Mexico Yucatan Peninsular

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Mexico

Haciendas

Hacienda San Jose

Hacienda San Jose appeared to be away from any towns. It was a sugar plantation but the buildings had fallen into disrepair. Their reconstruction is shown in photos in the reading room. There are extensive gardens, aqueducts and facilities that suggest the hacienda's former glory. Some of the footpaths were made of slabs of limestone with gaps in between them. Since they were not smooth they were difficult to walk on, especially at night.

Most of the buildings were painted a bright blue with white trim on the outside and an orange-brown on the inside. There seemed to be an electricity generator in the kitchen building.

Our room had a very high ceiling with 2 ceiling fans, but no air conditioning (probably due to limited amount of locally generated electricity) and the windows did not open. It was a very warm humid night. The weather was about 30 degrees with near 100%!h(MISSING)umidity - uncomfortable for dry climate people like us.

We could not fault the service.

Merida

A tour of Merida and overnight stay at the Hotel Americana was included in this trip. Gabriel explained that Mayan was the most commonly spoken language in this part of Mexico.

Merida was a city of contrasts with the poor in the outskirts and the rich in the centre. There were some beautiful houses there. An impressive sculpture reflecting Mayan art and depicting the history of the city was prominently placed in Paseo Montejo (road).

Every night the city council puts on a display in the central plaza. We decided to walk to it, but were unable find it and took a taxi back to the hotel, found out where it was, and took a taxi back to it. We had been given wrong advice and had turned away one block from the plaza.

The display was a dancing group with what we assume were local dances. The men were all dressed in white and the women wore very pretty and colourfully decorated simple white dresses.

Hacienda Santa Rosa

This Hacienda was quite small and in the town of Santa Rosa. Again we could not fault the service. There were 2 air conditioners in the room, but the night was cooler and the ceiling fans were sufficient. Again the ceiling was very high.
There was not a lot to explore, but the building that had been the sisal factory was largely unrestored. The boiler chimney was still in place, but all the machinery had been removed.
There was an internet room beside the swimming pool,but I had no success there because I could not read Spanish. However there was also an internet connection in the room that allowed us to contact home.

Hacienda Chechen Itza

This one was different from the others in that our room was half of a small building. It was less well equipped, but did have an air conditioner. It was named after one of the early archeologists. The serpentine path to the room was smooth concrete but it was easy to end up at the wrong room.

Again the service could not be faulted and there was free internet on the front veranda. We did not have time to do much exploring of the Hacienda and it was difficult to know what was original and what had been added recently. I suspect that the accommodation rooms were recent additions because the ceilings were low and the roofs appeared to be a slabs of concrete.

There was a back entrance to the Chechen Itza Mayan buildings that we took for the night Sound and Lights show. It took us considerably more than the 10 minutes suggested by a guide to get there.

Since these 3 Haciendas were owned by the same company the meal menus were similar and the service was equally good throughout. However this hacienda was painted a strong yellow instead of blue.

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