A Magical Mayan Afternoon

A smiling welcome

In the jungle near Coba and Tulum lives a lovely Mayan family that is trying something new by preserving something old: inviting select small-group tourism to experience their traditional way of life. From the use medicinal plants and agriculture practices to the cooking and preserving of time-honored recipes and processes, your experience here will leave you with a full stomach and an even fuller heart.

Efrain and Jose are two brothers and together with their families, they walk the fine line between the ancient and the modern. Their wives and children share their vision and welcome visitors for an afternoon that they will not soon forget. This is not hyperbole; guests we have taken there have come away with an enormous appreciation for what they are doing and also have been touched by the true and heartfelt attention to details and kindness that these people offer. Some even, have been moved to tears.

If this is something you would like to experience, either from Merida or Cancun and the Riviera Maya, we can set it up. To stoke your imagination and give you an idea of what you will experience, have a look at the photos, below.

A Yucatan Adventure for Driving Enthusiasts!

For those intrepid visitors who are looking for something out of the ordinary, happen to be fans of classic Land Rovers and are excited by the prospect of actually driving one, this tour destination and activity is perfect!

You will pilot your classic Land Rover from the Mayaland collection at Uxmal, through green fields and citrus orchards and through the countryside, visiting a massive observation tower and an abandoned ruin of a historic hacienda in the jungle, held in place by Angkor Wat-reminiscent tree roots.

To this experience we can add a catered taco or local speciality lunch, on the property, picnic-style or just light snacks and refreshing drinks. This tour can be taken as a stand-alone excursion for our cruise ships guests (time constraints) or a full day including a guided visit to the magical archeological site of Uxmal for those staying in Merida.

Have a look at these photos of a recent outing there and let us know if you would like us to set this up for your group!

A hearty welcome from Luis, at Land Rover Experience, Uxmal, Yucatan, MEXICO

Merida's Hanal Pixan: El Festival del Pib

One of the many local businesses making pibs

Each year, at this time (Hanal Pixan or Day of the Dead) the city of Merida organizes the Festival del Pib, which, if you are from Argentina means one thing, while to most Yucatecans it means something else and is very special indeed. In fact, many look forward to this time of the year just to be able to enjoy one.

The pib, aka mucbilpollo, is the giant tamal baked in the pib (hence the name) and shared with loved ones including those who have “passed” who return at this time in spirit form, to walk among the living for a moment. We set up altars for them with their favorite foods and vices and mark the path to the altar with flowers and candles. All of this you know.

Back to the Festival del Pib. A pib festival! Held every year in the San Sebastian neighborhood and anyone and everyone who cooks participates and presents their best version of the famous tamal and people flock to the festival to eat, drink (sodas) and be (relatively) merry. This year (2023) I went by myself as my better half was not in town and perhaps because of this, I found this edition of the festival less festive and even, well, a little sad.

First of all there were far too many people for the amount of tables and chairs available, which meant you had to sit in the park or stand at a wall, balancing your styro plate and eating your pib with a plastic fork, a terrible idea since it will inevitably break. The problem of not enough seating area by the way is normal and I expect it to be the same in 2024 and the foreseeable future!

Musical entertainment was provided by what was probably the worst trio (two males plus one female who did not sing) I have ever heard in Merida, anywhere. Butchering songs by Manzanero and Cárdenas it was truly painful to my neurotic self and completely unnoticed by most.

All that aside; if you have the time and appetite and can tolerate a festive, hungry crowd, mark the last days of October for this very Yucatecan family style event.

San Sebastian - Barrio de / Neighborhood of Merida

In the city of Merida, you will encounter many different barrios, colonias or neighborhoods. So many in fact, that when you look at a map of greater Merida you will be overwhelmed with choices and unfamiliar names that go way beyond the generic “centro” so often used by the expats (hint: centro is not a neighborhood that will appear on any map) or “el centro” which is its local name.

From Azcorra to Miraflores to Mayapan to Brisas, the colonias are all over the map. And they are not all in the central Merida area. The interesting ones with colonial-era churches are, however, and these are the neighborhoods with the most history and often the most photogenic and desirable from a visitors point of view.

One such neighborhood, one of the traditional ones and less visited than say Santiago or Santa Ana, is San Sebastian. San, as you know, is a saint and San Sebastian is a coastal town in the Donostia region of Spain as well.

In Merida’s San Sebastian neighborhood, the yearly celebration of note is the Festival del Pib, where many providers of this important Hanal Pixan dish gather to sell their versions of the delicious and Omeprazol-invoking baked tamal called the pib. This festival is held at the end of October and is a must for all those interested in local food and ambience.

A pib close-up

Another interesting attraction of this neighborhood are the murals/street art on the facades and walls, between La Hermita and the church dedicated to Nuestra Señora de Asunción. These paintings, sponsored by the authorities to revive interest in the area and with paint from Mexican paint company COMEX, are about inclusion, and they are colorful and photo-worthy if you like that sort of thing.

Then of course, there is the Our Lady of the Assumption church, the center of the neighborhood and what gives the area its rather stately feel. Originally a modest center of worship, construction began with help from donations by the faithful around the year 1800, to enlarge the small chapel and create the building we see there now.

This effort was spearheaded by one don Juan Esteban Quijano. The legend of how he came to be involved goes like this:

Don Juan Esteban Quijano, a notable resident of the “white” city of Merida, known for his charitable nature and philanthropic bent, received one day a female visitor, who, in spite of her ragged clothing and poverty-stricken appearance, gave off a dignified air of beauty (these are legends and legends of that time dictate that the poor cannot generally be considered beautiful or dignified). This woman implored don Juan to visit her neighborhood and to help her rebuild her home, a simple palm roofed structure. Her neighbors, all poor, could not be of any assistance and this is why she was asking him. He in turn, impressed by her demeanor and bearing agreed in principle and asked for directions on where he could find her house to which the mysterious woman replied that he would find it in the south west section of the San Sebastian neighborhood and that the home would be identifiable by a ray of sunlight.

Upon visiting the area he found the hut and shining into it was a ray of sunlight, which illuminated the face on a statue of a virgin inside. To his surprise and wonder, the face of this virgin was the face of the woman who had come to ask him for his help.

You can visit the San Sebastian church and neighborhood on your own walking tour of the downtown area or as part of a city tour Lawson’s can organize for you.

Another Magical Day in the Yucatan

My goal as a travel facilitator is to create a perfect, memorable day. Perfect for those who have a soft spot in their hearts for the quiet, magical moments that travel is capable of providing; moments that can be transformative and immersive; that require little more than just letting go and living in the moment. In other words, more … and there’s that invented term again …. excursionary serendipity.

On this day, we were three; my two guests and I, off to visit a cenote and making a stop in the village of Ek Nakan, taking a photo or three of the magnificently Gothic yellow church and having a most delicious taco at the minuscule three-table restaurant named Janeth (the H is not a typo) recently opened and that shows a remarkable aesthetic sensitivity for such a small village with its checkered tablecloths and flowers on each table.

It occurred to me, since one of my guests was an avid as well as professional photographer, carrying an imposing Hasselblad to the wonderment of many, that there was a good photo op of some old stone gateposts leading into a cornfield: a shot I found particularly evocative.

“Vamos?” I asked.

“Vamos!” she agreed.

The photogenic gateposts in question

Upon arriving there, we saw cars parked and people milling about. A man strode out from among the group and offered up a welcome and greeted me by name. It was one of the men who work in the cooperative that is in charge of the beautiful cenote there. I then saw several more faces I recognized from the many visits to the village over the years. It turns out they were just pulling out of the earth pibes (the banana-leaf-wrapped tamales made for Hanal Pixan) and asked us to join them in tasting them right then and there.

We were soon surrounded by smiling, welcoming souls. We visited their altar, commenting on the photographs of the departed on display, taking more than one photo and just basking - that really is the word: basking like seals on a sunny beach - in their gentle, heartfelt hospitality. And while we felt welcomed and to be honest a little like distinguished guests, it was casual and genuine. I didn’t get the sense that they were kowtowing to the gringos. I quietly asked one of the men in charge if we needed to pay something or make a donation for eating half of one other tamales and sharing in their moment, and the answer was a firm para nada: absolutely not.

Promising to return in the near future we left with full bellies and hearts, marveling and commenting on the magic of encountering such a totally unscripted scene, here in the magical Yucatan.