Oxkutzcab, Yucatán - Changing Times

Jane and I originally visited Oxkutzcab nearly thirty years ago when we ventured south out of Mérida on the narrow gauge railway train, one of the last operating in the world. That train has been out of service for more than twenty years now and few people even remember it.  Read about that trip and many other railroad trips on our web site under the heading; Yucatán Roadways.
In those days Oxkutzcab was a frontier town with a vast jungle extending south across the Puuc Hills and off into Central America.
One thing that has hardly changed in all those years is that it is still a frontier. We were pleasantly surprised on this return trip. Even though the area has suffered somewhat from a lack of income due to many of its citizens being expelled from the US where they had worked as undocumented workers, the city seemed to have gained a new invigorating attitude.
The returning workers brought with them money, new found skills and a desire to make Oxkutzcab into their improved home. In what seemed to be a reversal of luck these returning workers have made a positive, miraculous and uplifting change for the better.  First we look at the recently restored church.

Oxkutzcab is still the market town for area produce. The market here bustles from predawn until late night every day of the week.
So, come along with us and visit the new Oxkutzcab through captioned photos.
After our bike trip through Chumayel, Teabo, Tipikal and Mani, we spent the next two nights and days in Oxkutzcab indulging ourselves in a fun filled fact finding tour, and  rediscovering a town we thought we knew well.

The restoration of San Francisco of Oxkutzcab church was carried out in exquisite attention to detail.

This photo is from our collection and was taken several years ago before restoration. Here you have the inner court yard, unpainted, open to the sky and crumbling. The next photos are of the same yard later.

The miraculous transformation is evident and Oxkutzcab now has a real gem to be proud of. They even screened in the court yard making the birds now nest elsewhere.

Posed for post-wedding photos this young couple lavished a small fortune on flowers that filled the altar.

Mexico is on the cutting edge of new technology. According to the above sign using your cellular-phone you can dial up a number and receive a lecture in English or Spanish about the restored church, its history and significance. We tried it and it worked!

Colorful characters help make the Oxkutzcab market interesting and amusing. In the above photo Omar Antonio Barcalar, blue shirt and bushy black hair, who we met several years earlier when Jane and I took a once a day bus trip far up into the Puuc Hills and the end of the road to the little town of Yaxhachen.  Omar, of Cuban origin, has amassed a considerable amount of notoriety from publicity he received since newspaper articles were written about his extensive natural Mayan medicinal cures.
Read that story;     http://www.bicycleyucatan.com/kiuic2006.html

Jane and I have discovered that downtown Oxkutzcab has become like a huge food court from early morning till late night. Some of the most interesting things of all are the continuously changing options and diversity of culinary options that await you.
Oxkutzcab’s  market still features the local Mayan specialty foods but the newly arrived workers  returning from years of expertly gained knowledge in the US make your eating experience more international.

Miguel Pacheco spent more than twenty years of his life as a chef in the US and has brought back to Oxkutzcab the best of the best. His Italian style culinary delights have world class quality but Mexican prices. We fell in love with the place and the owner and dream of a return visit. Jane, pictured with the owner, operator and chef Miguel is in heaven savoring elegant meals especially if someone else   has scrupulously prepared them. As she sincerely said; “I will be back”.

The breakfast burrito creation that combined the best of two worlds was not only savory in the extreme but nutritious and sustaining.

Miguel made me happy. You can’t beat a creative chief who loves to satisfy, gratify and please his clients.
Café la Cocina is located on the north side of the main market on Calle 49 and the tables situated at curb side for pleasant people watching. To top it all off, the place is also bicycle friendly.
Morning, noon and night purveyors of Mayan specialty foods that change with the seasonal commodities arrive at the Oxkutzcab market and quickly sell out their inventory. Some of Yucatán’s finest delights are only available as such places. Until you have partaken of these local favorites you haven’t sampled the real Yucatán.

Tamales are a staple food  throughout Mexico and are prepared in numerous different styles. This one is called torteado (tortilla style and steam cooked within a banana leaf which it is served in). The tamales are then served and topped with as much salsa as you like. Positively delicious!

This tamale is referred to as colado. It has a lighter, fluffier and thicker covering of masa or corn meal.
At the Oxkutzcab market most tamales are filled with chicken meat. Tamales horneado, are baked and can contain either pork or chicken. For whatever it is worth Mexico claims to have more than a thousand different variations of the tamale.

Tamales served with a smile. You can have as much salsa as you like. Habanero hot sauce is optional and you apply as much as you dare.

In Oxkutzcab like all cities of Yucatán tricycle or triciclos de carga are used for transporting anything that will fit in. This sign designates exclusive parking for these people powered freight haulers, here used as taxis.

 Just one block removed from the main market this typical narrow colonial style street is a good example of the centuries old buildings that still give Yucatán its old world charm.

Street vendors sell the seasonal fresh fruits abundant in this area.

Oxkutzcab is proud of itself and this colorful display that adorns the central park plaza depicts an ancient cart. This type was used for transport over the centuries across Yucatán and is still being used in outlying districts. Heaped atop the cart are a representative of locally produced fruits and vegetables. The large red fluted clay vases are the exact same type used to transport water in years gone by.
When Jane and I first visited in out-back rural communities of Yucatán before the arrival of piped to the home water this style vase was manually lugged to and from the village well for every drop of water.
So, there you have a brief glimpse of some of Yucatán that tourists miss most.
If you are interested in an adventure that takes you out of the main-stream and want to explore some of this peaceful, quiet and fascinating world, we invite you to try taking any one of the bicycle tours we have published on our web and blog pages…enjoy!

©2011 John M. Grimsrud

Related links:
Chumayel, Teabo, Tipikal and Mani
Mani field trip starting in Oxkutzcab
To Oxkutzcab via Dzan and Mani
More
Our website: www.bicycleyucatan.com

CHUMAYEL, TEABO, MANÍ, AND OXKUTZCAB BY BUS AND BIKE 2011

You may travel the world over and never find a stranger or more interesting adventuresome get-away.
After twenty-five years of exploring the back country of Yucatán we find new quests are still abounding.
Here is the real Mexico that tourists miss most.
This route was the key that unlocked the door to a rarely visited out of the tourist loop places and began our three day sojourn.
We boarded a second class bus from Mérida bound for Chumayel with our folding bicycles stowed below. For two hours we sat back whisked along the seldom traveled back roads of Yucatán witnessing the quiet and quaint Mayan villages unaffected by the passing centuries.

Even at our leisurely pace we were packing a month’s worth of activities into just three days.
So, we invite you to come along with us and share this infrequently visited magical paradise through captioned photos.
Above is the municipal building of little Chumayel and the very small street market clearly out of the path of tourists.

Chumayel is clean, quiet and quaint plus it is off the main road and seldom visited. The small village is situated in a typical Yucatecan countryside interspersed with centuries old haciendas and ancient Mayan ruins.
Spanish influence here positively dates from before 1557. According to a map uncovered and copied by the famous explorer and author John L. Stephens on his 1842 visit to nearby Maní that designates the church site you see behind me as having already existed.
This was one of a hand full of churches of Yucatán designated on that ancient Spanish conquistador map. Little has changed here over the centuries in Chumayel except for the coming of electricity and recently paved roads. It is a biker’s paradise as you can see by the conspicuous lack of traffic.
Our little Dahon folding bicycles makes this type of road trip possible and a joyful experience.

In Chumayel this street market was the busiest place in town.

No chain or even convenience stores are here, but hourly bus service links north to Mérida and south to Oxkutzcab.
As small as Chumayel is it can claim to have paved roads of access that make this an ideal place to begin our back country bicycle excursion.
 This is the town meat market. Though the meat is not refrigerated it is indeed fresh. As you can see when the meat hanging in the shop is depleted business is concluded for the day. In the morning this animal you observe tethered to the pole will be converted into inventory for the meat market. In many small towns across Yucatán this type of meat market is a common sight.
After consuming our packed along breakfast in the plaza area we were on our bikes headed for our next destination of Teabo just four kilometers away.
Just four peaceful kilometers down the road we arrive at the outskirts of Teabo. The roads are so quiet you can hear a vehicle coming for many kilometers.

Teabo is relatively metropolitan compared to its rural neighbors.
After biking in the bustling neurotic traffic of Mérida these lovely country roads where chirping birds and the wind in your ears are the only sounds soothes your mind and the fresh flower scented air makes you want to drink it in.
We feel extremely fortunate to have such a wonderful ecologically friendly and healthy environment so accessible to Mérida. These lovely bicycle places are but a short scenic bus ride away. With our folding bicycles one of the nicest things of all is at a moments notice we can change direction and be home from nearly anyplace in Yucatán in about two hours of less.
The tropical climate is another positive consideration which we happen to love. We do however try to do our cycling before the mid-day heat.
Another plus this time of year from November until March is that cold fronts will come through and hold the day-time high temperatures down in the low 20ºC or 70º’s F…ideal for cycling.

This is the vintage colonial church, quiet plaza and diminutive business district of Teabo.

 

Padre Victor arrived here at Teabo two years ago from the nearby village of Sotuta and earnestly undertook the renovation of this colossal church complex. The project became more than just renovation.  Procuring the funds and assistance needed for restoration from the government that in Mexico officially owns all church buildings and their grounds has been Padre Victor’s toughest job.
Teabo was originally an ancient Mayan settlement. A vestige of the Mayan temples are still very evident on the church grounds and nearby one of the colossal temples is still providing building materials for area construction five centuries after the Spanish conquistadors began their occupation.

Within the Teabo church restoration has been superbly done. Wall painted frescoes, altar pieces and retablos are brought back to their century's old state of splendor.
I will not try to give all the details here or explain the history because it is too involved for this story.
However I do recommend for those of you interesting in learning more to read the splendid field guide and reference book Mayan Missions by Richard and Rosalind Perry.

Truly incredible, the retablos of Teabo have not only survived all these centuries but also the protracted Caste War. In the above photo you can glimpse a close up of some of the fine workmanship that was recently restored.

Here are some of the wall paintings or frescoes that originally lavishly adorned the church and also many of the adjacent buildings of this huge complex.

Here out on the church complex grounds you can clearly see the various stages of restoration work being done. In the distance the red walls of the restored church and some of the different buildings.

Teabo is clean, neat and quiet with little or no rush. Not a single traffic light is needed.

Wood for cooking fires or [leña] is transported in a tricycle or triciclo de carga. The forest is quickly being depleted because of rising cooking gas prices.

The triciclo de carga is used not only for freight but also employed as taxis. They become mini restaurants and purveyors of anything that can be sold on the streets.
Throughout Yucatán you will find many ingenious variations of these tricycles converted to amazingly diverse uses…we continue to be amazed at their creative ingenuity.

Seven quiet kilometers down the road is our next place of adventure.
Today this little settlement has nearly no business.
These people are however self-sufficient producing enough from the small milpa farms to feed them selves but have nothing for export.

Poor to the point of poverty, Tipikal, as you can see, has no extra cash for frivolities like restoration.
Amazingly this church has stood here for nearly five centuries and considering that its condition is remarkably good. The entry gate is of a similar style to those found at the old haciendas across Yucatán.

Thirty years ago when Jane and I first arrived in Yucatán over half of the homes were palapas like the ones you see here…even in Mérida. The palapa was standard home construction for the Maya because all of the materials were available from the land. To this day you will find depictions of these homes carved in stone at area Mayan ruins like Uxmal, thus dating their use back thousands of years.
Five more kilometers down the road took us to the ancient and historical village of Maní. I will not write about Maní here because we have covered that subject extensively on numerous prior visits. See our web site for those stories.
After a brief rest and hydration stop in the shade of the Mani church, we were on our way again.
Eleven kilometers of which most were on a lovely bicycle path adorned by sculpted flowering bushes and we reached our day’s final destination of Oxkutzcab. Thirty-eight kilometers of quiet biking this day was enough for us and it felt good to shower and rinse out our sweaty clothes. Biking we must travel light because the privilege of excess baggage is not an option.
Oxkutcab is covered in the next post.     



RELATED LINKS:
A visit to Mani.
Mani field trip starting in Oxkutzcab
©2011 John M. Grimsrud

TICUL, DZAN, MANÍ AND OXKUTZCAB OCTOBER 2010 by Bike and Bus

With our folding bicycles loaded for an unlimited get-away sojourn, we pedaled to the TAME bus terminal in downtown Mérida. Jane and I weren’t coming home until we felt like it.
At 9:30 AM on a blue skied Monday morning we boarded our Mayab bus and rolled across Yucatán’s seasonally green out-back. This was good!

 Read more:
http://bicycleyucatan.wordpress.com/2010/10/18/ticul-dzan-mani-and-oxkutzcab-october-2010-by-bike-and-bus/

Ticul Plus Muna, Dzan and Maní

We first came to Ticul by narrow gauge train in the early 1980’s and little did we know at the time that this relic of the past narrow gauge train, one of the last remaining in the world was soon to vanish. At that time we saw pottery works and countless ladies shoe shops where the shoes were made and sold.
On our many return trips over the years we have gradually discovered the numerous fascinating treasures that Ticul and its friendly people have to offer.
Ticul, 82 kilometers south of Mérida or about 50 miles is known as; “The Pearl of the South”. Besides a number of strange and interesting things in the city, Ticul also has its unique geographical position adjacent to the remarkable monuments of the past depicted in the above oil painting.
From left to right across the top of the painting; The Puuc Route (Puuc is the name given to the hills in the region) with five distinct Mayan temple sites and also the Grutas de Loltún, “caves of Loltún”; next is Ticul’s pink marble Mayan style arch built by the notable stone carver Rómulo Rozo who also built Mérida’s Monumento a la Patria on the prestigious Paseo de Montejo boulevard; next is one of the most impressive Mayan temples ever built, Uxmal.
Depicted across the center of the painting are; Ticul’s main church started in 1591 that took nearly fifty years to complete, in the center are the town craft people, the shoe maker and potter, on the right is one of the many area Mayan temples.
Across the bottom is the huge hacienda of Tabí, one of the most prestigious of Yucatán and it is flanked by typical Mayan clay figures of the pre-Columbian era.
On the north side of Ticul at the city entrance is Arte Maya with probably the best quality Mayan reproductions to be found anywhere. The showroom there is well worth the stop; it is simply extraordinary.
Arte Maya began here back in 1974 and has produced reproductions of indigenous sculptures of such high quality they are used in the nations leading museums.
The same family has continuously produced the very best class of workmanship here with the ultimate in attention to detail. Above is the entry to the showroom.
Naturally talented Lourdes Gonzalez is a big part of this family operation at Arte Maya and proudly continues reproducing the very finest in Mayan art.
Down the street from Arte Maya is the shop of Señor Mena where bigger than life statuary is sculpted that ultimately finds its way to the local street corners around Ticul. Fifteen years of dedicated work by Señor Mena has made Ticul a photo-op attraction not to be missed.
This night time exposure photo is taken from the plaza looking at the 1591 church.
Art is everywhere in Ticul. Dance rehearsal in the decoratively painted plaza band-shell tells a lot about the city pride of this very clean and prosperous city.
Perched atop a prominent hill overlooking Ticul is this distinctive Mayan style arch that was constructed by the internationally famous sculptor Rómulo Rozo back in the 1950’s
The president of Mexico even arrived for the dedication
Carved into a corner stone of the Ticul Mayan arch is the name of the stone carver, Rómulo Rozo, who left his distinctive creations all across Mexico.
The distinctive pink stone of this arch and the “Monumento de la Patria” (Monument to the history of Mexico) on the prestigious Paseo de Montejo Boulevard in Mérida came from a quarry on an adjacent hilltop on the road south to Santa Elena. The stone for the monument was transported to Mérida on the old narrow gauge railway train.
The Ticul Mayan arch is so famous it is plagiarized in wall painted advertisements.
A view looking away from the Ticul Mayan arch and into the rolling hills of the Puuc region will give you some idea of the narrow back roads and isolated open spaces of this semi-arid tropical forest region of northwestern Yucatán.
At age seventy-five Arturo Gutierrez actively works in his shoe manufacturing business and even made a splendid repair of Jane’s shoes while we waited. The remarkable thing about Arturo is that he as a little boy recalled Rómulo Rozo the famous stone sculptor, how he dressed and his stone cutting shop where he trained area men into the sculpting trade. Most amazing of all is the fact that the stone cutting shop of Rómulo Rozo was in this very same building.
This is the shoe manufacturing shop of Arturo Gutierrez where Rómulo Rozo previously did his stone cutting. The bicycles belong to the employees of the shoe shop.
One of Rómulo Rozo’s most widely plagiarized works of art is this little figure that they refer to here as “Pancho”. The sculptor originally named it El Pensamiento or “The Thinker”.

Above: El Pensamiento photo from Wikipedia
Sculpture by Rómulo Rozo displayed in the Museum of Art in La Paz, Bolivia.This is the image that was plagiarized after it was shown in an exhibition in the National Library in Mexico City in 1932.When it was on exhibition, somebody placed a bottle of tequila in front of it, took a photo and it was widely circulated in newspapers around the world as the drunken or sleeping Mexican…an image still thought of today.

The variety of paint jobs and size of “Pancho” seen endless…all the shops sell them.
This Mayan lady with her white as snow clothes asks for help for food. We have found that in the Mayan villages when we take a break for a rest stop, the generous people are always offering us food. They will rarely take money for the food.
Mayan food is mostly vegetation, nutritious and delicious like these salbutes.
We had lunch at a “cocina economica” (Economy kitchen) – the pork was delicious and the price was right!
Considering that this Ticul church was begun back in 1591 and took nearly fifty years to complete, it has been kept in remarkably good repair.
The old church is spotless like the rest of Ticul.
Moorish style arches and architecture were brought to the New World by the Spanish.
Ticul sets a high standard for cleanliness and preservation.

We next made a side trip west to Muna, a small market town dating from the 1600’s that was a cross-road with straight Mayan sacbe roads leading off in four directions. The elevated stone work of these Mayan roads is still plainly visible in and around Muna.
This colonial hand carved pulpit pictured above has miraculously survived the centuries.
The Muna market is traditionally Mayan and this lady is the local medicine vender with a herbal cure for nearly all ailments.
A view from a municipal building in the central plaza contrasting the old and the new.
Our next bicycle trip took us east on a lovely and quiet road to the small town of Dzan.
Winter time in the Yucatán countryside is ablaze with vibrant wild flowers that supports a huge honey industry.
Bicycling on the quiet road to Dzan is literally like taking a breath of fresh air richly scented and perfumed by flower blossoms.
With an overcast sky the multitudes of wild flowers seemed to be ablaze with dazzling luminescence.
We arrived in Dzan in time to see a very noisy pageant leave the church with sky rockets exploding as they went.
Down the road at Maní we stopped at one of seven chapels there and across the street was a tortilla shop or molino that lured us with its inviting roasted corn aroma. We had our morning coffee and sprinkled salt on the hot tortillas.
Sitting on the altar of the little chapel is this neatly decorated work of art of unknown age.
The chapel was impeccably clean and well maintained like the rest of the area. We had no competition for seats and the shelter came just in time because a cold rainy drizzle settled in.
No gold or rich adornments are found here but the Mayan people are the treasure.
At the chapel corner in Maní we left the pavement to visit this new development. Under the roof are wood logs that house the hives of small black stinger-less Mayan bees that produce a much prized honey.
Padre Luis is making a Mayan style village that is soon to be finished.
The 1547 church in Maní is getting a major make over of paint and plaster and does not look its age any longer.

The rain persisted. A truck came along and offered us a ride to Oxkutzcab and we happily loaded our bikes and climbed aboard. It was still raining in Oxkutzcab so we folded out bikes and caught the next bus to Merida. Two two hours later we were home in Mérida in our warm dry house. …the pleasure of biking and busing in Yucatán…it is great!

John M. Grimsrud ©2010