Valladolid Adventures Part 8 of 22: Cenote Oxman at Hacienda San Lorenzo

 

Swimmers frolic in the cool waters of Cenote Oxman. A cenote ("sen-oh-tay") is a freshwater sinkhole in the limestone crust that forms the base of the Yucatan Peninsula. This is one of many cenotes in northern Yucatan, including several within or very close to the city of Valladolid. This one has become a very popular tourist destination for several reasons. 

Among these are its location, only about 5 km (3 mi) from the center of the city. In addition, the site is within the grounds of the beautifully preserved Hacienda San Lorenzo Oxman (see Part 7 of this series). The cenote is also on the tourist bus route coming from the ancient Maya city of Chichen Itza. 

In this posting, I'll show you how to get to the cenote and take you deep inside it, all the way down  to the the water's surface. I'll also explain the origin and nature of cenotes and the roles they played in the lives of people from pre-hispanic times, through the colonial period, and up to the present day.

The cenote is in the southwest corner of the hacienda (see red pointer). You will find a map and explanation of how to reach Hacienda San Lorenzo Oxman in Part 7 of this series. From the highway, you approach the hacienda along the smoothly-graded dirt road seen at the bottom center of the photo. Drive to the parking area in the upper right quadrant. 

The entrance to the property is along the walkway that begins next to the orange-roofed structure at the top of the photo. Walk down this to the casa grande (center), then past the swimming pool. A short distance beyond it is the entrance of the tunnel leading down into the cenote. Before entering the tunnel, walk over to the barrier along the edge and take a look at the impressive depth of this sinkhole.

Entrance to Cenote Oxman. Notice the small sign to the right of the door. It warns you that there are 73 steps down to the bottom. Those with mobility issues should take notice. When I was there, there was no ramp for wheelchairs, but that was several years ago and things might have changed. The hours when the cenote is open are 10 AM to 5 PM. If you would like a tranquil experience, it is best to arrive in the morning because the tourist buses from Chichen Itza pull in about mid-day and disgorge a flood of visitors.

The price of admission, just to swim in the cenote, is $150 pesos ($7.50 USD). You also have the option of paying $250 pesos ($12.50 USD) for a package. This includes access to the cenote, a $200 peso credit ($10.00 USD) toward a meal at the on-site restaurant, and access to the swimming pool. Keep in mind that everything is "cash only," which means pesos only.

The tunnel has flat areas as well as various flights of steps. It is fairly gloomy in places. The tunnel is bright here only because of my flash. Speaking of cameras, one of my sources bemoaned the fact that he neglected to bring an underwater camera, because he found the views below the surface to be wonderful. I wasn't planning to swim, so my Nikon was just fine for my purposes. I didn't notice whether underwater cameras were available for sale at the hacienda, but the proprietor is missing a bet if he doesn't stock them. However, you can always bring your own or pick one up inexpensively in Valladolid before you come.

Mineral-filled droplets of water have created stalactites from the overhanging walls. There are many of these along the path and some are quite impressive. The whole Yucatan Peninsula is a thick, flat crust of limestone. It was created when the area was at the bottom of a shallow sea. Over millions of years, tiny creatures in the water died and their remains sank to the bottom. These gradually built up into the limestone crust. The crust is on, or just under, the surface in most places. The subsurface limestone is covered by a shallow layer of earth built up from decaying vegetation. 

Light and easily worked, limestone has been the most plentiful building material on the Peninsula for thousands of years. Another important feature of limestone is its porosity. This means that rainwater doesn't stay on the surface for long but seeps down until it meets a level it can't penetrate. At that point, it forms underground lakes and rivers. Some cenotes are connected to each other by these rivers. Some of the underwater caverns are extensive. One has been mapped for a length of 376 km (234 miles)!

Stalactites are not the only thing hanging down in the cenote. Above-ground plants and trees send down roots seeking water wherever they can find it. Both the seeping water and the action of the roots tend to widen existing cracks that let in more water. This causes weaknesses in the limestone. Cenotes are underground pools whose roofs have collapsed because of  these weaknesses. Scientists have found limestone sinkholes in many places around the world and have long understood how they were created. However, the presence in northern Yucatan of as many as 10,000 cenotes puzzled researchers for a long time. 

The connection between the Chicxulub crater and Yucatan's cenotes. In the 1970s scientists discovered the Chicxulub crater, just off the northwest coast of Yucatan. They  believe it was caused by the meteorite strike that occurred 66 million years ago, killing off the dinosaurs and much of the rest of life on earth. In the 1990s, twenty years after this discovery, NASA scientists decided to plot out the location of northern Yucatan's cenotes. An interesting pattern then emerged. Many of the cenotes are concentrated along a ring marking the trough of the Chicxulub crater. Apparently, the impact caused weakening along the edge of that trough, leading to the creation of those cenotes. (Graphic from Wikipedia)

Another view of the roots extending down from the surface. The lack of surface-level water in northern Yucatan means that cenotes have been vital to human habitation since paleo-indians first arrived in the area. In 2001, archeologists found the skeleton of a human female under the water of a cenote. They called her "Eve of Naharon" and carbon-dated her remains to 13,600 years ago. The cenotes were natural gathering places for humans seeking water and also hunting animals who were coming for a drink. In fact, the Spanish word for cenote derives from the Maya ts'ono'ot, which translates as "location with accessible water".

The ancient Maya began their transition from a hunter-gatherer culture to one based on agriculture around 2,500 BC. Permanent settlements appeared around 1,800 BC. Since farming requires a substantial and readily available source of water, the areas around cenotes naturally developed first. Valladolid's predecessor, the ancient city of Zaci, had twelve of these sinkholes within a relatively short distance. Two of them are within a few hundred yards of the site of Zaci's pyramid, which once stood in the middle of what is now Valladolid's Parque Principal. 

"Ah...at last a cool drink of water". Roots suck up water from the surface of the cenote's sparkling, clear water. The clarity of the water is caused by the filtering process. This occurs as the liquid travels down through the limestone, depositing its impurities along the way and sometimes creating stalactites. Cenotes generally contain less life than other bodies of water, but various fish have been found in them, including mojarras, mollies, guppies, catfish and small eels.

While the pre-hispanic Maya viewed cenotes as important for drinking water and crops, there was also a religious dimension. They believed that cenotes were the domain of the Rain God Chaac, their most important deity. These dark and mysterious places were also seen as entrances to Xibalba (the underworld). Offerings and sacrifices, sometimes including live humans, were thrown into cenotes sagrados (sacred cenotes). These include one at Chichen Itza and another in the ceremonial center of ancient Dzibilchaltún, just north of Mérida.

Non-sacrificed humans enjoying a swim in the cenote. A rope is suspended 27m (90ft) down from the rim to the water's surface. A very popular activity is to swing from a platform out toward the middle and drop into the water. The person on the right appears to be trying to see the bottom. Good luck with that! The water's depth is 45m (148ft). In order to keep the water clean and clear, swimmers are required to take a shower before entering. This helps prevent body lotions from polluting the water.

When the Spanish arrived, they took note of the cenotes and built their haciendas, conventos, and other important buildings adjacent to them. No doubt this caused some hostility from the Maya, who had freely used these water sources for millennia. The Spanish were motivated by easy access to water but, like the Maya, they also had religious reasons. They were no fans of Chaac, or the other native deities, and did everything they could to stamp out what they saw as "devil worship". This included preventing offerings and sacrifices at the cenotes sagrados. It was all part of the "Spiritual Conquest".

Two other swimmers hang onto a rope stretched across the surface as a safety measure. Both wear life vests, which are available at the hacienda. These are mandatory for anyone wishing to swim in the cenote.  This might be a product of government regulations, but I'm betting the property owner is glad to enforce the rule. Reports of drowned swimmers would not be good for business.

At first, the Spanish followed the native practice of bringing water up in jugs. However, they soon constructed mechanical ways of lifting the water, using using animals or windmills for power. You saw the windmill at Hacienda San Lorenzo Oxman in the last posting. In a future posting, I will show an example of 17th century Spanish hydraulic engineering at the Convento de San Bernardino de Siena in Valladolid. There, in 1613, they built an animal-driven noria (water wheel) over another cenote named Sis-há.  

A view from the water level up to the rim. Notice the safety barrier. It was probably erected after some careless or overly-adventurous tourist fell over the edge. That is probably not historically unusual. Scientists found the skeletons of 120 people at the bottom of another cenote. None of them showed evidence of sacrifice, so they may have just fallen in over the centuries. The opening to the sky lets in shafts of sunlight that create a serene and mystical feeling. As I mentioned before, you are more likely to enjoy this feeling in the morning, when the place is not overrun with noisy tourists and screaming children.

Some cenotes are probably still used by Maya farmers for their water needs, primarily in remote areas. However, many cenotes in easily accessible locations are now used as tourist attractions. With the recent completion of the tourist train around the Peninsula, I expect this to increase substantially. While I hate to see pristine places overrun by hordes of tourists, I fear that is the future of Yucatan, Campeche, and Quintana Roo, the three states within the Peninsula. However, the Maya people have long struggled with poverty and under-development, so it may be that some will benefit economically.

This completes Part 8 of my Valladolid Adventures series. I hope you have enjoyed it. If so, please leave any thoughts or questions in the Comments section below, or email me directly. If you leave a question, please include your email address so that I can respond in a timely fashion.

Hasta luego, Jim

Valladolid Adventures Part 7 of 22: Hacienda San Lorenzo Oxman

 

A two-wheeled carreta stands in front of the hacienda's casa grande. Carretas were the "pickup trucks" of Mexico from the colonial period well into the 20th century. They were usually pulled by a pair of oxen. I still occasionally see one when I travel along the back roads in rural areas. The hacienda's 18th century casa grande has been transformed into a boutique hotel, but has preserved many of its original architectural features. This posting will focus on the hacienda itself, while the next one will take a look at its cenote, which has become the property's main tourist attraction.

Historical information about Hacienda San Lorenzo Oxman is surprisingly scarce. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, it raised livestock and cultivated maiz (corn). However, in the mid-19th century it became a hacienda henequenera. This was the name given to haciendas in Yucatan that grew the sisal plant. Henequen fiber was extracted from the sisal leaves in order to make rope and twine. In the posting below, I'll explain what brought about the great boom in henequen production and why this "green gold" created huge fortunes as well as great abuses.

Overview

The leaves of the sisal plant are stripped to produce henequen fiber. Notice the plant's trunk where leaves have been cut in previous harvests. The use of this fiber dates back very far into pre-hispanic times, possibly even into the early days of human habitation in Yucatan. Sisal is native to Yucatan and the Maya utilized it to make cord, sandals, bags, and clothing. The sharp end of the leaf was used as a needle and the Maya also produced an alcoholic beverage by fermenting the pulp inside the trunk. 

When I first researched Hacienda San Lorenzo Oxman, some sources mentioned that agave was its primary crop, but other sources mentioned sisal. I am very familiar with the agave azul that is grown in the state of Jalisco to make tequila. I therefore assumed that both henequen and mescal (similar to tequila) were produced at the hacienda. Later, I discovered that sisal is formally known as Agave sisalana and is a distant relative of Jalisco's agave. However, unlike the Jalisco plant, Yucatan's Agave sisalana was used by the hacienda's owners to produce henequen fiber. (Photo from Wikipedia).

Google map with the route to Hacienda San Lorenzo Oxman. From the Parque Principal (Valladolid's main plaza) take Highway 295 south about 3 km (1.8 mi). Take your next right after the sign pointing toward Mérida. This will put you onto Highway 180, the Libramiento Sur de Valladolid. Drive about 2 km (1.2 mi) until you see a sign on your right for "Cenote Oxman". 

The sign doesn't mention San Lorenzo, probably because most visitors come for the cenote. Turn right on a smoothly graded dirt road and proceed for approximately 300 m (328 yds) to the parking area. Access to the hacienda is free, but there are charges to swim in the cenote. There is also a restaurant on the property restaurant. Click here for information about the cenote.

The hacienda's entrance

The main gate forms the transition from the parking area to the hacienda's grounds. The gate opens onto a broad walkway that leads to the casa grande, which can be seen in the background. A number of years have passed since our visit and recent internet photos show that both the gate and the casa grande have been repainted to other colors. However, the basic structures appear to be the same. The broad, open, lawn area between the gate and the back of the casa grande was most likely the work area where sisal leaves were transformed into henequen fiber and then into string and rope. 

When the hacienda was founded in 1746, large scale production of henequen was still far in the future. The property was initially used to raise livestock. As in the rest of Nueva España (colonial Mexico), the native population had crashed during the first two centuries after the Conquest. This created a labor shortage and cattle required far fewer workers than farming. As the population recovered, increased labor availability enabled large-scale maiz (corn) production. Valladolid and Mérida would have been the hacienda's primary markets for both cattle and maiz. However, at the beginning of the 1830s, things began to change.

A visitor walks his bicycle up toward the casa grande. People arrive at the  hacienda in a variety of ways. Some come on bikes, a few on foot, and others by car. In recent times, a lot of folks have been arriving by tour bus after visiting the ancient Maya city of Chichen Itza. This means that in the mid-afternoon, mobs of tourists show up, eager to cool off in the sparkling water of the cenote. If you want to avoid the crowds, the best time to arrive at the hacienda is during the morning. The hours are 8 AM - 5 PM, seven days a week. 

The beginning of the 19th century was full of turmoil in both Mexico and Europe. The Mexican War of Independence lasted from 1810 to 1821. Europe had been almost continuously at war from the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789 through the defeat of Napoleon in 1815. Sea trade had suffered greatly during this period. During the decade of the 1820s, trade was beginning to recover and, with it, demand for ships. In those days, sailing ships required large amounts of good strong rope for rigging. Shipbuilders looking for this essential product discovered Yucatan's henequen. A market soon developed.

The Casa Grande's work area

The ruins of a building stand off to the right of the walkway. The structure is made of limestone, the most plentiful building material in Yucatan. Notice the old wheel leaning against the front wall. It is probably a remnant of a carreta or a four-wheel wagon. 

There is nothing to indicate what the building was used for, but it was almost certainly involved in the henequen operation. One possibility is that this was a supervisor's office. It is certainly too small to fit all of the machinery needed for processing henequen fibers. 

In addition to space for a supervisor, it might also have contained the tienda de raya (company store). That was where workers were paid, usually in script or coinage produced by a hacienda. This "money" could only be spent for goods sold in the tienda de raya. Thus, a highly profitable closed system was developed, one which was widely employed among the haciendas. An additional benefit of this closed system is that it helped stabilize the labor pool, for reasons I will explain below.  

A doorway opens into one of the ruined structure's rooms. Plaster still coats the interior walls. The rooms were empty of furniture or other remains. If this was a tienda de raya, it would have contained the daily necessities for a worker and his family. Since he was paid very little, he soon had to rely on credit to make his purchases. The tienda de raya would have kept the records of his pay and any debts owed. Most of the workers were illiterate and had no way of knowing whether or not these records were accurate.

A worker could not legally leave the hacienda while owing money. If he ran away, the rurales (rural police) would hunt him down and return him to the hacienda. Once back, he might be flogged and/or thrown into the jail that many haciendas maintained. If the worker became disabled or died while owing money, the debt passed to his wife and children. This kind of debt-slavery helped maintain a stable work force. Altogether it was an excellent and profitable arrangement, as long as you were on the right end of it.

A sisal worker struggles under the crushing weight of his burden. This painting is part of a series of murals in the Palacio Gobierno (Government Palace) in Mérida. The various murals highlight the oppression experienced by the Maya in the colonial period and later, during the henequen boom. In the mural, a heavily muscled worker strains to lift the bale of henequen, while shadowy figures reach their hands toward it. Perhaps these are the ghosts of former workers trying to help him in his struggle.

While hacendados (hacienda owners) began to cultivate sisal in the 1820s to meet the demand for ship's rope, the real boom was launched in 1831. In that year a blacksmith in the US named Cyrus McCormick invented his famous McCormick Reaper. For millennia, wheat had been harvested by teams of men wielding hand scythes in the fields. McCormick's machine cut, thrashed, and bundled the wheat, and tied it in sheaves. This reduced the time required to produce a bushel of wheat by 95%, from slightly over 3 hours down to 10 minutes. Instead of a field full of workers, only two men and a team of horses were required.

A row of machines turn henequen fiber into twine. Large numbers of machines like this would have filled much of the work area. The early versions were probably hand-cranked, then later driven by steam engines. Toward the end of the 19th century, electrical power was introduced. The work area would have swarmed with men and bustled with activity from dawn to dusk. (Photo from Yucatan Living website)

Twine was the connection between the haciendas henequeneras and the farmers in the US who were avidly adopting the McCormick Reaper. However, a major problem emerged when the Reaper was first put to use. Metal wire for binding the sheaves was tried, but it proved too stiff. Twine made of mixed fibers was also attempted, but it had weak spots and tended to bunch up in the machinery. Also, mixed fiber twine could be damaged by weather and insects. The men working with the Reapers soon discovered that twine made from the henequen was smooth, strong, didn't bunch, and was resistant to insects and weather.

A carreta stands on the lawn near the casa grande. Carretas were so ubiquitous a feature of Mexico that B. Traven (author of "Treasure of the Sierra Madre") gave one of his books the title of "The Carreta". It was about a young man who left the hacienda where he was born to make his way in the world. He eventually acquired a carreta and became a transporter of goods. Unfortunately, back at the hacienda, his father fell ill. Because the father was heavily indebted to the tienda de Raya and couldn't work, the young man had to give up his promising business and return to the hacienda to work off the family debts.

The McCormick Reapers were the beginning of industrialized agriculture, resulting in massive farms operating numerous Reapers. All those Reapers required huge amounts of henequen twine. Yucatan's haciendas were transformed from sleepy local operations into economic powerhouses, reaping millions of dollars for their owners. Splendid mansions in Mérida still display the opulence of that time. Of course, the tens of thousands of Maya workers saw barely a trickle of all that wealth. Hennequen demand resulted in more seizures of Maya land. Labor shortages led to one of the most shameful chapters in Mexican history.

Yaqui people being marched into slavery at the haciendas henequeneras. Yaquis were the last indigenous tribe to be conquered in Mexico. Their homeland is in the Sierra Madre Occidental in northwest Mexico. The Yaquis had resisted conquest from their first encounter with the Spanish in the 16th century until their final defeat by the Mexican government in 1927. During the regime of the dictator Porfirio Diaz (1876-1911), the government pursued a policy of enslavement. The owners of the henequen haciendas were eager for cheap labor and Yaqui men, women, and children were sold to them at 60 pesos per head. By 1908, at least 5000 had been sold, in spite of the abolishment of slavery in Mexico back in 1829. 

While I can't definitely say that Yaqui slaves worked at Hacienda San Lorenzo Oxman, their use was widespread at henequen producing haciendas throughout northern Yucatan. After all, what hacendado could pass up something as cheap as slave labor when demand for henequen was so high? The Yaquis were forced to work from dawn to dusk in harsh tropical heat to which they were unaccustomed. They were given little food and locked up at night. They were trapped far away from their homeland, so escape was almost impossible. Two-thirds of the Yaquis died in their first year of captivity. (Photo from the Palacio Gobierno)

Casa Grande

View from the back terrace of the casa grande toward the main gate. Several staircases like the one above lead up from the broad lawn where the work area once stood. Carretas full of harvested sisal leaves once passed through the gate in one direction. Others full of finished twine would have passed through in the opposite direction, on their way to the port of Sisal on Yucatan's north coast.

On June 4, 1910, only two years after the peak of Yaqui enslavement, an insurrection broke out in Valladolid against the Porfirio Diaz dictatorship. It has been described as "the first spark of the Mexican Revolution", which didn't formally begin until five months later on November 20, 1910. Over the previous 35 years, Diaz had held a series of rigged elections which he always won. Those who opposed him rallied behind the Anti-Reelection Party. In Valladolid, this was led by Maximiliano Bonilla, a Yucateca (non-Maya Mexican). 

The back terrace and rear side of the casa grande. This terrace would have provided additional space for work as well as a good place to view the operations being performed below. The rear side of the casa grande is rather plain. There are doors on either side which lead into two wings, each having two stories. The two arched openings in the middle lead into an arcade which opens onto a terrace facing out into the front yard of the building.

Although Maximiliano Bonilla and the other leaders were Yucatecas, the Maya laborers on the haciendas surrounding Valladolid rallied to the cause. It is very likely that some of them came from Hacienda San Lorenzo Oxman. As I have shown, the Maya on the haciendas had been brutally oppressed for centuries. However, they also had a long history of resistance against their oppressors. The Caste War (1847-1915) had been going on for more than 60 years by 1910. Most of eastern Yucatan (now the State of Quintana Roo) had been under Maya control during that time. The Maya around Valladolid were more than ready to act.

View through one of the arched openings toward the front staircase. The arcade and its terrace run along the front of the casa grande and the staircase leads down to the front yard. The architectural floor plan of this casa grande is unusual. I have never encountered one like it among the several I have seen in Yucatan nor in any of more than 100 that I have visited elsewhere in Mexico. 

Initially, the revolt was a success. The Anti-Reelectionistas seized the city, tore up the railroad tracks to Mérida, and entrenched themselves. Luis Felipe de Regil, the chief local politician, was killed along with several soldiers. Porfirio Diaz saw the revolt as a dangerous development, so he sent 600 troops to Valladolid to crush the uprising. In spite of their superiority in numbers and armament, it took Diaz' troops four days to recapture Valladolid. The untrained Maya fought bravely, although most were armed only with machetes. They were finally defeated, leaving dozens of Maya fighters and Diaz soldiers lying dead in the streets.

View of the front side of the casa grande. While the back side has no windows, the front does. The upper parts of the structures on either side of the central arcade have two windows each, with balconies. Below the windows on each side are what appear to be bricked up doors, or possibly floor-to-ceiling windows. Why they were closed up is a mystery to me. I am assuming that the upper floors contain bedrooms. The lower floors may contain a kitchen and dining room and possibly a salon, but I could not determine that at the time.

After Valladolid's Anti-Reelectionista revolt was crushed, things settled down in Yucatan for several years. However, in the rest of the country, they were heating up. Within a year Porfirio Diaz was defeated and driven out of the country. This was followed by several years of conflicts among the revolutionary leaders. During this period, a young man named Salvador Alvarado steadily rose in rank from captain to general. In 1915, after Venustiano Carranza consolidated power and became President of Mexico, Salvador Alvarado was sent to Yucatan as Military Governor. Along with him, the Revolution arrived.

General Alvarado was a true social revolutionary, unlike many of his contemporaries who were essentially opportunists out for themselves. Alvarado was from Sonora, in northwest Mexico, and knew little about Yucatan. So, he spent his first six months studying the situation and consulting with people of all social classes. His first act was to liberate the Maya from serfdom. He cancelled their debts, outlawed debt-slavery, set minimum wages,  and established laws for health, safety, and child labor. Alvarado's goal was to end the feudal system under which the haciendas had operated for centuries.

In a far corner of the front yard is a large well. It stands near the entrance of the tunnel that descends into the cenote. Over the opening of the well there is a rusty mechanism that contains a wheel which probably functions in some way to bring up water. As I have mentioned previously, water is a critical issue in northern Yucatan. Without above ground rivers or lakes, the only sources are the cenotes and the wells dug following the Spanish Conquest. Hacienda San Lorenzo Oxman has the benefit of both.

Salvador Alvarado also set up a system of military courts to mete out justice swiftly and fairly. He legalized unions and halted abuses of the Sedition Law, historically used against workers who questioned their working conditions. Agrarian Committees were set up to oversee land reform and farm worker issues. Government agents were appointed to report abuses against common people by the landed class. Education became mandatory, secular, and free. Schools for agriculture and the arts were set up, along with a free institute for teaching law. The list of reforms is long. Amazingly, Alvarado did it all in under three years!

Presidente Carranza recalled Alvarado in 1918 for another assignment. After he left Yucatan, one of his supporters named Felipe Carrillo Puerto carried on the work. Carrillo Puerto, was of mixed Maya and Yucateca blood. He  become Governor of Yucatan in 1922 and gave his first speech in the Maya language. During his tenure, he returned land to the Maya that had been illegally seized by hacienda owners, promoted new farming techniques, gave women political rights, started family planning programs and opened 417 public schools. Unfortunately, Mexico was plagued with revolts in the 1920s. During one of them, Carrillo Puerto was captured by rebels and, in 1924, was executed by firing squad.

Above the well is a large windmill tower. The windmill provides the power for lifting water from the depths of the well. It wasn't apparent to me whether this windmill mechanism was still functioning. There may have been a more modern system somewhere out of sight, but I didn't see it. Fortunately for henequen growers, sisal required very little water since it is native to Yucatan and grew in the wild before it was ever cultivated for profit.

Both Salvador Alvarado and Felipe Carrillo Puerto attempted to reform the hacienda system, while still keeping the henequen business functioning. However, decline set in when some hacienda owners abandoned their properties rather than accede to reforms. Others had borrowed and over-invested and went out of business in the 1929 Depression. The end of the haciendas henequeneras came in 1937 when Presidente Lazaro Cardenas initiated land reforms which turned the haciendas over to ejidos (farmworkers' collectives). The final blow to the henequen business itself came when synthetic fibers replaced henequen in the 1940s.

This completes Part 7 of my Valladolid Adventures series. I hope you enjoyed seeing this old hacienda and learning about the role it played in the henequen business. Please leave any thoughts or questions in the Comments section below or email me directly. If you leave a question, please include your email address so that I can respond in a timely fashion.

Hasta luego, Jim

Valladolid Adventures Part 1 of 22: A jewel among Yucatan's treasures

Statue on the central fountain of Parque Principal Francisco Cantón Rosado. She is called "La Mestiza" (meaning mixed Spanish and Maya) and wears an embroidered huipil, the traditional garb women in Yucatan. Manuel Cachón sculpted the statue in 1924. His original work was replaced for a time by a monument to the heroes of June 4, 1910, who ignited the Mexican Revolution. Eventually, that monument was itself replaced by this replica of the original. La Mestiza's smile epitomizes the friendly, laid-back local attitude.

In Part 1 of my Valladolid Adventures series, I will do something a little different from my past practices. I intend to briefly highlight some--but not all by far--of the fascinating things to see and do in this small city in central Yucatan. Each of these places will be covered in some depth in future parts of the series. My future postings will also cover nearby places we visited on day-trips outside Valladolid. These will include Maya sites like Ek Balam, Cobá, and Muyil, and the great colonial-era monastery at Izamal. If the Yucatan Peninsula is a treasure chest of experiences, Valladolid shines as one of the brightest jewels.

Overview

Google map of our route from Mérida to Valladolid. In January of 2017, we flew into Mérida from Guadalajara, and rented a car at the airport. We stayed the night at a nearby hotel so we would be fresh for our drive the next morning. It is a pretty straight-forward route. You head south on the highway from the airport and look for signs for the Mérida Periferico and Cancun. Once on the Periferico, you travel for 19 km (11.8 mi) or 20 minutes. Turn right at the exit for Cancun, onto the autopista Highway 180. (Alternatively, you could fly into Cancun and drive from there to Valladolid, about the same distance.)

The Highway 180 autopista (high-speed toll road) should be in excellent condition. Follow 180 for about 2 hours until you come to the exit on the right for Valladolid. From the exit, drive 5.6 km (3.5 mi) south along Highway 295 to Parque Principal in the center of the city. We stayed at Hotel Mesón Marquis, which faces the Parque's north side. There are other good hotels in Valladolid, but we chose this one because it was central and within walking distance of nearly everything we wanted to see. For a Google interactive map, click here.

Parque Principal Francisco Cantón Rosado

The fountain of La Mestiza is surrounded by a circle of benches. Walkways radiate out from the path around the circle. Through the trees on the south side of the Parque, you can see the bell towers of Templo San Servacio, Valladolid's main church. Although the Parque is generally fairly serene, there was a colorful fiesta during part of our visit, with booths selling a variety of handicrafts. In the next posting of this series, I will give you a taste of this vibrant event.

The Parque Principal stands in an area once covered by a Maya pyramid that was 100 m2 (109.3 yds2). Following the usual Spanish practice, the pyramid was demolished and its materials were used to build the City Hall, mansions for the conquistadors, and an earlier version of the Templo San Servacio, . The space left by the removal of the pyramid became Plaza de Armas, so-named because that was where the colonial militia met to drill. In 1900, the plaza became Parque Principal Francisco Cantón Rosado, named for the Governor of Yucatan who donated the fences surrounding the Parque. 

Templo San Servacio

The church resembles a fortress because it occasionally functioned as one. Notice the high walls and three vertical gun slits on each tower, placed there to be used during periodic Maya revolts. Since the Maya refused to stay conquered, the Spanish buildings had to be defensible. As mentioned above, the original church was built from materials looted from the pyramid of Zaci. That was the name of the people living in the area when the Spanish arrived. After the conquistador Francisco de Montejo el Sobrino defeated them, he named his new city Valladolid, which was the name of the city that was then capital of Spain. 

As I mentioned, the church above is not the original Templo San Servacio. That structure was demolished in 1705 on the order of the bishop, Don Pedro de los Rios Reyes, "to help erase the stain" of a crime that had been committed on its premises. In a future posting, I will detail how it was that the church came to be rebuilt in its present form. Visitors to my blog may have noticed that I spend a lot of time photographing and talking about religious structures like this one. I am not a religious person myself, but I do admire the artistry and cultural significance of Mexico's colonial heritage, as well as its pre-hispanic heritage. 

Hotel Mesón de Marques

Courtyard and swimming pool of our hotel. I took this shot from the balcony just outside of our room. This hotel was one of the nicest we have stayed at during our time in Mexico. The location of the hotel was ideal for exploring the city on foot. The staff were friendly, efficient, and helpful. One of the best aspects was the restaurant, located around another courtyard, where we ate most of our breakfasts and dinners. The food was delicious, reasonably priced, and the service was excellent. A future posting will cover this very special hotel.

The Méson de Marques (Mansion of the Marquis), was built in the 17th century for a high-level member of the Spanish aristocracy. In colonial times, the most important members of the local community built their homes facing the main plaza of a city, or along streets adjacent to it. The further out you lived, the lower your social status. The indigenous people lived on the outskirts and provided the cooks, maids, gardeners, and other servants of the wealthier classes. All this didn't happen by accident. It was the result of deliberate colonial urban planning dictated by Spanish King Phillip II in the last part of the 16th century. 

Ex-Convento San Bernardino de Siena de Sisal

View of the Ex-Convento from the right. The distant figure in the center is Carole. Construction on this Franciscan ex-convento (now a museum) began in 1552 and was completed in 1560. That's quite a rapid pace for such a large structure. In fact, it is the second largest Franciscan construction in Yucatan, covering 14,121 sq meters (15,442 sq yds). Included in the complex are the church, cloister, chapel, and orchard. The ornate retablo behind the church's main altar is particularly notable. Given the size of the complex, I will probably do more than one posting on it later in this series.

For those who viewed my recent series on the Franciscan convents in the Sierra Gorda, you will recall that the Franciscans played a major role in Mexico during the so-called "Spiritual Conquest". Some of the young Franciscans who worked in the Sierra Gorda ended up in leadership positions in the Yucatan missions later in their lives. That the Yucatan's two largest conventos were both Franciscan shows the significance of the Order's role here. Ex-Convento San Bernardino de Siena is located about 7 blocks southwest of the Parque.

Cenote Zaci

Cenote Zaci is a deep, shady, water-filled pit in the limestone crust of Yucatan. The small floating objects in the water are swimmers. The figure dressed in red by the tree on the left provides a sense of scale. Cenote Zaci is open from 8:30am to 5:30pm with a modest entrance fee of 30 pesos ($1.50 USD). There are changing rooms and restrooms as well as an adjacent restaurant. Lifejackets are also available. Only a few of Yucatan's cenotes are located so conveniently within a town. This one is just 4 blocks northwest of the Parque Principal. 

Cenotes are found throughout northern Yucatan and were the main water source for the ancient Maya civilizations that developed here. Including Cenote Zaci, Valladolid has at least two cenotes within blocks of where the Zaci pyramid once stood. Most of Yucatan is a flat, porous limestone shelf. Rainwater seeps down into it to form underground pools. The crust over some of these pools eventually erodes and collapses, leaving an open pool. The meteor that struck the coast of Yucatan 60 million years ago not only killed all the dinosaurs but created a series of concentric cracks in the limestone which helped create the cenotes.

Museo Regional San Roques

Ancient Maya stucco mask. The facial features include a rounded, chubby face, thick lips and a flattened nose. These give the mask an uncanny resemblance to those on the great stone Olmec heads found in the State of Veracruz. The Olmec heads were found hundreds of miles away from Valladolid, and their civilization died out at least 1000 years before this mask was made. I therefore found the resemblance very odd. I would be open to hearing from anyone who can enlighten me about this. The mask, along with other Maya artifacts, are displayed in the Museo Regional San Roque, about 1 block east of the Parque Principal. 

The site of the museum has a long and colorful history. It was originally a 4-bed hospital, founded as Hospital del Santo Nombre de Jesus in 1575 by Valladolid Mayor Don Diego Sarmiento de Figueroa. This evolved into the Convento de San Roque and by 1645 the hospital was the best in the province. All this has long since disappeared except for the temple to San Roque. Several historical figures are buried under the museum's courtyard, including those killed in the crime that resulted in the demolishment of the Temple of San Servacio, as well as activists executed at the beginning of the Mexican Revolution.

Iglesia Santa Ana

Iglesia de Santa Ana, seen through one of the triple arches of its front gate. This small 16th century church was originally built for the Maya natives. At that time, all services except mass were conducted in their language. Santa Ana, the church's patron, is said to be the mother of the Virgin Mary. These very early colonial structures represent a world very different from today's modern, bustling Mexico. The structure still functions as a church after 500 years. I very much appreciate the effort Mexicans take to preserve their heritage. A future posting will take a closer look at the church, both inside and out.

Part of the open space in front of the church, called the atrium, later became a neighborhood park. It was in this park that Manuel Antonio Ay was hanged on June 30, 1847. He was an early leader of the Caste War (1847-1915), a great Maya revolt that nearly drove the Spanish out of Yucatan. Today the park contains a monument to Los Heroes Niños (the Child Heroes), commemorating the cadets who died fighting the U.S. forces that had invaded Mexico in 1846. Several young cadets died defending Chapultepec Castle. One of them, rather than surrender, wrapped himself in the Mexican flag and jumped off the high parapet.

Hacienda San Lorenzo & Cenote Oxmán

The casa grande of the hacienda has been transformed into a a hotel. Hacienda San Lorenzo was constructed in 1746. There is very little information available about its early history, some sources suggest that this hacienda may have grown agave for mezcal, a liquor similar to tequila. Distilling these liquors became important in the last half of the 18th century, so production soared. In addition haciendas in this area produced corn, cattle, and sugar. Sisal, a plant native to Yucatan, was also grown at many 19th century haciendas in north central Yucatan. It was used for twine to bale wheat sheaves and for rope to rig ships. 

The hacienda has the advantage of possessing the Oxmán Cenote, one of at least two within Valladolid. This was fortunate for the original hacienda owners because there are no rivers and very little above ground water in northern Yucatan. Lack of water inhibited crop production of any but drought-resistant plants like agave and sisal. The cenote here is very similar in size and shape to Zaci Cenote. Like at Zaci, you can swim here and there were several people in the water when we visited. As you can see above, the casa grande's pool was empty, so the experience of diving into the Oxmán Cenote must have been captivating.

Centro Artesanal Zaci

Zaci's handicrafts center faces the Parque Principal, on its north side. The Centro Artesenal Zaci stands next to Hotel Mesón de Marques on its west side. It was once a the mansion of a conquistador, but it later became part of the Casa Cural (parsonage or priest's house). 

Refurbished in the 19th century, the building housed the Model Central School in 1906 and the Military Exercises Professorship in 1908. The Bolio family owned the property as a private home for a time, but in 1940 it again became a school named after local luminary Delio Moreno Cartón. In 2007, the school was moved and the Valladolid Administration opened the Centro Artesenal Zaci. (Photo from En-Yucatan website)

Casa de los Venados

"Hi! What's up? Come on in and relax!" A scary skeleton, with a somewhat off-putting expression, greeted us when we arrived at Casa de los Venados (House of the Deer). This is the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Venator, who own Mexico's largest private collection of folk art. Over 35 years, they gathered more than 3000 items, including some of the most extraordinary I have yet encountered. After we made the expected donation of $100 pesos ($5.00 USD), our Mexican guide Freddy showed us around the place. Neither the Venators nor Freddy had any problem with the considerable number of photos I took. 

John Venator retired to Yucatan after a career as a CEO of an international trade organization in Chicago. He and his wife looked at various places in both Mérida and Valladolid before buying this 18,000 square foot property. It has become both their home and their private museum. The house was largely in ruins when they purchased it, but they remodeled it over 8 years, first for vacations, then as their retirement home. Casa de los Venados is 1/2 block south of the Parque Principal. They share it with a small terrier who loves to sit on John's lap. Whatever else you decide to see in Valladolid, don't miss a visit to this place!

This completes Part 1 of my Valladolid Adventures series. In Part 2, I will show you around the Parque Principal and the colorful fiesta we encountered there. I hope you enjoyed this first part. If so, please leave any thoughts or questions in the Comments section below or email me directly. If you leave a comment, please remember to include your email address so that I can respond in a timely manner.

Hasta luego, Jim