In addition to the colonial beauty of Merida, the two major attractions of Yucatan
state are the Mayan ruins and the haciendas.
The Mayans were the indigenous people of this whole area of Mesoamerica
from the Yucatan south to Guatemala for over three thousand years. Mayan ruins and artifacts are everywhere like
arrowheads, hammers and buffalo rubbing stones in Saskatchewan. Because the civilization was very long lived,
it was not static and evolved over time.
Not all the famous ruined cities were at their peak at the same
time. e.g. Uxmal declined before Chitchen Itza rose in prominence and Mayapan was the last great city state before the
Spanish happened along to make the Mayan's lives Hell.
Ruins are pretty subjective even amongst scholars. While Chitzen Itza is probably the most
well-known it is overrun with tourists and in a dry open inhospitable
area as I recall. Tulum is beautiful set against the
Caribbean as it is but otherwise is not terribly significant I understand. [Tangent: Tulum was the only major Mayan city
built near the ocean. Why? All over the world, people have been building
cities on the sea of millenia. Did they
have some premonition that their conquerors would arrive by sea? Fat lot of good it did them being inland
anyway. Interesting factoid: The Mayan could hear and smell the Spanish
conquistadores coming long before they saw them. Tangent 2:
Body odor is not an issue with these folks which is especially
fortuitous in a packed little collectivo with no a/c with this heat. Which is probably more than can be said for
the visiting gringos.]
I found Uxmal to be a more aesthetically appealing place than CI. It is spread over a large area
and much more green and "jungley" than Chitzen Itza. Some of
the vistas are amazing. The buildings
have a very attractive quilt-like design.
Apparently Uxmal is more Mayan than Chitzen Itza which is Mayan-Toltec I
believe. There are numerous other ruins
large and small in the Merida area but Uxmal and a visit to the Anthropology Museum
were enough for us. The museum is housed
in the sumptuous Canton Palace on Paseo de Montejo with the top floor devoted
to displays related to the building of the house and the Canton Family.
If there is anything more confusing than Mexican history it is Mayan
mythology/religion. Try to keep all
those gods straight at your peril.
Except Chaac, the rain god, who seems to be everybody's favorite.
The Haciendas are more recent history and were much more relevant to me and
what I see what one sees around them here in Merida.
After the stinky Spanish finally subjected the poor Mayans (it took them
two generations), they divided up the Yucatan into vast parcels of land amongst
the conquistadores, cronies, flunkies and whoever else was deemed a worthy son
of Spain. The haciendas were originally
operated as feudal style cattle ranches.
However, in the mid-nineteenth century those ingrate Mayans started
acting up and revolting against their patrons (prounounced pay TRRROOOON). This was known at the Caste Wars which went on for years and never came to
any real conclusion. Things were getting
too hot for the patrons in the south and west so they moved more into the
interior of the Yucatan which was not quite as hospitable for farming.
This is where the henequen agave comes in or as the writer for Lonely
Planet calls it "one spikey sonofabitch of a plant". The Mayan have used the henequen fibre for
millenia to make twine, hammocks, baskets, sandals, you name it. It took the Europeans THREE HUNDRED YEARS
(duh!) to twig to the idea that maybe they could use it to make rope for the
gazillion ships that plied the world's waterways. The haciendas started planting the millions
of acres of henequen agave that was soon known as "Green Gold". The plants needed little water or fertilizer
and the same Mayan slave labor planted, harvested and processed this new crop.
The countryside outside of Merida is dotted with the remnants of thousands
of haciendas, a few restored as private homes or hotels but most in ruin.
Beautiful arched gates, usually Moorish style, and smoke stacks for the
long-silent steam engines are the sign of a former hacienda. Often they are still surrounded by a small
town where descendants of the hacienda workers still live.
We visited the only “working” hacienda in the Yucatan which is now called
Sotuta de Peon. It was one of several
haciendas owned by the wealthy Peon family.
(Note ironic name – peon means peasant in Spanish). The hacienda was purchased from the Peons in
1985 by a Mexican-born German who spent over twenty years (and a lot of cash)
restoring the hacienda to working condition (albeit very limited). The house, which was always just the country
home of the patron who would have had his main residence in the city, is beautifully
restored and furnished as well. The tour
includes demonstrations in the steps of cultivating, harvesting and processing
henequen fibre. Visitors travel out to
the fields through acres of henequen agave and visit a Mayan workers “home”
hosted by a delightful octogenarian former field worker. The tour also includes a swim in a lovely
cenote. ("See No tay". Underground pool) and lunch.
The other must-see hacienda in the area is Hacienda Yaxcopoil also south of
Merida. It was a huge holding of 22,000 acres in its day. The grounds are still beautiful and the house
is still furnished in decayed splendor and the machine buildings are still
accessible. This hacienda has without a doubt the most gorgeous “machine shop”
I have ever seen with stone carvings of the four seasons above the doorways. Here
also former hacienda employees are now tour guides of the ruins. Large
haciendas like Yaxcopoil had their own store, hospital and school and some of
these are still in use by villagers there.
As I mentioned in earlier posts, the glory days of "Green Gold" in the Yucatan ended with the land reforms of the 1930s when the large haciendas were divided up with no one being allowed to own more than 300 acres of land (a far cry from Yaxcopoil's once 22,000) and the invention of nylon during the second world war. Today Brazil, Tanzania and Kenya supply the market for henequen which is enjoying a bit of a come back because of the demand for natural fibres. The Yucatan's role is now only as the historical setting for interesting industry that made a few people fabulously wealthy.
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