ON
THE GENTEEL ART OF
"HANGING OUT,"
SMALL-TOWN MAYA STYLE
Most visitors, once they have
done some of the running around they'd imagined they needed to do when planning the trip
up north, find that their most enjoyable days are the unplanned ones. Just hang around San
Juan or maybe go into one of the local towns and walk around admiring people's gardens, or
sit in the main plaza gawking. Small-town Maya life is slow, friendly and colorful in a
way that almost makes you want to cry. Well, you'll just have to experience it to
understand what we mean. The important thing is to schedule yourself enough free time to
discover these pleasures for yourself... |
- visit local unexcavated ruins with a
local guide
- make a combined ruin/nature/beach
trip -- the nearby ruin of Xcambo,
which is next to a major Flamingo overwintering ground, then lunch in a palapa at the
beach
- tour local haciendas --
Tipoco, Komchén, San Eduardo, etc.
- visit the historic town of Izamal,
the monastery and the famous gift shop called "Hecho Mano" (made by hand) which
has beautiful & artistic handicrafts from all over Mexico; lunch at
restaurant El Toro, which is very good and very reasonably priced
- in San Crisanto on the Gulf coast, visit a cenote, a geological
formation developed from a collapsed cave; swim in the water inside the cenote
- at Telchac
Puerto on the Gulf right to our north have a local fish lunch and then hit the beach,
all at a very low cost
- visit Hacienda San José de Cholul,
which offers a First class restaurant in very impressive surroundings. COST :
Approx. US $ 200 for 5 persons, incuding aperitifs
- visit Hacienda Teya for a similar
experience of local flavor
- visit Yaxcaba, a nursery
specializing in herbs; the trip passes through classic Maya small towns; a cenote is on
the way; glimpse unexcavated Maya ruins
- go into Mérida
and enjoy its museums, main square,shopping, restaurants and traditional market area
 various
cenotes in the area, or sinkholes with water in their bottoms, afford nice swiming, such
the Xlacah Cenote at the ruins of Dzibilchaltun shown at the right (photo
courtesy of Wolfcalls.com)
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