Hacienda and Cenote

We started our morning Saturday (June 7) with a visit to a local Mayan healer, don Felipe. He showed us several of the plants and leaves he uses in his herbal concoctions. He assured us that they really do work! He must have noticed our skepticism, because he added that a certain amount of faith in the healing powers of the plants is also necessary to get the best results. He was a spunky little man! He told us 86, but he looked like he was 65 or 70. Maybe there is some good in his healing remedies...

We took this group picture in his back yard. It had just rained, and the red clay stuck to everyone's shoes.

After leaving don Felipe's home, we drove to an old henequen hacienda and spent some time walking around and learning a little bit about the haciendas. This particular one, called Hacienda Yaxcopoil, dates back to the 17th century but was in use as recently as 1984. Henequen or sisal is a plant whose fibers are extracted, dried, and woven into rope.

 

The haciendas were very similar to the plantations of the American South in that they were largely self-sufficient. They had their own church, store, and other services. It is denied that slavery was practiced, because all the workers were paid in cash for their labor. However, each hacienda printed its own money, which was of course not accepted anywhere else. The goods in the store (think company store) were outrageously expensive. For these reasons, most of the workers did not have the option of leaving.

 

Hacienda Yaxcopoil is neither the biggest nor the grandest in the Yucatan, but it is big and it is impressive. It is one of the few that are preserved in original condition. Many have been restored or turned into hotels and restaurants.

 

Arturo gave us a tour of the hacienda, explaining life and work as it used to be. It looks like the owners left one day and never came back. The original furniture is mostly still there, and it is easy to imagine it in use.

 

The most interesting fact I learned while touring this hacienda was that the owners did not live there. There was only one bedroom (umm, that would be hammockroom) and one bathroom. Almost without exception, the hacienda owners lived in Merida in their mansions on the Paseo de Montejo (remember the pictures from the Turibus ride?). They only visited to take care of business. They rarely even spent the night. Although there was a kitchen in the hacienda main building, it was never used to cook food. The servants cooked outside in the summer kitchen and served the food in the dining rooms. Why did they build the kitchen? Arturo said basically because the architecture of that time was European-influenced, and houses in Europe always had kitchens. Once we knew that, it made sense why most of the rooms seemed to be sitting rooms, offices, or dining rooms.

 

 

This is the view of the main house as we walked up from the parking lot.

 

There were a lot of sitting rooms in the hacienda. On many of the chairs they put a piece of tape over the seat to prevent use by visitors.

Another sitting area



This covered porch was on the back of the main building. Papel picado (cut paper) is hanging from the ceiling as decoration. It is NOT laundry, towels, or diapers hanging to dry :)

A shelf of old books in the library.

The old roll-top desk in the library.

The patio behind the main building.

There were also several china cabinets filled with dishes.



One of the two fancy dining rooms in the hacienda.

An old buffet in the dining room.



Another china cabinet



Another sitting area, but this one seemed less formal.

Arturo giving the grand tour :)

The ceilings were very high, which I imagine helped with the heat.

One view of the patio. Not sure of the purpose of the little pond in the middle: it was only a foot deep.

An outdoor sitting area overlooking the yard

This was a swimming pool! There were also showers and changing rooms. Remember the hacienda owners did not even live here. This swimming pool would have only been used a few days out of the year. I didn't see a fancy drain or filtration system: imagine the work involved in keeping it clean!

This is one of the machines in the shed, used to extract the fibers from the sisal leaves.

Walking from the main house towards the machine room, or the workroom.

A wheel housing for the giant wheel that mashed the leaves to rid them of the pulp and the juice.

 

Another view of the main house from under the enormous tree in the front yard. The machine room is behind and to the right of the big house, almost visible on this picture.

The plant responsible for it all! This young sisal/henequen plant is one of several planted around the perimeter of the yards.

After the hacienda tour, we were all hot and sweaty. Good thing the final stop for the day was at the cenote! We were all excited for our first cenote. For anyone who hasn't heard of cenotes, they are unique to the Yucatan Peninsula. It is so flat that there is no above-ground water. All the water flows under the surface. In many places, there are small openings to these underground rivers. Some have been developed for tourism with stairways, lights, and admission fees. Others are completely untouched. This one had a stairway, but no lights.

 

Approaching the opening to the cenote.

Going down the steep, slippery stairway.

I stopped halfway down to take this beautiful picture. The water is perfectly clear. The front half of the cenote is shallow and well-lit, and the back half is much deeper and darker.

The rocks to the left offered a place to wade into the water, and a small cement pad and wall barely visible to the left was a place to lay our things while we played in the water.

It really is just like being in a cave with stalactites, other weird rock formations, and yes, the occasional bat.



Most of the group posing around a big rock near the stairway.

Towards the back, some of the kids were diving off the rocks and watching the fish.

I was the official photographer for the group, and went from camera to camera snapping pictures. I put my feet into the water, but wasn't allowed to swim. It was part of the agreement I had made with Val to be allowed to come on the trip: I had just been diagnosed with mono and she was worried about the germs in the water and about me being too tired to swim. (I was too tired to even care, although I could see that everyone was having a good time).

After an hour of splashing around, we reluctantly climbed back into the brightness of the summer afternoon. We unanimously decided that we need to visit more cenotes!