Paseo Santa Lucía

The Paseo Santa Lucía is a 2.5 km artificial river and promenade that runs east through central Monterrey, from the Explanada Santa Lucía beside the Macroplaza to the grounds of Parque Fundidora. It is billed as the longest artificial river in Latin America. The canal is about 1.2 meters deep and lined on both banks with walkways, gardens, bridges and 24 fountains, and for most of the way the Cerro de la Silla rises ahead of you on the skyline.

The route is more than decoration. It partly follows the course of the Ojos de Santa Lucía, the springs beside which Diego de Montemayor made the third and lasting founding of Monterrey on September 20, 1596. Those springs now run underground and still feed part of the canal. The walk was built for the Fórum Internacional de las Culturas held in Monterrey in 2007 and was inaugurated on September 15 of that year by President Felipe Calderón and Governor José Natividad González Parás. Along the way, 17 plaques tell bits of local history, and a small plaza marks the site of the Battle of Monterrey of 1846.

At the starting point, in front of the Museo de Historia Mexicana and the Museo del Noreste, is La Lagartera, a relief by the Oaxacan artist Francisco Toledo made in 2008 from fiberglass, resin and sand. Farther on you pass an Inuit inukshuk called Hombre de Piedra, a gift from the Canadian government in 2007, a walkway under jets of water, and, near Fundidora, a fountain lit to look like molten iron. Boats carrying up to 40 people run the length of the canal with a guide, a trip of about 55 minutes each way according to a 2025 report; the boarding point is on the lower level by the Museo de Historia Mexicana. Walking the whole thing is easy and free, and in the evening the lights on the water make it one of the most pleasant walks downtown.