Wow…we are leaving Valladolid, a small Mayan / Mexican town that has become more popular in recent years. Mayan women here still wear their traditional dress: masterfully embroidered tunics, hand-woven, all the brilliant colors directly from the plants. I noticed every woman was wearing white today (Saturday, perhaps it’s a significant day, all meanings unknown and unknowable to me). There’s something so precious in those secrets, and I feel so grateful that the Mayan people of this land have been able to sustain their cultural identities. I felt similarly in Guatemala, where the Mayan culture is strong and deep and also precious (and protected by the people themselves; rightfully so, they rarely share openly about their customs and rituals, so as to protect their traditions). I have so much respect for the ways indigenous people around the world sustain their way of life.
We are lucky enough to be able to bear witness to the tiniest openings of their culture that they share with us. Their teachings about the sacred cenotes (gateways to the underworld and spirit world for the Mayans). Or even the sweet smell of woodsmoke that fills the air, their ancestral recipes we are so honored to experience; their leathery brown hands fashioning tortillas from the sacred corn (some origin stories say we come from the corn); the gorgeous clicking Mayan language…I can’t tell you all the tiny beauties I’ve seen that are only a glimpse of their whole world view and cosmology, one that is about so much more than I could possibly comprehend! But at its core, I feel their way of life is in harmony with the earth itself, all the beings and elements here: plants, animals, caves, oceans, water, fire, their gods, as well as an ancient, studied knowledge of the stars (which allowed their ancestors to construct the miraculous structures that make up Chichen Itza, Ek Balam, and so many other temples.
My mind has literally blown wide open from what we learned today while at Chichen Itzá, from our Mayan guide, Romi. It feels too precious to write down, in a way, and certainly not my place to inscribe publicly, but I am very grateful for what we learned.
Our first day in Valladolid, we swam in a Cenote Zací right in the center of town after a mouthwatering lunch of traditional foods at El Altrio. We ate as soon as we got off the bus, in a relaxing open garden / atrium right next to a gorgeous cathedral (which I caught the last ten mins of mass in and was able to give my neighbors paz and receive peace right back from them.
Delicious food at El Atrio! We ordered a typical Yucatecan dish called queso relleno – yum yum! A few cochinita pibil tacos, on tortillas made by women just a few feet away. We also ordered a soup called Crema de Chaya, which is based in the Chaya plant from around here and includes cheese and cream etc. The entire experience was excellent.
Our second day, we visited Ek Balam, known to be the mouth of the jaguar, and the opening to the underworld. After that, we rode bikes down a dirt path to a Mayan village, ate poc-chuk, zip lined across the length of the cenote and rapelled down into the water. As we floated in therapeutic waters, the light from the sun reflected trough the water onto the cave walls, in sparkles. I thought about how water is a transmitter of energy for the Mayans, and seen as a portal to the spirit world, and I couldn’t believe we were swimming in them!
Why is water so amazing? This is me on the staircase going into the cenote that is run by local Mayans. We have video of us zip lining and repelling ourselves down!
This is Cenote Zací which is in the center of town in Valladolid. Zací is the Mayan name for the city that predates its present day name.
As I finish this post I can barely keep my eyes open because we woke up so early for temples. We are now in Mérida, a big city center of art and culture: the capital of the Yucatán. We shall see how this city or its surrounding magic greets us, as we greet and honor it.