¡Que viva Yucatan! – Part 1

Stones, gods, people

Precisely because of this offensive approach in the fight against the coronavirus, I dared to borrow the title from one of the greatest directors of the last century, Sergei Eisenstein, who went to Mexico 90 years ago to make the film ¡Que viva México! He recorded between 30 and 50 hours of material there, which was retained in the U.S. for four decades. The film, which was critical of Mexico after the 1910 revolution, was made only three decades after the director's death, but was nevertheless based on a screenplay written by Eisenstein, Tisse and Alexandrov. It was Alexandrov and film editor Esfir Tobak who edited and presented the film, which consists of both feature and documentary footage, to the public in 1979. Alongside the Kukulcan Temple, Mexico's most visited Mayan building in the historic city of Chichén Itzá, ¡Que viva México! begins with a description of Mexico with the words “stones, gods, people,” and I, on the other hand, will begin a travelogue of the Yucatan with the words “history, nature, relaxation”. These are the three word that best describe Yucatan, a nearly 200,000 km2 peninsula in the Gulf of Mexico, ninety years later.

Obstacles on the way between Mayan cities

Shortly after boarding in Vienna, the magic words "Boarding completed" followed, something I missed in 2020. After landing in Cancun, the second largest city on the Yucatan Peninsula, the route led to Valladolid, a small town in an exceptional location not far from the two important Mayan cities of Chichén Itzá and Ek 'Balam. The latter was at the peak of its power between 770 and 840 AD, when it was also the capital of a wider area. In the city itself we find the remains of fifteen structures, from defensive walls to a dance floor, steam bath and the "El Trono" temple (“throne” in translation), where King Ukit Kan Leʼk Tokʼ was buried with the famous door in the form of monster mouths similar to those of a jaguar. We can climb to the top of the temple and admire the city of Ek 'Balam; “black jaguar” in translation.

After visiting the first of the Mayan cities and being on the way to the most visited Mayan city in Mexico, Chichén Itzá, the route was slowed down by two obstacles that simply couldn’t be avoided. The first of the obstacles was the Mayapan Distillery, where we can clearly see how tequila is made, from a plantation of blue agaves, all the way to tasting. Although most tequila is produced in a more modern way, some agave is still processed in the classic way, which we also see. Given that the permitted blood alcohol level in Mexico is as high as 0.8 per mille, tequila tasting was far below the permitted limit. After the tour, we can also buy tequila, and we have simple, white tequila as well as old ones, and excellent mezcal, where blue agaves are joined by those that grow in the wild, and the bottle traditionally includes the worm called gusano de maguey or gusano rojo.

When aunt from Kaua seduces you

Full of new knowledge about tequila production and despite the serious intention not to stop until the final destination, we were seduced in the city of Kaua by the authentic La Tia de Kaua restaurant or Aunt from Kaua in translation, where they had only one offer, which was tempting enough for another stop. It’s a very simple restaurant, where they knead tortilla dough in front of you and roast meat on a huge grill, which is served with some onions, freshly baked tortillas and the obligatory spicy sauce served, of course, in a separate bowl, as it was extremely hot.

After a great lunch, we finally arrived in Chichén Itzá, which is about 50 kilometers away from Valladolid and in translation means “At the Mouth of the Itzá Well”.

Chichén Itzá

Although Chichén Itzá was significantly more crowded than Ek 'Balam, the crowds of tourists didn’t spoil the atmosphere, especially due to the fact that most tourists, mostly from the US, stay mainly around the Kukulcan Temple, a central landmark dedicated to the deity Kukulcán, the largest calendar or astronomical device in the world. In all its grandeur, the temple is presented at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, when a ray of sunshine creates a snake that slowly descends across the pyramid-shaped temple.

Chichén Itzá is located in an area of 5 km2, and historians assume that the location of the city was chosen mainly because of two large cenotes, tectonic caves filled with water. Not far from the mentioned temple is yet another temple called the Temple of Thousands of Warriors and a large dance floor with natural sound system as it’s built so that the echo of a musician or speaker can be heard throughout the area.

More about the city and the snake, which is only visible at the equinox, was best explained by Giulio Magli from the Milan Polytechnic in a short video, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPcT92HqQY4.

There are a lot of Mayan cities and buildings, as well as cenotes, sinkholes in which water has accumulated and which are popular tourist attractions today, and we’ll touch on them in the future. Before concluding the first part, just a few words about Valladolid, which was named after the Spanish city of the same name and originates from the Arabic term "Ballad Al-Walid" or the city of Al-Walid.

For authentic culinary delights, it’s necessary to move slightly away from the center

Valladolid is a charming city, similar to many founded by the Spaniards in Latin America. The town has a central square with a cathedral to which lead the old streets that connect the center with the monastery of St. Bernard of Siena. In the central square, there’s also a park and, of course, the town hall. The town is known for its excellent cuisine, but for authentic food it’s necessary to move a few streets away from the main square, where you can end the day in one of the restaurants, which are frequented mainly by locals. Of course, there are also restaurants around the main square, but they are intended primarily for tourists, which means that the waiters and equipment are traditional, but the tastes cannot be compared with local restaurants.

The taste of food in Mexico is slightly different from the Mexican food which can be eaten in other parts of the world, but at least Slovenian or European Mexican food is a good enough approximation that you can expect to continue in the next issue, when we’ll go through the largest city on the peninsula, Mérida, and then go west, where we’ll visit a slightly less touristy, but consequently more authentic side of the Yucatan Peninsula.

What are cenotes? The Yucatán is almost entirely composed of limestone. A cenote is a sinkhole, formed when the limestone bedrock collapses exposing the groundwater underneath (most cenotes are filled with freshwater). Cool and clear, they make ideal spots for swimming, snorkeling, and diving. The ancient Maya civilization used cenotes as key sources of drinking water – they were also regarded as sacred portals to the Maya underworld.