Mani, Yucatan

A visit to Mani, Yucatán
Mani is a small quaint, quiet and tranquil Mayan village 80 kilometers south south-east of the capital city of Mérida. Nearby is the shoe and pottery manufacturing city of Ticul plus the garden market capital of Yucatan, Oxkutzcab.
Mani is also situated on the age-old seldom traveled but famous “Ruta de Los Conventos’.
This seemingly unpretentious diminutive settlement has the incredible distinction of being continuously inhabited by one of the most technically advanced civilizations the world had ever known for the past 4,000 plus years… an astonishing and impressive claim to fame that few places on this planet could proclaim.
Today minute and modest Mani is serenely passive but this off-the-highway rural community was once the tragic site of one of the most heinous degradations of cultural heritage and spiritual annihilation that this world has ever witnessed.
January 6th, 1542 the Spanish conquistadors established a permanent encampment on the Yucatan peninsula at the height of their fanatic inquisition fired religious rampage.
This was a mere fifty years after the first Spanish explorer; Christopher Columbus set foot upon the New World at the Bahamas Islands.
Between 1549 and 1559 under the tyrannical direction of Fray Juan de Mérida the enslaved indigenous Maya were forced to pull down their ornate astronomically oriented sacred temples that pre-dated Christianity by thousands of years and with the remnants build a Catholic church and convent upon their native soil.
The inquisition crazed conquistadors inflamed by self-righteousness were mandated by their God to plunder the Yucatan’s indigenous residents whom they deemed to be heathen heretics that worshiped ancient pagan gods in false temples indulging themselves in unholy sacrifices which they had been doing for more than three very un-Christian millenniums.
The Spanish Inquisition was by this point in time well practiced in ethnic cleansing and imperialistic expansionism having successfully purged the Iberian peninsula of the Jews and Moors.
In spite of the 500 years of degradation, slavery and absolute plunder of the Mayan civilization it is a remarkable attribute to these long suffering original inhabitants of Yucatan that they still to this day perpetuate the sacred rituals of their ancestors, speak in their original Mayan tongue and even dress in their traditional custom.
To this day the Mayan daily partakes of the culinary specialties of their ancestors.
These Maya are the people that brought the human race such things as corn (maize), tobacco, chocolate, cotton, tomatoes, pineapple, peanuts, chili peppers and turkeys that have all impacted mankind monumentally to this day.
Besides a myriad of food products the indigenous of the Yucatan introduced to global humanity they also were the hemispheric healers armed with thousands of medicinal plants that even now enhance more than 500 American prescription drugs.
Quinine and ipecac are still standards of the pharmacy but cannabis and hallucinogenic mushrooms eased pain and altered the mental state that were but a few in the huge inventory of medicinal remedies dispensed by these technologically advanced original inhabitants.
What the Mayan received in return from the Spanish conquistadors were horses, rats, cockroaches, pigs, weeds, fruit trees and thousands of men all infused with diseased petulance that unleashed a pandemic that rapidly dwindled the indigenous populace.
Smallpox murdered more native Americans than several hundred years of systematic Spanish slaughter.
There definitely was some pay-back involved when the Indigenous of America sent home to Europe syphilis with Christopher Columbus that became epidemic by 1495, along with tobacco and cannabis to smoke. The great exchange saw winners and losers on both sides.
Former convent San Miguel Arcángel in Mani, Yucatán as seen today.
THIS PEACEFUL COURTYARD IS NEAR THE ATRIUM WHERE FRAY DIEGO DE LANDA BURNED THE MAYAN BOOKS AND THEIR RELIGIOUS ARTIFACTS WHILE BRUTALLY TORTURING HIS VICTIMS.
To further plunder these overrun indigenous, in 1562 Fray Diego de Landa burned and destroyed 5,000 Mayan figures of their God, 13 altars, 27 parchment books made of deer hide and 197 decorated pottery containers of worship.
All of this was done to drive these “heartless heathens” to Christianity.

From the book “Genesis” by Eduardo Galeano; 1562: Mani page 137
The Fire Blunders

Fray Diego de Landa throws into the flames, one after the other, the books of the Mayas. The inquisitor curses Satan, and the fire crackles and devours. Around the incinerator, heretics howl with their heads down. Hung by the feet, flayed with whips, Indians are doused with boiling wax as the fire flares up and the books snap, as if complaining. Tonight, eight centuries of Mayan literature turn to ashes. On those long sheets of bark paper, signs and images spoke: They told of work done and days spent, of the dreams and the wars of a people before Christ. With hog-bristle brushes, the knowers of things had painted these illuminated, illuminating books so that the grandchildren’s grandchildren should not be blind, should know how to see themselves and see the history of their folk, so they should know the movements of the stars, the frequency of eclipses and prophecies of the gods and so they could call for rains and good corn harvests. In the center, the inquisitor burns the books. Around the huge bonfire, he chastises the readers. Meanwhile, the authors, artist-priests dead years or centuries ago, drink chocolate in the fresh shade of the first tree of the world. They are at peace, because they died knowing that memory cannot be burned. Will not what they painted be sung and danced through the times of the times? When its little paper houses are burned, memory finds refuge in mouths that sing the glories of men and of gods, songs that stay on from people to people and in bodies that dance to the sound of hollow trunks, tortoise shells, and reed flutes. *** As atonement for destroying the books of one of the greatest civilizations the world had known obliterating their art, literature, mathematics, astronomy and medicines Fray Diego de Landa wrote a document of the conquers view entitled; “Relation de Cosas de Yucatan”.

***
Disembarking the local bus from Merida on a week-day morning at the central plaza in modest little Mani we were pleasantly struck by the hushed quiet and unhurried tempo of life so seldom found anywhere in the world today.
Jane and I spent an incredibly interesting day at Mani, shooting 350 photos between the two of us, had a very memorable meal of the traditional Mayan Poc Chuc at one of the smaller restaurants named “La Conquista” on a side street less than two blocks from the church and laid plans to incorporate Mani into our cross-country bicycle touring.
(We have made our return to Mani by bicycle and it again proved to be a very special place that somehow generates haunting sensations of the great Mayan civilization that called this place home for over 4,000 years and to this day has not lost its grip.)
If you are looking for quiet, peaceful and serene, then week-day visits are a must.
I must add here that in this world of rapidly changing times you owe it to yourself to visit this minute look into the past at Mani if for no other reason than the winds of change have piped-up and are spreading fast.
Consider this; in the early 1970s when I first visited the Yucatan peninsula over half of the inhabitants lived in thatched roofed palapa houses as they had since they first settled here 4,000 plus years ago.
MANI HAS A CONSPICUOUS LACK OF MOTOR VEHICLES AND STREET NOISE. OBSERVE THE CONTRASTS; THE PALAPA THATCHED ROOF HOUSE, (RIGHT) THE MAYAN LADY,( MESTIZA) IN HER TRADITIONAL DRESS, (HUIPIL) AND CARRYING ON HER HEAD IN THE TRADITIONAL WAY HER MAIZE, (CORN) TO BE GROUND AT THE MOLINO, (CENTER). WITH THE EXCEPTIONS OF THE PLASTIC BOWL ON THE HEAD OF THE LADY AND THE TIENDA, (LEFT) WITH ITS GAUDY COCA-COLA SIGNS THIS SCENE COULD HAVE TAKEN PLACE SEVERAL THOUSAND YEARS AGO.
BEDECKED IN GOLD THE RETABLO OBSCURES THE RECENTLY RESTORED ORIGINAL PAINTED FRESCOS PARTIALLY VISIBLE ABOVE THE ALTAR.
THE MASSIVE CHURCH WALLS ARE THE REPOSITORY FOR THE STONES THAT FORMERLY COMPRISED THE MAYAN TEMPLE THAT HAD ORIGINALLY STOOD UPON THIS VERY SPOT.
WE SPENT REFLECTIVE MOMENTS AND TRANQUIL TIME HERE IN THIS ANCIENT CONVENT AND CHURCH CONVERSING OF THE HAUNTING EVENTS THAT TOOK PLACE WITHIN THESE VERY WALLS.
THE MASSIVE MANI CHURCH AND CONVENT BUILT UPON THE SITE OF THE FORMER MAYAN TEMPLE AS IT IS TODAY AND LITTLE CHANGED FOR THE PAST 450 YEARS.
THIS IS THE CORRIDOR OF MANI’S MUNICIPAL BUILDING WITH ITS COLONIAL SPANISH ARCHES AND EXPOSED WOODEN “VIGAS” OR CEILING RAFTERS. THE STONE FOR BUILDING CAME FROM MAYAN TEMPLES.
THIS PAINTING HANGS IN THE CORRIDOR OF THE MUNICIPAL BUILDING. IT DEPICTS THE “AUTO DE FE” OF 1562 WHEN THE SACRED WORKS OF THE MAYA WERE DESTROYED. IN THE SAME CORRIDOR IS A DISPLAY OF RECENT PHOTOS OF THE MAYA OF MANI MAKING A CEREMONY TO CHAK, THEIR GOD OF RAIN.
WITHIN THE MUNICIPAL BUILDING IS LOCATED THIS SCHOOL THAT PROUDLY PROCLAIMS; “NO TOBACCO SMOKE SCHOOL”. OBSERVE THE ORNATE MAYAN HAND CARVED STONE DOOR JAMBS THAT ARE BUT SMALL REMINDERS OF THE GLORIOUS TEMPLE THAT THEY WERE TAKEN FROM AND THE IMMACULATELY CLEAN SURROUNDINGS.
A LOOK AT THE OLDER SIDE OF MANI WITH A PALAPA THATCHED ROOF HOME THAT IS QUICKLY BECOMING A THING OF THE PAST. THIS TRADITIONAL STYLE OF HOME CONSTRUCTION DATED BACK THOUSANDS OF YEARS HERE IN YUCATAN.
A STREET VIEW FROM A SMALL CHAPEL REVEALS MANI’S TRANQUILITY.
PLAYFUL YOUNG GIRLS OF MANI ARE DESCENDANTS OF CONQUISTADORS AND THE MAYA MIXED.
HERE IN THIS OPEN AIR KITCHEN ON THE SOUTH WEST CORNER OF THE ZÓCALO PLAZA A WOMAN IS PREPARING PUCHERO OVER AN OPEN FIRE ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE MUNICIPAL BUILDING. PUCHERO IS A TRADITIONAL THICK MEATY SOUP WITH LOTS OF VEGETABLES. THIS LUNCH IS FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN AND IS DISPENSED FOR TWO PESOS PER PERSON OR 20 U. S. CENTS.
OUR TALENTED WAITER AT THE LA CONQUISTA RESTAURANT PROUDLY DISPLAYS ONE OF HIS MANY PAINTINGS THAT ADORN THE DINING AREA ALONG WITH WORKS DONE BY HIS FATHER.
OUR GENEROUSLY AMPLE AND DELICIOUSLY SAVORY LUNCH OF POC CHUC
THIS IS OUR BUS BACK TO MERIDA BEING LOADED WITH A PAY-LOAD OF LOCALLY GROWN PRODUCE DESTINED FOR THE MARKETS THERE.

So dear reader as you can see a day-trip out of Mérida can be action packed, fun filled, informative, educational and extremely unusual…like a trip into another time and place.
After this day-trip you will be back to Merida in plenty of time for a leisurely dinner and an evenings worth of entertainment.

HUNUCMÁ

HUNUCMÁ is an ancient Mayan city whose name means “agua de ciénega” or water of the lagoon. This Yucatán city of 22,000 inhabitants is an outpost on the way from the capital city of Mérida to the old Spanish seaport of Sisal. Sisal gave its name world wide to the henequen fiber that was produced in Yucatán and then shipped out of that isolated minuscule town, then the port of Mérida. The only access from Hunucmá to Sisal with its lighthouse and tiny fort was a 24 kilometer well worn sacbe road still in use to this day.
Previously Hunucmá with its 16th century Spanish colonial church abounded with fruit trees that yielded an export crop but in 2002 hurricane Isidoro flattened many of those trees.
The well maintained Hunucmá church built in the 1500s of mamposteria, stacked stone construction consumed the materials of a Mayan pyramid and five years ago it got a new roof.
This is all that remains of the rail station that linked Mérida with Hunucmá and its surrounding haciendas. The decline of the henequen industry put an end to this transit facility. Still visible is the ancient Mayan sacbe road that was in use long before the Spanish conquistadors ever set foot on Yucatán. Note the stones neatly lined in the dirt near the center of the photo and a second parallel faint row three meters to the left; these are a legacy of the first peninsula road builders, the Maya of Yucatán.
Hunucmá is still just a crossroads town and not an end destination but that is one of the many charms that keep it out of the hurried push of the big city and its traffic.
On the quiet streets of clean and easy going Hunucmá, the Mayan traditional parade mixes the religious ceremonies of Catholicism with classic indigenous tradition that has persisted here in Yucatán for countless years extending back into antiquity.
This week in Hunucmá the Virgin de Tetiz has made its annual pilgrimage to the church. The Virgin de Tetiz was escorted by a group of several thousand for its pilgrimage where it will be daily paraded to visit different neighborhoods accompanied by festively dressed citizens bedecked in their traditional costumes like these above. Tetiz is a nearby town.
Through the streets of Hunucmá the daily procession of the Virgin de Tetiz parade consists of mostly women who are dressed in both their traditional Mayan huipil costumes adorned by hand embroidered embellishments and the women that have chosen to dress in the modern city style referred to as “catrina”. Tricycle taxis make up the wheeled portion of the entourage and there are many. For the full story of the Virgin of Tetiz, click here.
Hunucmá still has its colorful active street market conspicuously lacking in motor vehicles. Shopping here has changed little over the centuries and locally produced meats and garden produce are found fresh daily.
Friendly faces on happy people are reminiscent of years gone by and a simpler life.
This is the cities meticulously clean zocolo park with the clock tower of the municipal market building in the background. Jane and I park our bicycles in the unhurried shade.
From atop the Hunucmá church with its recently rebuilt roof the jungle view looking east in the direction of Mérida reveals the colonial buildings surrounding the church that were all built of materials salvaged from ancient Mayan temples that once stood here before the conquest nearly five-hundred years ago.
The church front looking west from behind the belfry reveals the massive thickness of this mamposteria, stacked stone construction that has survived the centuries. One of the inherent weaknesses of this old construction technique was the roof known as vigas and bovedilla. Vigas are wooden beams that support the stone, (bovedilla) placed between to fill the spaces that are then plastered over to complete the roof. A problem is caused by the wooden beams if they ever are allowed to become damp by water seepage and rot. This rot will eventually cause an avalanche of cascading rock when the supporting vigas, “beams” collapses and that is the end of the roof. Anybody unlucky enough to be beneath will suffer the horrible consequences. Yucatán abounds with old buildings lacking roofs.
Looking north from the church top you will see far off on the distant horizon a thin slice of blue that is the Gulf of Mexico in the direction of the port of Sisal.
From the peak of the church top looking westerly first you see in the foreground the city zocolo park of Hunucmá and far off to the west on the horizon is the Bay of Campeche in the Gulf of Mexico.
In the Hunucmá church, on the altar this is the Virgin de Tetiz for its yearly visit.
Looking down from the choir loft to the altar where the statue representing the Virgin de Tetiz is placed gives a prospective of the size of this structure. The new roof with it’s freshly painter vigas, (wooden beams) could be possibly ready to last for another five centuries like its predecessor managed to do.
The Hunucmá city building on the west side of the Zocolo Park seems a century or two out of place together with the bicycles and tri-cycles that take the place of motor vehicles.
23 year old Luis Antonio Fritz Romero pictured above in red is the owner of this new home a benefit of his employment at a chicken ranch. Private home ownership has been one of the better goals of the Mexican government. You will notice that the modestly small house has no provision for car parking and just enough yard space to plant a small garden and a couple of fruit trees. We met Luis in the city park where he eagerly wanted to practice his English; he goes each week to Mérida to take English lessons.
Young Luis with his beautiful daughter and happy father-in-law are the town’s future.
Friendly and inquisitive young English students eagerly examine Jane’s business card.
Señor Soberanis proudly displays a part of the Yucatecan history that he was involved in when Fidel Castro came to town back in 1955 as a liberating hero as he did in New York.
Grinding yellow corn for tortillas in this molino across the street from the city center zocolo emits an aroma and sound that is unmistakable. The aroma never ceases to entice Jane and I into making the purchase of a quarter kilo to snack on. Hot out of the machine and rolled up with a light sprinkle of salt we find fresh corn tortillas positively addictive.
This is the land of the Maya where their language is still spoken and understood. We had a filling, savory and satisfying mid-day meal in this cocina economica with its Mayan sign that in English means; “This is the place-come on in and eat”.
The price is right and the quantity and quality won’t be beaten elsewhere. This is the local specialty known as “Poc Chuc” that is thinly sliced pork grilled along with onion and served with tortillas, rice and a thin black bean soup. Freshly made hot sauces usually need to be tested before spooning on because some is “comatose hot”!
On a narrow paved side road south of Hunucmá is this quiet hacienda town of San Antonio Chel where activity appears to be in some sort of suspended animation.
This is one of several humble abodes of San Antonio Chel that is bedecked with a hand painted Virgin of Guadalupe which is uniquely Mexican.
This is the ancient and neglected main entry gate to the hacienda San Antonio Chel that was actively part of the henequen industry until nearly twenty years ago when the business nearly collapsed. Look at the adornment inside the arch that is unmistakably of Moorish influence dating back in time to when the Iberian peninsulas classic structures that had Middle Eastern influence.
Check out the map at the beginning of this story for other area haciendas.
These buildings housed the working part of the hacienda that is now slipping into a state of apathetic neglect just waiting for salvation by some entrepreneur who will bring it back to life again.
Somehow these hacienda gates appear to have been abandoned for thousands of years but less than twenty years ago all of this area was fully cultivated with henequen plants to the extent that it actually altered the climate of this end of the Yucatán peninsula making it semi_arid.
The ruins of Sihunchen on the road from Hunucmá to hacienda San Antonio Chel sport this ersatz likeness of something Mayan but somehow present just a gaudy kitschy appearance. Government money has dried up on this project that will soon slip back to jungle status like the henequen fields that two decades ago abounded here.
Within the ersatz pseudo-Mayan wall entrance is this likewise garish edifice that obviously has some significant importance to somebody.
If by chance you hike the trail around the outer perimeter of these ruins this lovely jungle path abounding in unspoiled native vegetation and innumerable birds will make all your efforts worthwhile. Twenty years ago these woods did not exist because the area was fully cultivated in henequen that can still be seen hanging on in the woods.
After over four hundred years of being quarried for building materials these heaps of rock rubble are all that remain of the Mayan temples of Sihunchen that even had a celestial observatory similar to the one at Chichén Itzá. Known locally as, “los cerros” or the hills the rock debris that still remains on this site is astonishingly huge and has to be seen in order to grasp the vastness of these remains that came to be carried on the backs of the ancient Maya without any machinery of any kind.
Biking, bird watching and photo ops abound in this area around Hunucmá. It is so close to Mérida but so far removed in out-back tranquility proliferated with seldom traveled roads and innumerable classic haciendas haunted by history that await your visit…don’t spoil the ambiance…bike it!
Getting There:
Hunucmá. Colectivo Taxi Terminal - Mérida
Calle 64 between Calle 65 and 67


Noreste Bus Terminal - Mérida
Calle 67 between Calle 50 and 52
Oriente has frequents buses to Hunucmá.

To explore the Yucatán and discover the place tourists miss most, read our book:
Yucatán's Magic - Mérida Side Trips: Treasures of Mayab
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