Mayan's Glorious Yucatan

First time visitors to the Yucatan are often shocked to discover what lies beyond Cancun and its congested tropical seascapes. Off the highway, there are numerous tiny villages where Mayan ladies embroider huipiles, grind corn, or make fresh tortillas in their thatched huts. Men can be seen walking with machetes to harvest crops in distant fields or chatting with others alongside their bicycles. Villages come alive during festivals, including Days of the Dead that occurs in late October. Everyone creates elaborate altars to honor their dead in private homes and in the village plazas and participates in special celebrations.

Ghostly plantations with ruined haciendas stand testament to the cattle ranching, sisal rope, or sugar cane productions that once produced revenues in millions. Haciendas dot the Yucatan, as do ornate churches and Spanish Missions dating from 1500s which Franciscan monks built atop Mayan temples with the intent to eradicate the pagan practice of idolatry.

For nature lovers, brilliant pink flamingos flock by the thousands to protected reserves year round in both Celestun and Rio Lagartas. Iguanas, herons, spoonbills, turquoise colored mot-mots, crocodiles, and even monkeys live in this varied terrain. Underground rivers and dramatic sinkholes called cenotes scatter the peninsula by the thousands. Stunning to look at, they hold great significance to Mayans who believe they are the sacred passage to the underworld, and the home of the rain god, Chaac.

Quick Tips:

The highlight of the Yucatan, of course, is the magnificent Mayan ruins! Carved limestone structures of former cities and ceremonial sites created up to 2000 years ago have withstood the winds of time, allowing us to walk among the ruins and imagine the mysterious life of the Mayans. According to the National Institute of Anthropology and History, 1,600 archaeological sites exist on the Yucatan Peninsula, and many more are believed to lie under tangled roots of the jungle.

Best Way To Get Around:

The Yucatan is best explored by car. Rent a car or van from the Cancun airport, just make sure you have a full tank as gas stations are few and far between. Interstate 180D (toll road) to Merida is in excellent condition. Smaller highways and rural roads are frequently filled with potholes and plenty of annoying topes (speed bumps). We flattened a tire on a surprise pothole on our way to Tulum, and had to backtrack two hours to Cancun for Hertz to change it out (even though there were tire shops in Tulum). Traffic wasn’t a problem, especially compared to other parts of Mexico.

There are public buses that go between the main cities from Cancun to Merida, Valladolid, Chichen Itza, Tulum, and Coba. Some hotels offer shuttle services from the city to the ruins.

Photo Tour:
Or, if you prefer to leave the logistics and driving to someone else, consider joining our small group photography tour in late October. In addition to visiting the ruins, haciendas, cenotes, Spanish missions, and tiny villages, we’ll partake in special events and ceremonies during Days of the Dead. Check out Unique PhotoTours

This ceremonial site was important for three distinct groups of people. Mayans first settled here in 435AD, and built lavish buildings in the Puuc style with ornate geometric friezes, Chaac masks, and jaguar symbols from 600AD. Itza people from the highlands of central Mexico then conquered the city, adding unornamented structures with simple lines, then suddenly abandoned the site. The city laid lifeless for a hundred years. Then Toltecs arrived around 1000AD and built new temples with military overtones, adding warrior columns, carved serpent and eagle motifs alongside Mayan jaguar symbols. They built a larger pyramid over the existing El Castillo pyramid, but left a hidden staircase to reach the interior Mayan jaguar throne with its jade-encrusted altar of ChacMol figures. In 1250, the city was abandoned again, and was still vacant when the Spanish Conquistadors arrived in the 1500s. Archaeologists predict that the restored structures may represent only 5% of the original city. Incredible!

The Sacred Cenote, a natural well with life-sustaining water was thought to be a gift from the rain gods, who Mayans kept appeased with commercial and human sacrifice.

The Temple of Kukulkan, or El Castillo pyramid, is the structure most people visualize when they think of Chichen Itza. This massive square based pyramid has four stairways and 52 panels that represents their sophisticated Mayan calendar (a complex system combining astronomy and mathematics to regulate religious rituals). The giant snake head at the base of the northern staircase grows a bodily form during the equinox. On March 21 and Sept 21 each year, the shadow of a snake descends the steps This fertility symbol marked the time for Mayans to plant. Toltecs performed a fire ritual every 52 years to prevent the sun from abandoning the earth. A victim was sacrificed to the sun god, and a fire was kindled in the spot where the victim’s heart had been.
The Temple of Warriors has a total of 1000 columns. Stone colonnades are decorated with reliefs of Toltec warriors, whose black painted eyes once were inlaid with white shells. Behind the columns is a pyramid where a Chac-Mol figure sits up high on the plaza. Tourists are now restricted from climbing any of the structures since a death occurred two years ago, but if you look closely, you can see the ChacMol figure where sacrificial victims died on the altar.

The huge Sacred Ballcourt opposite the Warrior Temple is where two teams of seven men used their knees, hips, and elbows to manipulate a rubber ball through a lofty stone hoop 23 feet off the ground. Contradictions arise whether it was the winning or losing team captain that was decapitated at the end of the game, but whichever it was, the bleeding skull joined the rack of other skulls protruding from spears atop the adjoining Tzompantli, a limestone platform decorated in bas relief skulls.

Forested paths lead to additional ruins not visible from the plaza, such as the intricately carved Nunnery and other Puuc-styled architecture.

A pretty Colonial town about an hour east from Merida, this Golden City deserves an overnight stay or two. Great opportunities for people photography from Mayan women selling flowers, vendors selling wares like citrus fruits, men resting alongside their bicycles, old-fashioned barber shops, children in uniform heading to school on the back of scooters, and locals chatting in the plaza.

Once an ancient Mayan ceremonial site, thousands made pilgrimages here to honor deity Izamna, hoping to exchange offerings for his special healing powers. Pilgrims journeyed vast distances to visit his shrine long after Itzas abandoned their city in the 1200s. When Spaniards arrived, they found four massive pyramids decorated with temples and stucco masks of sun gods in various states of decay.

An elegant temple adorned in intricate relief on a lofty platform was demolished to create space for Yucatan’s grandest monastery. In 1552, young priest Fray Diego de Landa attempted to eradicate pagan practices in Izamal, by building his monastery and church atop the former Mayan platform once dedicated to Itzamna, god of the heavens. He oversaw the construction of San Antionio de Padua, and six years later returned with his finishing touch, a wooden Virgin for the shrine which he dubbed the Virgin of Izamal. Boasting of her miraculous powers during his journey from Guatemala, he used the Virgin and her powers to evoke instant cult-like devotion of Indians and Spaniards alike, which continue to this day.

The grand San Antionio de Padua, a Spanish Colonial church, has a commanding presence in the center of town. Its golden walls rimmed in white sit 16 feet off the ground. Baroque double staircases lead to the impressive atrium bordered by Moorish gables and arcades. Inside the monastery are two cloisters, church and museum. Beyond the museum ascend stone stairs to peek inside the camarin, where believers still flock to honor the glass-encased Virgin Izamal adorned by the Pope when John Paul II visited in 1993. The Virgin that Landa brought from Guatemala helped convert the indigenous people with her purported miracles.

A horse-drawn carriage, the local taxi, will take you around town to see the remains of four pyramids that once ringed the city. Or, arrange for a special visit to the homes of local artisans who craft souvenirs from henequen, cocyol seeds, tin, wood, herbs, and papier mâché.

Charming accommodations can be found at Macanche B&B, three blocks from the plaza. Chic bungalows set in tropical gardens are beautifully decorated. A rock bottom pool, yoga retreat, and restaurant are on the premises. See www.macanche.com for details.

This charming Colonial city, a two-hour drive west of Cancun, makes a good base for visiting Ek Balam ruins to the north or Chichen Itza to the west. Every village centers around a plaza, and Valladolid is no different. A bustling market takes place around the picturesque plaza where couples sit in white cupola benches near fountains and Mayan ladies stroll by in their handmade embroidered huipiles. Across the park-like plaza sits the large baroque de San Servacio church, from 1570, which draws in local people every Sunday.

Valladolid is considered the most Spanish Colonial city in the Yucatan. Now calm, beautiful, and friendly, this "terrific town with a terrible past" has a bloody history. Long ago, Mayans settled here around a sacred cenote known as Zaci. (This cenote still sits in the middle of town and can be visited.) When Spanish invaders arrived in 1543, they brutally assaulted the Mayans. Families were burned alive, women and children hanged by their feet, and beautiful virgins slaughtered. Those that survived fled. But never forgot.

The city was named Valladolid to honor Ferdinand and Isabella in Spain, and Spanish Colonial architecture soon filled the streets. In 1848, a Mayan army formed to retaliate. They attacked their former city, taking vengeance on the descendants of the proud conquistadors. Daughters of Spanish nobles were raped and murdered and spread across grilled windows of the elite class, and homes plundered. Flames of fury spread across the Yucatan, igniting the War of the Castes…

Today locals swear the town is haunted. Don’t be alarmed if you hear mysterious laughter, phantom guitar music and clicking castanets. A convenient and very comfortable place to stay is El Mason del Marques right on the plaza across from the Cathedral. This Colonial hotel still owned by descendants of Spanish nobility was built as the home of a marquis, who apparently got out just in time during the Caste War because the pretty fountains, courtyard, ironwork, and Spanish décor were left intact. Check out www.mesondelmarques.com for more information.

From the plaza, walk down the side streets to browse pastel-colored shops, restaurants and cafes. By car, take scenic ceiba-lined Calle 41A to San Bernardino de Sisal. This mission, built on a thin limestone shelf in 1552, boasts a Gothic ceiling, Colonial retablos, decorated altars, painted niches and sculptures. At the nearby convent are friar cells, a domed stone noria well and sundials.

In the center of town, stop at Zaci cenote to see the original spot where Mayans settled. A short walk takes you around the limestone cavern which surrounds the dark pool of water. A Mexican restaurant sits on the edge of the cenote. A 3 mile drive west of town brings you to twin cenotes, Dzitmup and Samula, which may be the most photogenic of the 2800 cenotes that exist in the Yucatan. Here you’ll descend stairs to enter the dramatic underground world where giant ceiba roots reach the sacred emerald pool illuminated by natural skylights.

This Biosphere Reserve is located on a long white beach on the Gulf of Mexico, approximately 1.5 hours west of Merida. Known for its large numbers of pink flamingoes which reach 20,000, the inlet also is home to 300 other species of birds.

Flat bottomed boats take visitors into the lagoon where cormorants, egrets, osprey and herons can be seen along the way. A distant pink horizon soon becomes a flock of flamingoes as the boat reaches the lagoon. Keeping a respectful distance, a zoom is required to photograph these birds seen feeding and in flight. The boat trip includes snaking through the mangrove looking for pygmy kingfishers among the tangled roots, and an optional stop at the sweet water springs of Baldiosera.

For photography, the flat-bottomed boats are extremely handy for tripods, but there are a few choice spots on land that allow photographers to get close to the birds without spooking them. Drive along the main road leaving town to find these pull off areas. Just get there before sunrise as parking is limited.

Night boat rides to see crocodiles, yellow-crowned night herons and the great-horned owl are available during calm weather.

The fishing village of Celestun is quite small, and restaurants being open are a gamble except during high tourism season from April to July. The expensive Hotel Eco Paraiso Xixim is located on a quiet beach on an old coconut plantation, but is quite a distance from town. A choice place to stay within the village is Manglares Hotel, located ten minutes from the plaza on a white sandy beach.

There are two flamingo preserves in the Yucatan, and we visited both. The other, located north of Ek Balam, is Rio Lagartos Nature Reserve. To us, the village was less desirable, the flamingoes harder to photograph, and the setting not as scenic.

Occupied from 100 B.C. to 1200 A.D., these ruins combine many architectural styles, but are best known for the wonderfully preserved winged sculptures (Mayan angels) and Witz Monster Mouth recently discovered halfway up the Acropolis pyramid. Now under thatch protection, this Mayan entrance marked the burial place of the king and the portal to the underworld where blood-letting rituals, self-inflicted by the priest, and human sacrifices were made to appease the gods.

The Acropolis Palace has 6 levels. Climb to the top of the 100 foot pyramid for a surrounding view of the jungle. From here it’s easy to see how the Palacio Oval temple, a ball court, and Las Gemelas twin pyramids across the plaza were completely swallowed by dense brush until 1997. Sections are roped off as this site is undergoing extensive excavation and restoration.

Allow a couple of hours to explore this compact site, best seen in late afternoon light. As elsewhere in the Yucatan, this site is open from 8am to 5pm daily. Guides are available for $25-$50 depending on the size of your group. 

Valladolid is a 30-minute drive south. If you’d rather stay here, an interesting place to stay nearby is the Genesis Retreat in the tiny village of Ek Balam. Behind a private door, Mayan decorated cabanas with shared bathrooms sit in a peaceful garden setting. Abseiling into a cenote is an option here, but the real treat is taking the village tour where you’ll visit homes and watch the local Mayan women embroider huipiles, make tortillas from scratch or weave their colorful hammocks.

With so many choices to explore, what are the best ruins in the Yucatan? Undoubtedly, the great and mighty Uxmal. It's hard to believe that these massive ruins were created overnight by a dwarf.

According to legend, this trickster outsmarted the king, overtook the kingdom and built a magnificent city overnight, including the oval-shaped Pyramid of the Magician. Since then, subsequent rulers have added their mark on the pyramid, resulting in five superimposed temples, two of which are visible at the top of the 118 staircase, currently unsafe to climb.

Intricate geometric patterns, Chaac masks, monster mouth doorways, lattice friezes, stone sculptured animals, flowers, birds, and protruding snouts ornament the structures built between 600 A.D. and 1000 A.D. This site, once home to 25,000 Mayans, is absolutely stunning.

Morning light is particularly good for shooting stone details int eh nunnery Quadrangel, such as the serpent ready to crunch a man’s head in his jaw. The Governor’s Palace, a fair walk away, features a false arch, sculptured ruler in lavish headdress, and a two-headed jaguar on a throne below. Follow worn paths to reach a ball court and numerous temples, or traipse through high grasses to explore scattered excavated sites, such as phallic-shaped roof drains, the Old Woman’s House (where the dwarf lived), a multi-storied Centipede Temple, skull carved altars, and an isolated arch.

Climb the 65 steps of the Great Pyramid to reach a tiny temple carved in bas relief of birds and flowers. From this lofty perch enjoy panoramic views of the huge complex. The triangular crested roofcomb of the Temple of Doves is to the left while the magician’s Pyramid rises in the distance from the green cloak of the jungle.

Near Uxmal’s entrance, a restaurant serving great quesadillas, bookstores, and shops are convenient for breaks throughout the day. At night a Sound and Light Show is performed. Note that you must hand over your passport for the duration of the performance, and that the audio program is in Spanish only. Structures are illuminated in colored lights, and the booming voice of Chaac resonates between the limestones.

A trio of Mayan ruins Kabah, Sayil, and Labna are found on the Puuc Route heading east from Uxmal in the southern region of the Yucatan.

Kabah’s Kodz-Poop structure is best known for the riot of noses protruding from intricately carved stones. This large façade of 250 Chaac masks (rain god) become wonderfully illuminated in the late afternoon sun. The Great Pyramid and Palacio, also built between 700 A.D 900 A.D., exhibit traditional Puuc architectural style: plain lower walls topped by decorative friezes. Two giant sculptured kings perched high on the backside of the Palacio are unusual among Mayan ruins.

Sayil, the place of red ants, is a small but fascinating site. The Great Palace, a Greek-looking three-story structure with 98 rooms, numerous columns, and Puuc styled friezes, commands attention in a clearing. But paths into the forest seem more intriguing, leading to stone fragments and decaying temples tangles in brush. Step inside deserted niches where shafts of sunlight stray through narrow openings. Gnarly roots, and vines are entwined around many of these structures. Such overgrowth gives us an idea of what early explorers saw throughout the Yucatan. Its abrupt downfall in 1000 A.D. was likely due to invading warriors from Chichen Itza. Among the small ruins that ist amid steep hills are palaces, a ball court, altars, stelae with hieroglyphics and small dwellings. Turquoise colored mot-mots with their distinctive long tails are often seen in the canopy.

Labna boasts the prettiest ornamented arch among all Mayan ruins. Chaac masks, Mayan huts, serpents, and quetzals are represented on this carved façade, nicely restored. An ancient sacbe, a white limestone road that once connected important Mayan cities, is visible here. Late afternoon is also good for photographing the Great Palace, as the sunlight hits the geometric friezes in narrow passages and makes them glow. Sixty chultuns (cisterns that held rainwater in this place void of water) are scattered throughout the site.

These ruins are located within ten miles of one another and can easily be explored in a single day. Some people like to combine a visit with Loltun Cave (touristy, claustrophobic, hot, and led in Spanish) which is further north about ten miles from Labna. Oxkutzcab, a village beyond the cave, is known for its citrus. The morning market in the plaza features citrus fruit sold in cups sprinkled with chili powder and lime Delicioso!

Visiting haciendas throughout the Yucatan offers a glimpse into another part of the region’s past, an era of splendor and elegance dating from the 17th century.

Spanish plantation owners practiced cattle ranching, produced sugar cane or manufactured sisal rope from henequen plants. Their lavish estates styled in Spanish Colonial architecture were filled with the finest furnishings.

Today many of the haciendas have been turned into luxury hotels, restaurants, or museums. The largest hacienda in the region, Yaxcopoil, once covered 22,000 acres during its prime henequen production. It is the first hacienda on the Hacienda Route south of Merida open to tourists.

Driving south of Merida on Highway 261, exit 35 minutes later at the 187km marker and look for the yellow Moorish entrance arch. Although Yaxcopoil Hacienda dates from the 17th century, it prospered in the 19th century as one the most prominent henequen plantations in the Yucatan. Oil paintings and original furnishings fill the hacienda from the lounges, drawing room, bedrooms, kitchen and chapel. Orchards, gardens, pool, and outer buildings can be explored in addition to the large machine house that displays a massive henequen shredding machine.

Continuing south on Hwy 261, consider stopping for a gourmet lunch at Hacienda Temozon, a lavish hacienda turned luxury hotel.

Otherwise, keep driving until marker 176 for the turn off to Hacienda Ochil. Lunch here is more casual, with peacocks that often wander among the guests. Artisan workshops and little shops line the trail to the restaurant. Beyond the outdoor seating area explore the rail carts, machinery, sisal rope, and further the henequen fields.