Time to leave the Caribbean Coast behind. Before hitting the colonial town of Valladolid, we drive to the village of Uayma, where we have a look at the Ex-Convento de Santo Domingo, nowadays the village church. An incredible building, originally built for the Franciscans in the 17th C, burnt down in the 19th C, and rebuilt in 2005. It is expansively decorated with bright-coloured rose motives and the occasional double eagle – referring to the Habsburgs, apparently. Beyond the church are the convent buildings, an attractive courtyard, and a beautiful chapel with wood-carved sculptures. A nice surprise!
This is also – still – sinkhole country, and nearby is the San Lorenzo Oxmal cenote, this one open to the sky, but nevertheless 27 meters below surface level. The attraction here is the long roots from surrounding trees, that reach almost to the water level; and the rope that can be used to swing from a jumping platform to above the water, inviting all sorts of adventurists to attempt somersaults and other incomprehensible moves, which invariably end up with landing flat on the water. The obligatory life vest is probably more to protect people from belly flops than from drowning. For the rest there is not much more to do than floating around, hoping to catch a bit of sun, whilst staying out of the way from the jumping crowd. My travel companion loves it; I have to admit that the interests of my travel companion and myself are not entirely aligned when it comes to cenotes.
Valladolid itself is a largish town, but with a rather compact old centre. It is promoted as a colonial town, and the large San Bernadino de Sienna convent, one of the oldest in Mexico, built in 1552, testifies to this. But for the rest the ‘old town’ is quite drastically restored. The mostly small, square, single story houses along the Calzado de Los Frailes have been nicely painted in a variety of pastel colours, and have been given over to tourism functions: boutiques, bars, restaurants, souvenir shops. And there are in fact quite a few tourists in town. Slightly disappointing, perhaps because our expectations were sky high.