{"id":1981,"date":"2015-05-28T16:53:54","date_gmt":"2015-05-28T20:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svetanyc.com\/?p=1981"},"modified":"2017-01-26T16:35:25","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T21:35:25","slug":"the-yucatan-mexico-2008-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/192.168.2.119:1984\/svetanyc\/2015\/05\/the-yucatan-mexico-2008-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"The Yucat\u00e1n, Mexico. 2008-2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every time I travel, I always get a tip to visit the country’s beautiful beaches, little do they know that we, New Yorkers, are blessed with multiple daily 3-hour non-stop flights to Cancun<\/a>. Once you’ve experienced the beauty of the Riviera Maya<\/a>, dove the underground rivers (cenotes<\/a>) of the Yucat\u00e1n, visited\u00a0and learnt about the grandeur\u00a0of the Maya archeological sites (Chichen Itza<\/a>, Tulum<\/a>, Uxmal<\/a>, Calakmul<\/a>, Xpujil<\/a>), danced\u00a0at one of the BMP Festival<\/a> events in Playa del Carmen<\/a>, you realize that you found your perfect “beach” destination. So, skip\u00a0Goa or Brighton, come to the Mexican peninsula!<\/p>\n

\"DSC08890<\/a><\/p>\n

First time I came to the Yucat\u00e1n was in September 2008 to do an underwater photoshoot and this place instantly became one of my favorites, not only for the reasons mentioned above, but also because of food,\u00a0laissez-faire\u00a0attitude and an abundance of things to do\/see\/experience. Since then, I have visited the Riviera Maya half a dozen times, witnessing its demise in late 2008 (when recession in the US halted new developments and wiped out tourists), its resurrection in 2011-2012 and its boom in 2015. During all my visits, I stayed in Playa del Carmen (except for one 4 days\/3 nights all-inclusive resort wedding stay in Cancun), so I’ve got the last glimpse of it as a tiny fishing village before it grew into a massive shopping mall. Nevertheless, a small hotel I always stay at,\u00a0Aventura Mexicana<\/a>,\u00a0was still there and thriving, the scuba center\u00a0I dove with for 8 years,\u00a0Phocea\u00a0Mexico<\/a>, as well as its\u00a0owners Didier and Martine, were expanding and doing better than ever, my favorite jewelry and leather shops were still there too, so I accepted the changes as a part of the natural course of the world’s development.<\/p>\n

Books I’ve read:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Frommer’s Cancun, Cozumel and the Yucatan 2009\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Insight Guides “Guatemala, Belize and the Yucatan”<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Conquest: Montezuma, Cortes and the Fall of Old Mexico\u00a0by<\/span> Hugh Thomas<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. History of the Conquest of Mexico by William H. Prescott<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. A short account of the Destruction of the Indies<\/a>\u00a0by<\/span> Bartolom\u00e9 de las Casas<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. Yucatan before and after the Conquest<\/a> by\u00a0Diego de Landa<\/a>, William Gates<\/a> (translator\/editor)<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. A Forest of Kings: The untold story of the Ancient Maya<\/a> by Linda Schele and David Freidel<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I usually start my blogs with the historical background of the country, but I won’t\u00a0talk about the history of Mexico, as presently the Yucat\u00e1n comprises of Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. In addition, it was not until 1848 that 3 Mexican districts (Yucat\u00e1n<\/a>, Campeche<\/a>, and Quintana Roo<\/a>)\u00a0fully became part of the United Mexican States<\/a>\u00a0(or Mexico). However, I will try to cover the history of the peninsula\u00a0in as many interesting details as possible.<\/p>\n

    History.<\/strong> There are many theories or rather anecdotes of the etymology\u00a0of “Yucat\u00e1n”, the most popular one is when Hernandez de Cordova<\/a> arrived to the coast of the Yucat\u00e1n, he asked the inhabitants the name of this land and they answered him in native language:”Tetec dtan. Ma t natic a dtan”, which meant:”You speak very rapidly. We don’t understand your language”. What else could they say?! The Spaniards understood that the locals were telling them the name of their land, however, unable to repeat the words verbatim, they corrupted the sentence into “Yucat\u00e1n”. Another version explains that when conquerors landed in Yucat\u00e1n, they met native men holding female necklaces in their hands. Asked the name of the land, locals assumed the visitors were curious\u00a0about the jewelry, so they replied:” U yu c-atan” which meant “these are the necklaces of our wives”. Those are just two of many theories, and even though it is hard to establish what story is true,\u00a0all of them are hilarious!<\/p>\n

    According to the History channel, one of the most advanced indigenous cultures of the ancient Americas, the Mayans<\/a> began as hunter gatherers and migrated into the Yucat\u00e1n around 2500 B.C. During the pre-classic period (500 B.C.- A.D. 250) they appeared in Quintana Roo<\/a>, which became the gateway to the Mayan world, where they established ceremonial centers at Coba, Dzibanche and Kohunlich. Between A.D. 300 – A.D. 900, the Mayans built several cities in the region, which\u00a0gradually expanded and flourished, forming a loosely-connected network of city states, centered around groups of temple-pyramids, decorated with fine murals and carved stelae. The ruins at Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Palenque, Copan, Tikal, Calakmul and El Mirador are some of the most impressive archeological remains in the Americas, built\u00a0by, whom most experts consider to be, the most advanced people the continent has known. The Maya studied the stars, and developed several interconnecting calendrical systems that rival today’s technology for their precision and complexity. They developed a hieroglyphic form of writing, producing paper codices, which related every last detail of their sacred rituals in meticulous mathematical order. They were highly skilled artists and craftsmen, producing a treasure-trove in ceramics, precious stone and materials, and breathtakingly beautiful weavings. Above all, though, the Maya were the worshippers of Time. Every day and every daily routine, from the birth of a child to the planting of a crop, had its sacred procedure laid down in the Chilam Balam<\/a>, the Maya Bible. In fact, even royal marriages and wars would be planned around the calendar, each according to the propitious date and time.<\/p>\n

    In 987, the Toltec people<\/a>,\u00a0believing they were following their feathered serpent god Quetzalc\u00f3atl<\/a>, arrived in the region. \u00a0They were originally one of the barbarous hordes of Indians that periodically migrated from the north. At some stage of their development, the Toltec were influenced by remnants of Teotihuacan culture and adopted their god\u00a0Quetzalc\u00f3atl as their own. They also revered a deity known as Tezcatlipoca<\/a>, or “smoking mirror”, who later became a god of the Aztecs<\/a>.\u00a0The Toltec maintained a large military class divided into orders symbolized by animals. At its height, Tula (Toltec capital) may have had 40,000 people, and it spread its influence across Mesoamerica.\u00a0According to Toltec mythology, Quetzalc\u00f3atl demanded human hearts as sacrifice, and the people obeyed by conducting mass human sacrifices. Although the Toltecs mixed with the Mayans and other groups, their culture dominated and influenced the area,\u00a0which is evident in the architectural style of Chich\u00e9n-Itz\u00e1 where the most important temple, the so-called El Castillo (Kukulcan), was built in honor of\u00a0Quetzalc\u00f3atl and clearly in the style of the Toltec Maya.<\/p>\n

    \"DSC08955<\/a><\/p>\n

    During the 12th century, the Mayan city-state of Mayap\u00e1n<\/a> waged war against and defeated the citizens of Chich\u00e9n Itz\u00e1. Mayap\u00e1n expanded its influence over the region, and the Mayan Cocom dynasty ruled until the mid-13th century. Mayapan had little of the splendor of Chichen, and its rule was limited to the northwestern corner of the peninsula. The political organization at the time seems to have been less hierarchical, resembling a federation with many different centers. When the post-classic Mayan period ended around 1250, most cities were abandoned and those that remained continued to engage in inter-city military conflicts. In 1441, Mayapan, the last of the major Maya centers, itself was apparently overrun by its enemies. The disappearance of all great Mayan civilizations remains a mystery; however, Maya people didn’t vanish, as of today, more than 1.2 million\u00a0of Yucatec people identify themselves as Maya.<\/p>\n

    On his expedition to Florida in 1513, Juan Ponce de Le\u00f3n<\/a> sailed near Yucat\u00e1n but never landed there. In 1517, while on a trip\u00a0to procure slaves, a Spanish conquistador named Francisco Hern\u00e1ndez de C\u00f3rdova arrived on the Peninsula (he is the one who gave it\u00a0its name)\u00a0and two years later, in February 1519, Hern\u00e1n Cort\u00e9s<\/a> briefly stopped at Cozumel to rescue Jer\u00f3nimo de Aguilar, a shipwrecked Franciscan priest. Cortes inquired about the gold and riches of the interior, and the coastal Maya were happy to describe the wealth and splendor of the Aztec empire in central Mexico. Cortes promptly disobeyed all orders from his superior, the governor of Cuba, and sailed\u00a0to Veracruz\u00a0in search of his El Dorado.\u00a0Needless to say that the silver and gold that Cortes looted from the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan<\/a> made Spain the richest country in Europe.<\/p>\n

    In 1527, Francisco de Montejo<\/a>, one of Cortes’ lieutenants, set out to conquer Yucat\u00e1n but was routed by the natives. Three years later, he returned with his son Francisco de Montejo y Le\u00f3n but again failed to overpower the indigenous population. Finally, a third attempt in 1537 was successful, and de Montejo founded the cities of Campeche<\/a> in 1540 and M\u00e9rida<\/a>, the present capital, in 1542. From their base in newly-established towns, the Spaniards spread their control in several ways. They defeated and killed the leaders of the Maya; they took their lands, and forced the Maya to work for them; they imposed their own system of local government and set up their own authorities. They forbade the native religions and in an effort to convert the indigenous people to the Catholic faith, Franciscan priests built more than 30 convents in Yucat\u00e1n and tried to replace Mayan culture with Christianity. In 1562, Franciscan monk Fray Diego De Landa ordered that all handmade Mayan books and statues be destroyed. Few of these rare and important cultural artifacts survived. As a result, Spanish oppression and diseases (measles and smallpox to which Maya had no resistance) dramatically\u00a0reduced the native population from an estimated 5 million in 1500 to 3.5 million a century later. Nevertheless, the Maya of Yucat\u00e1n never accepted Spanish rule entirely, and rose against it on many occasion (a story of\u00a0Jacinto Canek<\/a>,\u00a0a convent-educated Mayan, is one of the examples). For more than two centuries after the Spanish conquest, the efforts to preserve Maya traditions and the relative isolation of much of the Maya world from the centers of Spanish interest helped to protect the native population from the worst ravages found elsewhere in the empire. But the Maya’s position worsened during the second half of the 19th century, when the Bourbon monarchy in Spain attempted to regain effective control of its rebellious colonies. The provinces were subdivided and re-organized, the indigenous officials were removed all together and replaced with criollos (Spaniards born in Mexico), Maya communal land was seized and native people were employed as laborers often in conditions of near slavery.<\/p>\n

    When Mexico gained its independence from Spain in February 1821, Yucat\u00e1n became part of the Independent Mexican Empire but remained a remote province until 1824 when it was divided into three states: Campeche, Quintana Roo and Yucat\u00e1n. However, from 1835-1847 the Yucat\u00e1n was and at the same time wasn’t the part of Mexico, as the peninsular’s oligarchy couldn’t decide whether they want to be independent (declaration of January 1, 1846) or be part of the Mexican States.<\/p>\n

    During the Mexican-American War<\/a> (1846 to 1848), Yucat\u00e1n, which, at that time, considered itself an independent nation, declared its neutrality. However, in 1847, the Caste War<\/a> (Guerra de Castas) broke out on the peninsula. It\u00a0was a major revolt by the Mayan people against the Hispanic population in political and economic control. By 1848, the revolt had driven all Hispanic Yucatecans out of the peninsula except for those in the walled cities of M\u00e9rida and Campeche.\u00a0Hoping to suppress the revolt, Governor M\u00e9ndez sent letters to Britain, Spain and the United States, offering sovereignty over Yucat\u00e1n to whichever nation could help stop the Mayans. The proposal received serious attention in Washington, D.C., where the matter was debated in Congress. However, the only action taken by the United States was to warn European powers not to interfere in the peninsula.\u00a0At the conclusion of the Mexican-American War, Mexican president agreed to help suppress the revolt, and Yucat\u00e1n again recognized the Mexican government\u2019s authority, reuniting with Mexico on August 17, 1848. Fighting continued between the forces of the Yucatecan government and the independent Mayans through 1901 when the Mexican army occupied the Maya capital of Ch\u00e1n Santa Cruz. Some Mayan communities in Quintana Roo refused to acknowledge Ladino (Jews of Spanish origin) or Mexican sovereignty into the next decade.<\/p>\n

    Until the mid-1900s, Yucat\u00e1n\u2019s only contact with the outside world was by sea. As a result, its\u00a0trade with the United States, Europe and Caribbean islands was far more lucrative and\u00a0its\u00a0culture remained unique from that of all other Mexican states.\u00a0In the 1980s,\u00a0international airports were built in Cozumel and Canc\u00fan, bringing significant tourist income to the region. Uniquely, the Yucat\u00e1n peninsula, which supports one of the largest indigenous populations in Mexico, also accommodates the state\u2019s largest tourist volume.<\/p>\n

    Since I’ve been to the Yucat\u00e1n many times, instead of my usual chronological style, I use the topical one, covering Cancun (briefly), Playa del Carmen, Tulum, Valladolid, Chichen Itza and some diving sites.<\/p>\n

    Cancun.\u00a0<\/strong>Well, I have to admit that technically, I’ve never been to Cancun<\/a>. My husband and I spent a weekend (4 days\/3 nights) at Moon Palace Golf and Spa Resort<\/a>\u00a0located (not really) in Cancun,\u00a0and since we haven’t even left the resort, we didn’t see anything.<\/p>\n