalo in Mexico City

Mexico City’s annual holiday season tradition of ice skating in the zócalo has a new twist this year: the rink has no ice.

The ice-free skating rink was inaugurated on Saturday by Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, who extolled the ecological benefits of a plastic skating surface.

“We are inaugurating a new skating rink, we call it Ecologísssima [super ecological],” she said. “Its grand quality is that you can skate on it just like ice, but it saves 800 tonnes of carbon dioxide and 307 liters of gasoline.”

Sheinbaum cut the inaugural ribbon with a representative of the Swiss company Glice, which installed the rink, before national figure skating champion Donovan Carrillo Suazo gave the “ice” a try to music by children of the Monumental Choir of Mexico.

The show also included performances by other Mexican figure skaters while the choir sang Mexican standards like Cielito Lindo and Feliz Navidad.

Young skaters on the seasonal rink in Mexico City.
Young skaters on the seasonal rink.

After the performance, young people from the Institute of Youth gave the rink a try. They said it was more difficult to skate on than real ice, but it also helped prevent them from falling.

The ice-free rink will be open daily from 9:00am to 9:00pm until January 6. To reserve ice skates and time on the rink, go to the Ecologísssima website (in Spanish) or stop by one of the registration booths in the zócalo.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
At 9 a.m. on Monday, Flossie was centered about 160 miles (255 kilometers) south of Zihuatanejo, Guerrero, and was moving parallel to Mexico's southwestern coastline at 10 mph (16 kph).

Flossie expected to become a hurricane as Barry drenches Gulf states

0
Mexico’s National Meteorological Service issued a Tropical Storm Warning for Mexico’s west coast from Punta San Telmo, Michoacán, to Playa Perula, Jalisco, just north of Manzanillo.
Multicolored tents in the Zócalo

Street protests in the capital: A timeless feature of life in Mexico

6
The recent tent city that sprang up in the Zócalo is just the latest in a centuries-long and legally protected tradition of protest in Mexico City.
A person touches a light switch during a power outage, while a light bulb remains off in the foreground

No more blackouts in Yucatán? The governor has a plan

2
The state has shared details of the energy supply-and-distribution project that seeks to eliminate blackouts by 2027 and achieve self-sufficiency by 2030.