After all that whining about the Riviera Maya, you might suspect that I dragged myself with a long face through the Yucatan for five weeks. Couldn’t be further from the truth. Even though we only discovered a small piece of Mexico, it left us craving to see more of this land of cacti and cartels, mescal and peyote, Maya and Aztec, spicy candies and delicious food, Frida Kahlo and pint-sized, moustachioed guys with funny sombreros playing mariachi. After the lament, the eulogy. These are the reasons why we adore the Yucatan peninsula.
1. Cantinas
Cantinas are bars where, traditionally, women, children and uniformed men were not allowed entrance. Where, in other words, a man could be himself. Drinking, swearing, playing cards and eating piles of botanas, small snacks which, according to an old law, had to be served with alcohol drinks. Ah, the good life.
Things have changed since then. Women can now enter cantinas. In Mérida, famous for its cantinas, we explored half a dozen of them. La Negrita, for example, where saloon doors swing open like in a western. And where, one Sunday afternoon, the shack was packed and people danced exuberantly. The joie de vivre of the Mexican.
And although not every cantina provides botanas these days, you can sometimes still fill your stomach for the price of a beer. In Eladios, as long as you keep ordering, food will keep coming to your table. There, I began to understand how easy it is to sit down for lunch and not get up anymore for the rest of the day. Beer, food and live music, what more could a person want? A siesta is surely permitted afterwards.
2. Cenotes
The Yucatan is like Swiss cheese with holes. A porous limestone plateau, eroded over time and full of cavities. It seems like a street cleaner has punctured holes in the landscape with a trash picker. These are called cenotes, water reservoirs that are often connected to an extensive underground river system. The water looks so clear that it feels like you can drink from it. Which the Maya did, for lack of rivers.
You need to know two things about cenotes. 1/ they rarely come alone, 2/ no two cenotes are the same. In the Yucatan, it is therefore pleasant to visit one after another, to swim and cool down. Cenote hopping. Cenotes come in every shape or form. Some are tiny, others huge like a football field. Some have impressive stalactites, ropes you can swing from like Tarzan or tree roots that look like the dreadlocks of an old hippie. Large catfish swim in others, scaring small-hearted tourists. Some are completely uncovered, others let in only a ray of sunlight.
Yucatan has between 3000 and 6000 cenotes. To think that Brussels does not have a single outdoor swimming pool! It is therefore not difficult to find a cenote for yourself. Although the cenotes near tourist hotspots are trampled, there are plenty of others that have hardly been discovered. In Homun, you can easily visit a dozen in a single day.
3. The Mexican love for beer
Mexicans are avid beer drinkers. Their consumption surprised even a Belgian like me. It is certainly not strange or exceptional to order a one-litre bottle of beer for yourself. On New Year’s Eve, we sat down in a cantina with Jose, our Workaway host, who immediately ordered three big bottles of Tecate Light. The pace was relentless. After each beer, a shot of mescal followed. When the clock struck midnight, waiters came around with giant bottles of tequila, pouring alcohol down thirsty throats, free of charge. This immense booze fest only increased my affinity for the country and its people.
4. Chabihau, off the beaten track
The powder-white beaches and azure blue sea of the Caribbean coastline draw big crowds. Luckily, you can also get away from the Yucatan herds. That’s how we ended up in Chabihau by literally searching for the cheapest Airbnb in the region. A scruffy village, sandwiched between a lagoon filled with flamingos and the Gulf of Mexico. The ‘highway’ (a few cars per hour) that connected Progreso with Dzilam was the only concrete street in the village. The rest were dirt roads, most of which lead to and fro the beach. There was one ‘restaurant’ (a woman who made cheap dishes whenever she felt like it), a tortilla vendor and zero shops. The contrast with the rest of the Yucatan region couldn’t be bigger.
Las Coloradas is one of the Yucatan’s most popular attractions, a pink salt lake with an entrance fee. In San Crisanto, the village next to Chabihau, similar pink lakes awaited visitors. Free and without tourists. The sun made the lakes radiate pink hues brighter than a Japanese candy wrapper. The salt crystals shimmered like ice in the light. We walked over narrow land bridges between the lakes and hardly believed we found such a place in overcrowded, mainstream Yucatan.
We bought three tickets – the minimum – for a mangrove tour. The bored lady at the ticket office made it abundantly clear that, save for a miracle, no other tourists would show up. Back in the village, we watched baseball from a concrete stadium stand. Moustachioed, potbellied men huffed, puffed and cursed while they ran around the track. We travel for these kinds of experiences.
5. God-fearing supermarkets
With names such as Mi Pequeño Jesus and Mini Super Puerto de Cielo.
6. Charming colonial towns
Vallodolid is a touristy yet quaint colonial town, built entirely of loveliness, pastel-coloured façades, crumbling churches and a huge plaza with musicians and street vendors. It was bursting with life. Izamal isn’t too shabby either. La Ciudad Amarilla, or the Yellow City, was painted on the occasion of a visit of Pope John Paul II. Judging by the kindness with which strangers greeted us, the yellow colour definitely cheers up the locals.
Our favourite, however, was Mérida. The cultural capital of the Yucatan, Mérida extends from the central plaza following a grid pattern. Cobbled alleys, churches, colourful walls, cantinas and hundreds of VW Beetles in all colours make the centre a pleasant place for strolling. Surprises lurk around every corner. A broad boulevard bearing the name of the Spanish conquistador who founded Mérida, Paseo Montejo is seemingly modelled on the Parisian Champs-Elysées, with trees, walkways and iconic buildings on either side.
7. Food and drink
Mexicans enjoy life. Food plays a crucial role and their cuisine is very diverse. This was especially noticeable because we just came from Honduras, where everyone and their grandmother ate baleadas every goddamn day of their motherfucking lives. I certainly enjoyed baleadas, but the richness and variety of Mexican opened up a completely different world.
You can eat something different every day of the year and yet never put your feet under the table reluctantly. Even a picky vegetarian like me felt well served. Quesadillas, panuchos, papadzules, fajitas, tamales, empanadas with melted cheese, grilled cactus, smoky mescal, pineapple juice with chaya, a kind of Mayan spinach, salbutes, huevos motuleños: my mouth’s watering just typing this.
At a night market, we ate small empanadas with different sauces – tomato, refried beans and mole. The latter is a famous sauce from Puebla and Oaxaca, made with chocolate, chillies and lots of spices. An intense flavour explosion. But the best proof of Mexico’s culinary excellence are the tacos. Whereas in Guatemala, they practically only came with pork, tomatoes and onion, you could eat tacos in Yucatan with a wide variety of ingredients and about three million different sauces.
8. Mexicans dancing with trays of beer on their heads
Mérida treats locals and tourists alike to a plethora of cultural events. We ended up at an open-air concert in the city centre. A dramatically singing chap followed traditional guitar music. And, finally, folk dancing. Men in white cotton costumes and girls in white dresses with colourful flower patterns put trays full of beer glasses and full bottles on their heads and began to dance. The whirled around. The beer spun in all directions but the glasses remained intact. Even when they made lightning-fast circles, twenty in a row. Anete said that the show barely exceeded the level of an Estonian village party. But I was thoroughly impressed that not a drop of beer had been lost.
9. Maya ruins
There are a few things of which the Yucatan has more than enough. Tourists, cenotes and certainly ruins left by the Maya. This is the beating heart of the Mayan world. The most popular sites are Chichen Itza and Uxmal. For every crowded ruin site, however, you can find an empty one.
[Read more: Exploring ruins on the Yucatan peninsula.]
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